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Introduction
Guinea Pigs, also known as cavies, is a type of small mammals that belong in rodentia
family. Based on ‘Care of Guinea Pigs’ documentary, guinea pigs’ characteristics are somewhat
different from most of those animals in their family since they are docile, social, trainable, and
slow; which enables them to become popular household pet (n.d.). Though they are known to be
trainable, different guinea pigs still tend to have different learning ability. One of the major
factors that can cause an effect toward their learning ability is diet, in which will be used as a
Within this experiment, two guinea pigs will be tested on their learning skills based on
the diets. Two different types of food will be provided to the guinea pigs; one with fresh food,
and one with pellets. The two types of food that are given will allow the guinea pigs to have a
distinct learning ability due to the particular nutrient that are stored within the vegetables and
pellets. Hence, conducting this experiment prepares the owner of guinea pigs to get some basic
ideas of which type of food is suitable to feed to their pets. They will be able to compare the
effectiveness between vegetables or pellets, in term of having long term memorization and at the
same time, they will learn how to indicate what is best for their pets. By this, it will guide the
owners of how to shape a better meal for their pets, therefore this experiment is considered to be
very important.
Literature review
These days and ages, studies about animals are conducted more often whether it is about
their diets, the environment they are surrounded by, or their genetics. But out of what all the
experiments that have been done by many scientists, the experiment in this project mainly
focuses on how guinea pig diets affect their learning ability. There are many studies that have
been dealing with the effect of food on humans and animals brain and emotions. An experiment
called “Brain foods : the effects of nutrients on brain function” by Fernando Gómez-Pinilla
states that nutrients can affect cognitive processes and emotions which is influenced by neuronal
function and synaptic (2008). This idea is a beneficial knowledge to this project due to the fact
that it can be used as a consideration for a guinea pig’s diets plan. Also, the idea about foods that
have impact on their cognitive system is a useful information as any animal’s learning ability
It is necessary to understand the molecular basis of the effects of food in order to use the
information to enhance any studies about humans and animals diet conditions that impact mental
fitness. The most abundant type of omega-3 fatty acid is Docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) which
locates in the cell membranes of the brain (Gómez-Pinilla, 2008). As a brain is one of the most
important organs for learning and memorizing in animals, to have right molecules that are
essential to the brain in order to work proficiently is a major factor that should be concerned.
Even though, most of the studies are done in humans, this idea of having the right
molecules in the brain can be applied to animals. As a result of being unable to synthesize this
nutrient in humans body, humans are dependent on dietary DHA (Gómez-Pinilla, 2008).
Because of that, omega 3 fatty acids is an essential nutrient that should be included in humans
diets in order to nourish the brain. This idea can also be used in this project by making sure that
every meal that is fed to guinea pigs has omega 3 fatty acids.
This nutrient also has a responsible for increasing the brain/body-mass ratio. Because of
the job of DHA that associates with brain and cognitive system, it might have something to do
with guinea pigs learning capability, which can be applied to the project as well.
To focus on the food choice for guinea pigs, there are many choices that people who have
the animal can choose from. For example pellets, fresh food, and also other additional food
products. However, the various types of food in the market might concern the people about
which one is the best one to feed their animals focusing on essential nutrients it contains.
According to a table of estimated nutrient required for Guinea pigs’ growth from “Nutrient
Requirements of Laboratory Animals: Fourth Revised Edition,” feeding guinea pigs with food
that includes corn oil is recommended due to the nutrient it contains which is omega 3 (1995).
Pelleted diets were also explained in the article that the animals can also be fed with this type of
food. Nevertheless, they often do not willingly to accept the food unless they have been
introduced to it regularly. From this information, it can be concluded that extra time should be
provided as the experiment is being conducted for guinea pigs to get used to being fed with
Animals: Fourth Revised Edition, 1995; omega-3 fatty acids, n.d.), the idea could be adapted to
this project by scoping the idea of depending on omega-3 fatty acids of humans and animals,
down to one specific animal which is a guinea pig. This idea will be focused on the project the
most due to the fact that it was explained and experienced the most. The information from these
sources are reliable because some of the experiments was done under the website that was
created by the government which can be considered as the site that is trustful. Also, the
information explained in each website seems to be connected to each other, which means that not
only one group of people got this conclusion to the idea but also many others. Even though, all
the information from the sources are not the exact same idea but they all can be strong
Though guinea pigs are considered to be popular household pets among other animals in
rodentia family, not many researches papers or experiment are done on the effectiveness of their
food. Questions about the comparison between fresh and pellet food are left unanswered by a lot
of guinea pigs’ owners in which led to bad feeding habits on the animals. Not only bad feeding
habits are influenced, but many owners will still lack of knowledge about how different food
may involve in guinea pigs’ learning ability. Thus, this experiment can help to prevent these
problem from occurring. The experiment, itself, will focus on the efficiency of the two types of
food that had already been stated above. It will lead to further analysis of how these food may
affect their learning ability and so will be able to fill in the gaps of unanswered questions about
the comparison of guinea pigs’ food as well as this project’s research question.
List of Materials
- Cages
- Glue
- Duct Tape
- Nail Trimmers
Methodology
- Maze Design
maze. This type of maze is consisted of many “T” shaped connecting together. The design of “T”
shaped maze will create various choices for the guinea pigs to decide whether to go left or right
based on their learning and memorizing ability. By using Tolman’s maze design as a guideline in
this experiment, it can be ensured that it will be challenging enough to test the guinea pigs’
The maze will be created from cardboard boxes. This is because cardboard boxes can
modify and easily customize into many ways. For instance, it can be used to fold or cut into
different shapes depending on the design. While being useful, the cardboard boxes are also safe
and chewable for the guinea pigs. In the case that the guinea pigs accidentally consume the
cardboard boxes, it can be guaranteed that it will not be harmful to their health, though large
After gathering information from many resources about the research question, the design
of the experiment is planned. The experiment will produce the results which will answer the
research question in a clear and efficient way. Since there have not been obvious ways to test
about the effects of diet on guinea pigs’ learning yet so the experimental design is based on the
background knowledge and information gathered. According to Saul McLeod, maze running
using rats was designed by Edward C. Tolman to demonstrate how rats learn to use cognitive
map to solve the maze. This cognitive map is created by the rats when they are shown different
stimuli such as rewards. In Tolman’s experiment, the food was applied at the end of the maze as
a reward. The experiment was a trial each day for 17 days of learning the maze. The rats were
divided into 3 groups, one applied treats as reward every time they get to the end of the maze
while another group’s reward will be given after day 10 and the none for the other group. The
results is that delayed rewarded group of rats will perform better than the group that always
given reward and the group that never given reward at all. From this, the experiment will be
considered how the reward should be given. For instance, the treats will be provided to the
guinea pigs only on the last 3 days of all trials in which they will be placed at the end of the
maze.
Maze Part
1. Construct maze by cutting the cardboard into different shapes and put them
together onto another cardboard mat to create structure walls and maze floor. This
Experimental Part
1. Once the maze is created, start training the guinea pigs to reduce stress and get
2. The training will be based on one of the classical conditioning techniques which
humans.
b. Next step, the animal will be held in humans hands. Once they started to
c. The animals will be moved closer to humans, and the same process will be
d. While the guinea pig is held closer in humans hands, it will be fed with
fear).
e. The process ends when the guinea pig can interact with humans without
2. After 3 days, one guinea pig will be fed with pellets and grass hay while the other
one will be fed with vegetables and grass hay for 5 days.
3. Then, the two guinea pigs will be placed onto different mazes, where there will be
some food that acts as a stimulus at the finish line of each maze. The treats will be
used as rewards for solving the maze, however the rewards will be provided only
on the last 3 days of the experiment. The trial will be once a day which will take
approximately 10 minutes per trial for 5 days. In each trial, the guinea pig will be
solving the maze and then they will be taken out after they reach the end of the
maze unless the time reaches 10 minutes. Keep in mind that each guinea pigs
must be fed with the same types of food every single day.
4. Make sure that one of the group members keep track of the time starting with
when the guinea pigs start to run until they reach their destination.
5. Make sure that the video is recorded at all time during the experiment.
6. Record results in a data table and analyze them by comparing the route as well as
the average time taken for each guinea pig to finish the maze.
In order not to harm the animals during the experiment, every student will ensure to take
good care and will not suffer them. In the period of conducting this experiment, the guinea pigs
will be kept in an optimal-temperature room; 65-75 degrees fahrenheit. Water and food will also
be provided at all time in a separate bottles that stuck to the cage. Food, however, will be
different for the two guinea pigs since this experiment is based on the types of food. Yet, the
food will be proper food that all guinea pigs can be fed with so it is safe and not harmful to their
health (GuineaPigAdvisor, 2017). Another important consideration that will be taken into this
experiment is the materials that are used to make the maze. Every single materials will be created
from non-toxic elements and blunted with no sharp edges, which means that the guinea pigs will
be out of danger and are always protected from being hurt. The combination of these safeness
considerations permits the guinea pigs to be safe and will not be harmed in any ways.
- Data collection/ Limitations
For the experiment’s data collection, the important factor that will determine guinea pigs’
ability to learn is how fast they go through the maze. Every times they do this, a video will be
record in which will help to keep track of their movement in the maze. An observation of how
many time the guinea pigs make a wrong turns or go back to the same place will also be made.
Apart from making observations and timing , this experiment will be conducted three times and
the result in each trial will also be documented in a line graph in order to see the trend and can
- Timeline of experiment
Date Work
- Conclusion
In conclusion, the guinea pigs’ pellets and fresh diet will be compared to see which types
of food is more efficient than the other, by putting them into the mazes and observe which
individual learn to solve the maze faster. At the end of this experiment, the guinea pig's owner
will be able to identify which diet is better and also provide an information about what food
Fernando, G. (2010). Brain foods: the effects of nutrients on brain function. Retrieved from
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2805706/
https://www.simplypsychology.org/tolman.html
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK231932/
Owning A Guinea Pig As A Pet English Language Essay. (2015). Retrieved from
https://www.ukessays.com/essays/english-language/owning-a-guinea-pig-as-a-pet-englis
h-language-essay.php
https://www.vet.purdue.edu/vth/sacp/documents/CareofGuineaPigs_001.pdf
https://www.guinea-pig-advisor.com/feeding/food-list/