Cavy Information From LaReau Lops & Cavies

We raised and showed cavies, also known as guinea pigs, for several years before finally selling out in late 2006. 

I started out breeding cavies while I was a kid during the early 70's.  Not a whole lot has changed since then.....  I raised Americans in several varieties and sold them as pets.  Back then, guinea pigs were popular school pets, and I sold to several area school teachers!

When I had my own kids, we began raising cavies and showing in 4-H, which was great fun!  Three of my kids, Tony, Jody and Kelly, did well in 4-H, often winning in both the breed classes and in cavy showmanship.

We progressed to showing at ARBA shows in the Midwest- with Kelly winning Best In Show at the Wisconsin State Convention in 2005 with one of her own-bred cavies.  We even showed cavies at the 2005 Indiana ARBA Convention where Kelly did well - winning BOB with an Abyssinian cavy bred by Mike Ginder and her own bred boar winning best roan.

Unfortunately, finding ARBA cavy shows was difficult in our area - typical Wisconsin weather just doesn't lend itself well to showing cavies at local rabbit shows.  We travelled to other states to show and we tried hard to bring back cavy showing back into Wisconsin; cavy judge, Leroy Prahman even offered his cavy judging services at a huge discount to help us promote cavy showing, but then, suddenly, Leroy passed away before we could even get our project off the ground.

So...we eventually sold out, our long time cavies eventually died, and we decided to throw in the towel.  Who knows?  I still think about the cavies once in a while and may decide to get back into them at some point.

We still have a lot of cavy information from our old website and will soon publish it here; all about the different cavy breeds, showing cavies, how to ear tag your show cavy, breeding and raising cavies.   Each article will be listed below:

Stop back often - I'll add more articles as I find the time!