{"id":101,"date":"2017-02-03T17:51:02","date_gmt":"2017-02-03T23:51:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lafeber.com\/mammals\/?p=101"},"modified":"2025-07-24T23:30:41","modified_gmt":"2025-07-25T04:30:41","slug":"what-breed-is-my-guinea-pig","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lafeber.com\/mammals\/what-breed-is-my-guinea-pig\/","title":{"rendered":"What Breed Is My Guinea Pig?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Shorthaired, smooth-coated guinea pigs are usually the American breed or a mix with this breed. Photo by MAKY_OREL\/Pixabay<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The more guinea pigs you see, the more you realize that guinea pigs have a lot of different looks. The reason? Well, similar to cats and dogs, guinea pigs come in more than one breed. The American Cavy Breeders Association recognizes 13 breeds of guinea pig. Add in mixed breeds and some breeds not yet recognized, and that makes for quite a range of looks. If you didn\u2019t adopt your guinea pigs from a breeder, curiosity might make you wonder what breed or breeds figure into your guinea pigs\u2019 history. After all, it\u2019s more fun to say, \u201cI have Abyssinian guinea pigs\u201d or \u201cI have a Peruvian and a Texel guinea pig\u201d rather than \u201cI have guinea pigs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Getting To Know Your Guinea Pigs\u2019 Breeds<\/h3>\n

So how do you figure out your guinea pigs\u2019 breeds? It\u2019s going to take a little research. A great place to start is the ACBA breed page<\/a>, which includes photos and descriptions of its 13 recognized breeds. The British Cavy Council<\/a> recognizes more than 20 breeds, but this article focuses mainly on the ACBA breeds. Unlike rabbits, body shape, body size, and ears don\u2019t offer any help when trying to identify a guinea pig\u2019s breed. That\u2019s because those three characteristics are pretty much the same for all guinea pigs. With guinea pigs, it\u2019s all about the fur.<\/p>\n

Analyzing Guinea Pig Fur<\/h3>\n
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Multiple rosettes across the body of a shorthaired guinea pig point to the breed being Abyssinian. Photo by Pezibear\/Pixabay<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Guinea Pig Fur Length:<\/strong> The length of your guinea pigs\u2019 coat is a major clue for guessing the breed. Longhaired, shorthaired, or almost no hair narrows your search. Breeds with short hair include the American, American Satin, Abyssinian, Abyssinian Satin, Teddy, Teddy Satin, and White-Crested. Breeds with long hair include the Coronet, Peruvian, Peruvian Satin, Silkie, Silkie Satin, and Texel. If a guinea pig only has patches of fur on the face and feet, that\u2019s likely a Skinny breed. A guinea pig with only a bit of fur on the feet is likely a Baldwin. Neither of these \u201chairless\u201d breeds is recognized by ACBA.<\/p>\n

Guinea Pig Fur Texture:<\/strong> Is your guinea pig\u2019s coat smooth, curly, plush, full of whorls\/rosettes, or a mix? Smooth-coated guinea pig breeds include the American, American Satin, Silkie, and Silkie Satin. Only one guinea pig breed is recognized by ACBA as having a curly coat: the Texel. Lunkyara, Alpaca, and Merino are other curly-coated breeds, but these are not recognized by ACBA. The Teddy and the Teddy Satin are the only plush-coated guinea pigs. These breeds have fur that\u2019s very dense and stands upright. Breeds with multiple whorls\/rosettes include the Abyssinian, Abyssinian Satin, Peruvian, and Peruvian Satin. What is a whorl\/rosette? A small area of fur that seems to grow in a circle and makes ridges in the fur where it meets other whorls\/rosettes. It looks a bit like multiple open \u201cflowers\u201d of fur across the body.<\/p>\n

A coat that mixes more than one texture of fur could either be a mixed breed, or two breeds that mix a single whorl\/rosette and a long or short coat. The Coronet is a longhaired breed with a single rosette on the forehead, and the White-Crested is a shorthaired breed with a single rosette on the forehead. In addition to the previous textures, Satin is another. Five Satin breeds mirror other breeds, except that the fur has an added sheen to it. This is caused by the fur being finer and almost translucent.<\/p>\n

Guinea Pig Fur Markings:<\/strong> All of the recognized guinea pig breeds come in numerous color and pattern varieties, including self colors, solids, agoutis, and marked. One breed is distinctive though. A shorthaired, smooth-coated guinea pig with a white-colored rosette on the forehead is probably the White-Crested breed. Look closely at the fur on your guinea pig. Is a single hair the same color from bottom to top? If not, it might be have tan markings. The ACBA recognizes tan markings for only the American breed. Tan markings occur when the tip of the fur around the eyes, shoulders, flanks, chest, or other areas change to a reddish or orange color, which differs\u00a0from the main fur color.<\/p>\n

Making A Guess About Breed<\/h3>\n

Now that you know the distinctive characteristics of the breeds, you can make an educated guess about your guinea pigs\u2019 breeds. Use the following lists to quickly narrow down your options. Check off the characteristics that apply and compare your guineas to those breeds. If you have a longhaired breed with a smooth coat and no whorls\/rosettes, it\u2019s likely a Silkie.\u00a0A Silkie with shiny fur is\u00a0probably a Silkie Satin. If your guinea pigs don\u2019t match up with any breed and seem to combine characteristics of two or more breeds, you likely have mixed breed guinea pigs. A shorthaired breed with some wispy, long fur in spots is one example of a mixed breed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t
Shorthaired<\/th>Longhaired<\/th>Smooth<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n
American<\/td>Coronet<\/td>American<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
American Satin<\/td>Peruvian<\/td>American Satin<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Abyssinian<\/td>Peruvian Satin<\/td>Silkie<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Abyssinian Satin<\/td>Silkie<\/td>Silkie Satin<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Teddy<\/td>Silkie Satin<\/td><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Teddy Satin<\/td>Texel<\/td><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
White-Crested<\/td><\/td><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t
Curly <\/th>Plush <\/th>Whorls\/Rosettes<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n
Texel <\/td>Teddy<\/td>Abyssinian<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
<\/td>Teddy Satin<\/td>Abyssinian Satin<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
<\/td><\/td>Peruvian<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
<\/td><\/td>Peruvian Satin<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t
One Whorl\/Rosette<\/th>Shiny<\/th>Sparse<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n
Coronet<\/td>American Satin<\/td>Skinny<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
White-Crested<\/td>Abyssinian Satin<\/td>Baldwin<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
<\/td>Peruvian Satin<\/td><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
<\/td>Silkie Satin<\/td><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
<\/td>Teddy Satin<\/td><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n\n

 <\/p>\n

Getting More Guinea Pig Information<\/h3>\n

Finally, ask for help in your quest to discover your guinea pigs\u2019 ancestry. If possible, ask at the place where you adopted your furbabies. Other people to ask are your guinea pig-savvy veterinarian or people at a pignic or other guinea pig event. You can even ask online by posting a photo in a guinea pig forum. The more opinions you get, the more educated your guess will be.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The more guinea pigs you see, the more you realize that guinea pigs have a lot of different looks. The reason? Well, similar to cats and dogs, guinea pigs come in more than one breed. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2268,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-101","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-guinea-pig-breeds"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lafeber.com\/mammals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lafeber.com\/mammals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lafeber.com\/mammals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lafeber.com\/mammals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lafeber.com\/mammals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=101"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/lafeber.com\/mammals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4237,"href":"https:\/\/lafeber.com\/mammals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101\/revisions\/4237"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lafeber.com\/mammals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2268"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lafeber.com\/mammals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=101"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lafeber.com\/mammals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=101"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lafeber.com\/mammals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=101"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}