First introduce what guinea pigs are and emphasize the need for pet owners to appreciate the rodents’ sensory abilities. Ask how sensory perception helps them to behave in certain ways? That is, rather than looking for food, when one is fed, for example, how will food be found? Or how other animals interact? Encouraging the audience by grabbing their attention and letting them know something interesting is ahead.
You can do this by asking them questions like: “Do you shadow the movements of your guinea pig and ever wonder what that little creature sees around? Or on the other hand, how come it is that certain foods appeal to them more than others?”
Include that the current post will be looking at guinea pigs’ sense of sight and taste which are two main interpretive senses of a gerbil and which are essential in a gerbil’s day to day activities.
Guinea Pigs’ Vision
This section can be divided into some few subtopics: How does a guinea pig see things around them
To do this, the first thing to do is to focus on the guinea pig’s eyeballs. The eyes are placed at the lateral sides of the head thus the guinea pig has a panoramic view of the environment. In the case of guinea pigs, the view range extends to nearly 340 degrees making it easier for these animals to detect predators in the wild.
So and explain, their eye structure should be optimized for panoramic vision, not for depth perception and how this impacts on interaction where interactions take place more on the front. Explain that the converse applies there; there is a complete limiting factor.
It is true that there is a wider range of sight including lateral vision. However, to the front and nose level where the eyes are focused is very small in comparison. Close objects to the guinea pig’s nose even if it is their eyes are fixed straight are fuzzy.
Can Guinea Pigs See Colors?
A lot of people have this question: can guinea pigs actually see colors? Talk about their dichromacy causing them to see certain colors, but not to the extent that it is possible for humans in this case. As opposed to human beings, who have a trichromatic vision (red, blue and green), guinea pigs are only able to have bluish green vision. They have troubles with the differentiation of red and other colors.
Explain how this influences their comprehension of the surroundings and, moreover, relationship with the toys, bedding or food.
Light Sensitivity
They are also light and dark sensitive and respond to these two conditions. They are not well adapted to the condition of complete darkness, but they can cope well with low light because of their crepuscular behavior. They are mostly out and looking for food at twilight and dawn. Furthermore too much light can cause impairment of vision and you can write how they can be stressed through sudden glare changes.
Do suggest how to eliminate direct exposure of guinea pigs to bright lights of the inter room environment in case lightening systems are installed in their cages.
Depth Perception and Focus
Greyhounds or even Toy Poodles are known as ‘sight hounds’, and are able to fully build up a three-dimensional view of the world. Address the concept of depth perception in guinea pigs and explain that they suffer from lack of it, and therefore, when they are in new places, they are often reluctant or fearful to explore fully the given space. Guinea pigs can be expected not to rely much on their sight, and will thus not tend to identify places visually by distance cues.
Analyze the effects of their poor vision on their behaviors, particularly the functioning of their sight at short distances. They would seek to touch and feel even more using their whiskers or nose instead of strictly vision.
Guinea Pigs’ Sense of Taste
What Are the Tastes of Guinea Pigs?
Guinea pigs are good tasters. It will determine what they will eat. Indicate that their taste buds are able to receive different kinds of taste buds including sweet, salty, sour and even bitter. However, sweet is what they are most interested in, which is exactly why they love apples and strawberries.
Also state that guinea pigs, like all other animals that feed on plants, have a very strong preference for plant matters hence their fondness in eating leaves and hay. In addition to that, the heightened taste senses enables them to distinguish bitter and sour tasting plants that may be poisonous in nature.
Favorite Foods
Picture how very many foods they can feed on because of their sense of taste and mention them. Say that they can eat fresh fruits such as apples and pears, vegetables such as carrots and bell peppers as well as their staple food which is hay. Explain how they are very naughty and enjoy different flavors, particularly sweetness and less spicy.
List some healthy, safe for guinea pigs, foods which they can have in moderation. It can be discussed that the inclusion of several types of food not only keeps them satisfied but is essential in achieving a balanced diet.
Avoiding Harmful Tastes
Sweet is a taste that every guinea pig craves however bitter or sour is a taste that they tend to shun. Most of the bitter and sour plants taste is those that are poisonous in nature thus the animals avoid such a diet. This instinct as well helps to avoid food that may be dangerous.
Discuss what human foods should not be offered to guinea pigs, for example: do not feed onions of any kind, no citrus, no chocolates, no garlics, etc. Be sure to include a discussion on the consequences of some plants or food that are toxic to guinea pigs like onions and garlic avoiding their ingestion.
How Taste Affects Eating Behavior
It is apparent that guinea pigs can be termed as choosy feeders. Discuss how these animals make use of their sense of taste to eat and how the owners can take advantage of this behavior. For example, if the food is new to them, they will usually taste it by nibbling small bits first their determination to accept this food may vary. They may also exhibit behavior such as food aversion: refusing to eat food that they do not like.
Discuss that giving a range of safe foods will ensure their diet will not be too monotonous while on the other hand will enable them to obtain the essential nutrients in their diet.
In this subsection, highlight the visual and gustatory dependence of guinea pigs in their daily coordinative activities. It has been shown that visual senses are a prime factor concerning the detection of motion or changes, whereas taste perception enables determination of food and its safety to eat. For instance, they can see a leafy vegetable, but it’s only while eating it that they can tell if the food is good.
Concentrate on how these sensations are linked in cases where they are in new surroundings. When placed in a new cage or outside, guinea pigs tend to take their time and use sight, smells, and taste to understand their environment. They may try to chew or take parts of new things such as toy plays to feel what they are.
On the other hand, this can also be the reason why some guinea pigs do not want to try new food. They have to see and taste it first so that they can be fully assured before they take the second step of eating.
Practical Tips for Guinea Pig
Enhancing the Living Space
Suggest how guinea pig owners can improve their pet’s visual as well as tasting environment. Room conditions of the cage for instance, illumination level requires to be correctly set – sufficient natural sunshine throughout the day so that bright artificial light is not used.
Talk about the cage set up, and inform about the effect of making the food available at predictably identifiable places on the part of guinea pigs who are not baring their best of depth perception. Make sure their food and water are placed in areas that are well lit and easy to reach.
Feeding for Their Taste Preferences
While feeding the guinea pig such prefers has been educated to the owners tried to advocate such balanced diet which feds guinea pigs as per their taste. Advise that it is better to feed the pets limited amounts of sweet fruits, leaf vegetables, and hay for happiness and health of the animals. What is important, given variety of dietary food should be the owner of constant moderation of new introductions of the guinea pig to food.
Add this subsection about providing opportunity to guinea pigs to have an interactive experience i.e. scatter food around the cage so the pigs can find the food. This will require the guinea pigs to use both sight and taste.
Conclusion
Recap the broad outlines of the post written about senses of a guinea pig. Emphasize that only by realizing what aspects of their care can change how guinea pigs view and taste the world is the actual improvement of their health and welfare.
Encourage your readers to watch their own guinea pigs and do further exploration regarding the peculiarities of their beloved pets. End the paper with a warm and FBC friendly request for the readers’ share their pets ultimate dishes or a bizarre cuisine for their sense.
