Guinea Pigs Project Proposal

Introduction

Guinea pigs are one of the most popular household pet. While guinea pigs have poor

eyesight, guinea pigs have an excellent sense of smell and hearing. Guinea pigs use the

hearing sense to communicate to each other with the use of mixture of noises (n.d.). Guinea

pigs usually use high pitch squeaking noise to call for attention. It might mean noises can be

to guide the guinea pig through the maze.

Guinea pig is herbivore that live off vegetable, fruit, and grass. However, some fruit

should be feed occasionally because of sugar content. By knowing this information, a trainer

can calculate the amount of treat to give while training. Water is another issue that can

seriously affect the health of guinea pig. Without clean drinking water, guinea pig can

become seriously ill.

By working on the project, research and experience real life learning behavior of the

organism is needed. Therefore, these knowledges can be used to enhance the care of the pet.

The knowledge can also be used to observe the reaction of the organism in order to

understand how they are feeling. This can also be used to create new invention to comfort our

pet or show emotion of the pet.

In the experiment, two Guinea pigs will be guided to run a maze by using 2 different

guiding methods for each. One guinea pig will be guided by using a Food and another guinea

pig will be guided by using a Sound. These two different guiding methods will be compared

to see which one between food or sound is more efficient than others. The experiment will

enable the participant to know which is the efficient methods for guiding the guinea pigs.

Moreover, the participant will able to apply the guiding methods into a daily life to train

guinea pig. This experiment will be exploring about the different guiding methods which are

food and sound that which is the efficient methods for the guinea pigs to run a maze
 Literature Review

The Influence of Open Arm Ledges and Maze Experiment in the Elevated Plus-Maze,

by Fernandes and File, used the male hooded Lister rats each weigh approximately 200g in the

experiment (1996). There were 100 rats using in two experimental groups; first group (A) is

without ledges, and the second (B) is with ledges. Throughout the experiment, the rats were

tested in the quiet and low light place. They injected chlordiazepoxide hydrochloride to the rats,

which decrease the anxiety of the rats. When scientist inject chemical to the rat it will make rat

became less anxious. The light and sound volume also effect the time spent in the maze of the

rats as the result shows that the rats are more alert in the dark place. The results are that the

chlordiazapoxide played a great role on increasing the time spent on the open arms on the first

trial (without ledges) and on the trial 2 (with ledges). It can be concluded that the anxiety affects

the time spent in the maze of the rats.

The research by Vorhees and Michael Williams, Assessing Spatial Learning and

Memory in Rodents, states that the learning and remembering abilities are depended on the

capacity encoded in the brain (2014). There are two systems; the first one using cues outside the

organism (allocentric nagivation) and the second one using self-movement (egocentric

navigation). The allocentric navigation is characterized by the ability to navigate using

landmarks/cues while egocentric navigation is using the internal cues such as feedback from limb

movement for rate of movement, direction, turns, and sequence of turns. There are two mazes

using in this experiment, Morris Water Maze and Radial-Arm Maze. The MWM uses circular

pool of water, which is featureless inside, yet has many cues outside. There is a visible/invisible

platform located at one position in the pool (neither close to the wall nor the center). This

methods purpose is test how rats use distal versus proximal cues to learn to swim out of the

maze. For the Radial-Arm Maze (RAM), it has a central hub and arm radiating out from the

center. There is no cover or in some case, it can have a crystal-clear cover to make the distal cues
visible. The rodents will be trained by restricting food as a motivation to the rewards. The results

turn out that the food restriction cause stress in the rodents. Moreover, the MWM method seems

to have the more advantages than the RAM even though the water maze causes more stress.

Experiments from Fernandes and File (1996), and Vorhees and Williams (2014) have some

similarity in the term that they control animals emotion states. The different between these two

experiments is the experiment from Vorhees and Williams (2014) do not control light and sound

factor and experiment also they dont inject the chemical in to the rats. Experiment from

Fernandes and File (1996) dont use water like second do.

Behavioral and Neurochemical changes following predatory stress in mice, by the

CNS Research Department, investigated the axiogenic-like behaviors of the mice to the cat

exposure and/or cat odors (2001). The results shown that mice response in three different ways.

The first group of mice did not response to the cat odor/exposure. The second group responded

only to fences and cat. The third group responded to cat exposure, nonetheless of the clay or

feces. In conclusion, behavior and neurochemical changes of the mice are effected by the

exposure of the stimuli (in this case is the cat) since they will increase the anxiety. This kind of

experiments made the individual become stress and it not good for animals health both physical

and mental. Even though the experiment made individual stress but what they found is that the

more stress the more effective experiment will be. The result turn out as this might be because

rats and might try to survive because of stress. For example, in 2 experiment while MWM causes

more stress than RAM, but the result turns out that MWM is more effective.

The experiment Tool-Use Training in a Species of Rodent: The Emergence of an

Optimal Motor Strategy and Functional Understanding is the examine on the rodents behavior

and rodents tool use (2008). Animals use tools to perform tasks such as food and water

gathering, grooming, and defense. Throughout the experiment, degus were trained to use a rake-

like tool with their forelimbs to retrieve out-of-reach rewards. The results turned out that they can
be trained to use their tools. According to the results, it shows that degus can understand the

functions and properties of their tools. The tool use is not related to the intelligence of the

organisms yet is a combination of general cognitive faculties. The experiment 3 have a thing that

other experiments do not state, which is animals will use their hands or legs to help them get out

of the maze. The plan is to find the ways that will teach an individual in the better ways, in this

case, did not cause stress to the individual. There are researches that tell many ways that can

teach the animal without harming them with led to the question can we teach guinea pig how to

run a maze by use food or sound? This experiment will not cause individual become stress and

also get a reward when they able to do it. Our experiment will use methods that do not stress out

animals by use only food and sound to teach animals. This experiment will not harm an animal in

any ways.

Knowledge gap

They only try to make the individual emotion change to the negative ways. They

should try to experiment different kind of emotion and how there affect individual. They should

try to see that are there any tool that help them get out of the maze more than hands and legs.

Most of the experiment only use one sex of animals, which is male. They should try to use

female to see the result as if they're different or not.

1. 2 young male Guinea Pigs

2. 2 Cages

3. 2 Water cylinders

4. 2 Tile Bowls

5. Hays for 2 guinea pigs

6. Sawdust for 2 cages

7. feature broad for making a maze

8. Glue

9. Carrots

10. A watch
Methodology

Classical Conditioning

The participant will feed a food to guinea pig, when the guinea pig is fed the food the

participant will carefully touch the guinea pig. Repeat this step until the guinea pig show little

fear behavior. After less fear behavior of guinea pig is shown, participants will able to slowly

hold guinea pig on their hands and observe whether the guinea pigs still have a fear behavior

or not. Furthermore, the participant should often play with Guinea pig in order to make

guinea pig feel more familiar with the participants.

Procedure

Maze Part

Using the feature board as a main material to making a maze. Cut the feature board in

appropriate width, length, and height that suitable for guinea pig. The height of the maze

should be about 15 cm. up and the width should wider than the size of guinea pig. Then

placed all the feature board into a shape of the maze design sketch. Attach a feature board in

shape of maze design to the basement by using a glue

Experimental Part

1. Preparing the Guinea pigs for going in the mazes

2. Put the first guinea pig in the maze

3. use the food to guide the guinea pig

1. Guinea will first smell and eat the food that placed at the start point and then

follow the smell of another same type of food that was placed at the exist.

When the guinea pig become more familiar with a smell of food, guinea pig

will follow the smell and run through the maze to find the food.
 4. When the guinea pig run from the start to the exit collect the time and record in a data

5. Put another Guinea pig in same maze

6. Use the music to guide the guinea pig to reach the exit

1. the guinea pig will listen to music or sound.

7. Observe the reaction of guinea pig to sound or music and also observe whether the

guinea run to the way that the sound of music come from or not. If the guinea pig run

to the way that the sound or the music come from then count the time.
8. Record the time on the data.
9. Always record the video of the two guinea pigs when they run the maze with using

different guiding methods

different methods.

Maze Design and Justification

Start
 Exist

The materials that will be used to build a maze are feature boards. The feature boards

are used because the guinea pigs cant eat this type of material, its hard to destroy and it also

safe for guinea pig. The maze should be high enough so the guinea pig cant escape neither

by climb up nor jump out. The material cannot cause a danger, it is not too heavy that when

there is an accident as the maze fall over the guinea pig, the guinea pig wont get hurt so the

maze is safe. This design of the maze from Bean in my Ears provide a different type of maze

which is too not complicate and not too easy for guinea pig so that when the guinea pig run to

solve the maze, the guinea pig can also develop their learning skill at the same time.

Methodology Literature Review

mice which is similar to our group because the experiment is about training rodent to run a

maze by using a food. This experiment they use 3 hamsters and 3 white mice and use a

sunflower as a guide for animals to run a maze. For a maze, they use 100 cm. x 200 cm. of

cardboard box with a height at least 15 cm. and use glue and tape to attach cardboard to

together. When they finished with the maze they left it for 2 day to get rid of bad smell before

letting the rodents to run amaze (N.D.). After 2 days, a sunflower seed was placed at the start

and the end of the maze so that the rodent can firstly smell the food and recognize the smell

and walk throughout the maze just for finding a food with same smell as the one at start

point. They did this step for about 4-5 times and took only at least ten minutes for teaching

the rodents to run a maze and make the rodents be more familiar with smell of food so that

when rodent smell, the rodents will automatically know the smell of the food and try to find

it.

The ideas of making a maze is very interesting. People who made this project said that

the reason that the height of maze should be at least 15 cm tall is the rodents cant climb up or

jump out of the maze at this height. The height of the maze will be applied into the

experiment because this height safes for guinea pig. Moreover, the method that the

experiment example use to teach the rodent will also be applied into the experiment.

Ethical/ Humane Considerations

guinea pig will not die during the experiment, the participants should have at least some

experience with the guinea pig before. In case, the participants had pet the guinea pig, the

participants will be able to handle the stress of guinea pig and will know how to prevent the

stress from guinea pig as well.

In the experiment, the participant shouldnt let the guinea pig to run a maze a lot

because if the guinea pig get tired, the guinea pig will also get sick easily and maybe guinea

pig will die from sickness. The Participant shouldnt let the guinea pig run a maze more than

3 trials per day and also the time for each trial should be within 10 minutes. The participant

should have some knowledge about the behavior of guinea pig so that when the guinea show

some strange behavior as refusal to eat or drink and gnashing its teeth. The participant will

know that the guinea pig show the sign of stress or illness (n.d.).

For the materials that will be used in the experiment must be safe for the guinea pig.

The materials as a food container and a water bottle shouldnt have sharp shape. The feature

broad will be used to make a maze which is the material that guinea pig cant bite because if

the guinea pig bite the material, maybe the guinea pig will swallow and causing a danger to

guinea pig. The height of the maze will be about 15 cm up for preventing the guinea pig from

climb up or jump across the maze which can cause a danger for our guinea pig. The food and

the water should clear from toxin and to make sure that the food and water dont get

contaminated by toxin, the participant should buy the food by themselves. The hay grass

should be available for guinea pig every time. (n.d.). The sound of the music that will be used

as another guiding in the experiment should have a level of volume that safe for guinea pig

which is approximately 200 - 76,000 Hz (n.d.).

Data Collections and Limitations

Method 17/5/17 18/5/17 19/5/17 24/5/17 Time

Food Time Time Time Time

Snowy Fail Fail Fail 8:16 8:16

minute minutes

Guiding DAY 1 DAY 2 Average

Method 23/5/17 25/5/17 Time

Sounds Time Time

Ob- choei Fail 8:46 8:46 minutes

minutes

For the data collection, the experiment will be collected into a table that include the

number of trial, The time, and the average of two different guiding methods. The time that

each guinea pig take to run a maze with different two guiding methods will be collect to

calculate the average time. Then the average time of each different guiding methods will be

compared to determine which is the efficient method for guiding Guinea pig. Every time that

the experiment is done, the video will be recorded to observed the behavior of guinea pig.

Limitation

This experiment is limited by several causes: time, sample size, and cultures. One of

the greatest challenges is the time conducting the experiment which reduces the guinea pigs

time to learn and to remember the pattern of the maze in order to find the way out. Thus, the

maze-training-methods might not be effective enough to the guinea pigs because learning can

take time. Moreover, the time building the maze and the research time are constrained by the

due date of the assignment. Another potential limitation to the experiment is the sample size.
There are only two samples (the guinea pigs) in the experiment due to the cost of the guinea

pigs and lack of testing areas. Lastly, the culture limits the testing methods. Some methods

can be used while some cannot. For instance, the guinea pigs cannot be injected any kind of

drugs to increase the anxiety.

Conclusion

In conclusion, Foods and Sounds will be used as a guide for guinea pig to run a maze.

To know which guiding method is efficient, time will be a key factor to determine which one

is more efficient than others. The guiding method that make guinea pig take the shortest time

to run a maze will be considered to be the efficient guiding method in the experiment.
Timeline for the project

Date Work

1-5 May - Discuss about the projects plan

- Buying a guinea pig and other materials for

the experiment
8.11 May -Making a Maze and finish the maze

15-19 May - Classical conditioning guinea pig

-Train the guinea pig

- Test the experiment by let the guinea pig to

run a maze with two different guiding methods

- Collect Data

- Record the video

- Finish editing the video

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Beansinmyears.com. (2017).

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http://www.beansinmyears.com/fun_puzzles.html

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Behavioral and neurochemical changes following predatory stress in

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http://www.guineapigcorner.com/information.

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http://www.guinealynx.info/healthycavy.html
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Tool-Use Training in a Species of Rodent: The Emergence of an Optimal Motor

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doi:10.1093/ilar/ilu013