American Guinea Pig

Yes, and they are the best starting point of any cavy. The coat is short, flat and smooth, so there is nothing to comb out, nothing to trim and nothing long enough to mat. A weekly brush is the entire grooming routine, which leaves your attention for the things that actually decide a guinea pig's welfare: company, hay, vitamin C and space.

Nothing, in the animal. The British Cavy Council does not recognise a breed called the American: in Britain the smooth short coat is the default, subdivided by colour into Self, Ticked, Marked and Marked Pattern categories, so a solid-coloured smooth cavy is an English Self. North American registries treat the smooth coat itself as a breed. Same animal, two filing systems.

Barely. A soft brush once a week following the lie of the coat is enough, and its main value is as an inspection rather than as grooming — a short coat lets you see skin problems and body condition in the week they start. There is no trimming, no combing schedule and no mat risk at all.

Only if you are buying a coat rather than an animal. Temperament is largely not inherited by breed, and the traits people actually live with — chattiness, confidence, willingness to be handled — vary far more between individuals than between breeds. What differs reliably between cavy breeds is how much work the coat is.

This one, on the evidence of the standards themselves. Every other breed is this coat with a modification added, and each modification adds a job: rosette centres that collect debris, coats that grow an inch a month, curls that mat faster than straight hair, crests that drive hair toward the eyes. The American adds none of them.

They are the same species as every other cavy, Cavia porcellus, so size follows the species rather than the breed. VCA gives adult weights of roughly 900 to 1,200 g for males and 700 to 900 g for females. We quote body length rather than height, because no breed body recognises a height standard for guinea pigs.

Weekly, on kitchen scales, writing the number down. Prey species conceal illness until they cannot, and a weight trend catches a decline before behaviour does. This is worth doing for every cavy; on an American it is especially useful because the visual condition check and the scales agree, with no coat in the way.

No. The RSPCA is explicit that guinea pigs get lonely and should not be kept alone, and that they are happiest in pairs, with wild guinea pigs living in family groups of five to ten. Companionship means at least one other guinea pig; a rabbit, cat or dog does not meet the requirement and brings predation or disease risk with it. This is the one breed where a pair costs nothing extra in grooming — two short flat coats are no more work than one, which is part of why it is the usual first pair.

VCA gives 5 to 6 years as typical for guinea pigs, with some reaching 8 to 10. Plan for the upper end, and find out what your nearest exotics practice charges before you need it, because not every veterinary practice treats guinea pigs and that cost decides whether an emergency is affordable.