Guinea Pig Breeds

The original Cavia Aperea, the wild ancestor of our domestic guinea pigs, had a thin, smooth coat and a colouring useful for camouflage. Since the time the guinea pigs were brought into Europe, breeders have developed many astonishingly different breeds of guinea pigs. Later, pure-bred guinea pigs have been brought to pet shows where judges would grade them after looking how closely the specimen matches the standard of the breed.

Here you will see some of the guinea pig breeds. They are split into three groups: short-haired, long-haired and rare breeds.

Short-haired

English Self - Originally bred in England, the English Self is always smooth-coated and of a single, solid colour.

Crested - exactly the same as the English Self, except Cresteds have a rosette in the middle of the forehead. The American Crested has a rosette of a different colour than the main colour.

Agouti - the guinea pig is either grey, brown or lemon coloured and has tiny specks of black all over the fur. These colours are called the silver agouti, the golden agouti and the lemon agouti.

The Common Multi-coloured - these guinea pigs are smooth-coated and are usually black, red and white. This colour is called tortoise-white. They often have a white blaze on the forehead.

The Dutch - These guinea pigs are smooth-coated, with two contrasting colours one of which must be white. A pure-bred Dutch has a white blaze on the forehead and a white 'saddle' on the back.

The Rex - due to the structure of the fur, the hair bristles and creates the impression of plush.

The Satin - due to the structure of the fur, the coat appears to be extremely glossy.

The Hymalayan - they are smooth-coated and their colouring is similar to that of the siamese cats, which means the coat is very light (the whiter, the better) and the nose, the ears and the paws are brown or black.