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Hairless Guinea Pigs, Lakeland or Gene Carrier Guinea Pigs
Welcome to Happy Hairless Cavies
I am Anne from North Wales, I am a hobby breeder
of Hairless Guinea
Pigs. They are
also known as 'Skinny Guinea Pigs' though
some people just call them 'Skinny pigs'. My purpose is to increase awareness
and to improve this very special breed. Cavies is the latin name for guinea
pigs. They were given this name because their natural habitat is in the caves of
South America. This breed is rarely completely hairless as they do have tough
wiry fur on their heads, faces and feet. Completely hairless guinea pigs are
called Baldwins.
I got my first Hairless Guinea Pig (Tulip) in Feb
2009 who was also my first breeding sow, soon followed by a pair of 'Hairless
Gene Carriers', also known as 'Lakelands'. Since then I have had several
different sows and boars and am constantly trying to introduce as much new blood
into my breeding lines to avoid in-breeding. I started breeding hairless guinea
pigs in May 2009 and I had my first litter on 30th June to Lattifa, a Lakeland
sow. Since then I have had many litters but am very careful to rest my sows
for at least 6 months between litters and they are only allowed
3 litters at the very most before they are pensioned off!
Here is Alvin, a Chocolate Dalmatian
Baldwin Boar who is one of my newer arrivals:
Here he is again with Natasha, a Baldwin
Gene Carrier Sow. The picture to the right is of Blackberry, a Black Skinny
Boar.
This is one of my litters which was born
in 2011 to Velvet - don't you just love all those little
wrinkles!
I have found that hairless guinea pigs make
wonderful pets as they don't smell, bite or moult. They each have a character of
their own and are less nervous and feistier than standard Guinea Pigs. Their
skin has a soft velvety texture with a small amount of hair on their nose and
feet. You either love them or hate them but I fell in love with them the first
time I saw them on the internet.
The next pictures are of Elvis who is a
Lemon Agouti Baldwin Carrier Boar. He is a cross between a Baldwin and a
normal hairy
guinea pig.
On the right is Amber, a red and white
skinny sow when she was quite young. There is another picture lower down on this page of her feeding her litter of skinny guinea
pigs.
On the left is Rupert, one of my hairless
guinea pig boars. He is a fine healthy young boar.
Next is Mum, a skinny or hairless guinea
pig sow with three of her hairless babies (born Sept 2011) and a picture of two
of the babies by themselves.
This is Natasha, a Pure Black Baldwin
'Carrier' sow.
Next is Precious, a Golden Skinny Sow.
Then on the right its Violet, a Tri-colour Skinny Sow (Rupert's daughter!).
Next its Willow Tree who is a Lilac
Skinny Boar, firstly by himself and then with Precious.
Here is Amber and Shirtless's recent litter (April
2011), when they were all just a few days old and all doing well. There are some pictures
of them by themselves and some with their mum in their cage while she is having
a munch on a nice fresh tomato!
On the left is a litter of Tulip and Jack's that
were born in August 2010. The photograph was taken when they
were just a few days old. 2 boys and 2 girls and they are all doing well. Aren't
they gorgeous!
Here they are again cuddling up to their
mother Tulip. They were a little older in this picture and all doing very well.
On the left is Amber feeding her litter.
The next series of pictures are of a litter which were born in
the middle of October 2010. They were about 3 weeks old when these pictures were
taken. The first picture is of all four in a row on my window sill and the
second picture is of them in their cage with their mother Honey, all munching
away!
Please remember that all images and text
in this site are copyright and whilst I am happy for you to view them they
cannot be re-published in any form whatsoever without my permission.
Lakeland or Skinny Carrier Guinea Pigs
Lakeland or skinny carrier
guinea pigs carry the 'hairless guinea pig' gene in their DNA which they have
inherited from their parentage. This gene has nothing to do with genetic
modification but is a naturally occurring gene that on a few very rare occasions
turns up quite naturally in guinea pigs. By selective breeding these rare
natural occurring hairless guinea pigs have been developed into the 'hairless guinea pig breed'. Lakelands (sometimes known as
carriers) are very
important because they can be used to breed hairless or skinny guinea pigs by
mating them with a skinny guinea pig. This makes them a means of introducing a
wider gene pool into the hairless guinea pig breed and lessens the problems of
in-breeding sometimes found in new breeds. Sometimes Lakelands will produce a
hairless guinea pig baby even when mated with an ordinary guinea pig!
On the left is Candy, a 'Lakeland'
or 'Skinny Gene Carrier' guinea pig sow, she looks just like an ordinary guinea
pig doesn't she!
I am very much against the
in-breeding of hairless guinea pigs!
On the right is Honey, who is
classed as a 'Werewolf' skinny because she has a little more hair compared to
normal skinny guinea pigs.
Below you can see her with her
tricolour young litter, born in October 2010.
The Difference between
Skinnies and Baldwins
There are two breeds of cavies with no hair, ‘Baldwins’ and ‘Skinnies’. Just to
confuse things, Skinnies are also known as ‘Hairless Guinea Pigs’. But don’t be
worried as neither breed is ‘skinless’, just hairless (or at least very little
hair). ‘Baldwins’ and ‘Skinnies’ are two quite separate breeds of guinea pigs
with some different genes.
Skinny Guinea Pigs (also known as Hairless Guinea Pigs)
The breeding of skinny guinea pigs goes back to the use of guinea pigs for the
testing of all sorts of different make-up and hand creams (ie. dermatological
testing). The testing labs involved wanted hair-free guinea pigs for these tests
and developed the REW breed (Red Eyed Whites, also known as Albinos). I guess
they must have been the result of some very selective breeding of a naturally
occurring mutant (but not the same mutant as in Baldwins, see below).
Nobody seems to quite know how, but some of these REW’s found their way out of
the labs. Maybe some workers took a few home because they were so cute, I know I
would have!
Thankfully finding a breeder that will supply Skinnies is getting a lot easier
as they spread in popularity. There are even rumours of them appearing in a few
specialist pet shops, though personally I don’t approve of this as it breaks the
bond between breeder and new owner which helps ensure a suitable new home for
them. At the moment although the supply is getting a lot easier, for most new
owners a bit of travelling will usually be involved to collect them (and most
breeders much prefer to hand them over in person). When this is totally
impractical there are a few trustworthy specialist pet couriers that can be used
but this can work out quite expensive!
If you mate a skinny sow with a skinny boar then all of the litter will be
Skinnies. Now, although we call this breed ‘hairless guinea pigs’ they do grow
just a little hair as they become adults. The amount can vary quite a bit
depending upon which skinny lines are being bred. At the moment the most
desirable hair is a tuft on the nose, just a little by the ears and some on the
feet.
Surprisingly, some Skinnies known as Werewolf Skinnies can have a
completely hairy face, shoulders and parts of its body. With some sows, the
amount of hair varies during their ovulation cycle and when pregnant they may
lose almost all their hair. This is quite normal for the skinny breed and
nothing to worry about.
Baldwins
Baldwins, however are a natural mutant and their history is more reliably known
than that of Skinnies. The story goes that a breeder (Carrol Miller) who was
breeding ‘White Crested’ guinea pigs noticed that in one litter one of them had
lost all of its hair when only a few weeks old. She was curious to see if this
could be replicated and so then once it had grown into an adult she
started breeding back to its white crested family to produce more babies which
also lost their hair after a few weeks. This was the start of the Baldwin guinea
pigs. I guess she must have come up with the name herself? I don’t know so
please get in contact if you do!
Now, the important difference between Skinnies and Baldwins is that Baldwins are
born with hair and shed the hair after 2 to 4 weeks but Skinnies are born with
no hair at all and grow a little hair as they become adults. When Baldwins shed
their hair they lose absolutely all of it, even their whiskers and it never
grows back. With zero hair their skin is almost rubber like and quite squishy
and very wrinkly. In fact, totally adorable! The problem is that Baldwins are
still very rare and not easily available in the UK and many other parts of the
world at the moment but hopefully this will change.
So you see, ‘Skinny’ (hairless) and ‘Baldwin’ guinea pigs have quite different
origins and are very different breeds. If you mate a Skinny with a Baldwin you
won’t get hairless guinea pigs but hairy ones! But both breeds are still guinea
pigs with little or no hair. They still have that wonderful guinea pig
personality and without so much hair their personality is so much more on
display.
More Pictures
You can find lots more pictures of
my hairless and lakeland guinea pigs on the
'Gallery' page
Happy Hairless Cavies, Flintshire, North Wales, UK
Email:
anne.cavies@googlemail.com
Copyright - All images and
text in this website are Copyright Happyhairlesscavies 2011 and cannot be
re-published in any form without the permission of Happyhairlesscavies.
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Hairless Cavies'