Introduction

Nowaday, most people turned to enjoy adopting rodents as a pet. Some species of rodents

that people favor are hamster, guinea pigs and other mouses. As hamster is the most common

types of rodent that people prefer, it is came out with a lot of experiment to test those hamsters

intelligence and memory. There are an experiment of those rodents with a maze, which different

types of rodents will be test their vision, sense of smell, and memory. The result came out that rat

was the smartest among other species of rodent then followed by mouse, hamster, and the

dumbest goes to guinea pig.

As the guinea pigs are the dumbest rodents, to find the way to improve their intelligence

was not easy. This experiment will be study about how smart and how good is guinea pig

between the one that gets coach by using snack as a lure but another did not. A maze will need in

this experiment in order to be a composition to help training the guinea pig. This experiment is to

test whether or not snack influence and stimulate the guinea pigs want and can snack able to

train guinea pigs to find and memorise the exit.

Background

Guinea pigs have biological similarities to humans, which make them useful in many

fields of research. Also, those animal experimental are convenience, small, easily housed and

maintained, and adapt well to new surroundings. They have been used as experimental animals

for centuries; hence the term 'guinea pig' for a human experimental subject. The Spanish

conquistadors brought guinea pigs to Europe from South America, where they had been bred

domestically, 400 years ago. Since vitamin C was discovered through research on guinea pigs,
they have been important in nutritional research, and were also crucial to the development of:

vaccines for diphtheria, TB, replacement heart valves, blood transfusion, kidney dialysis

antibiotics, anticoagulants and asthma medicines.

Research Question

Does the one that get training by food is more effective than the one without food?

Hypothesis

If the guinea pig get snack at the exit of the maze, then this guinea pig will be more active and

get out of the maze faster than the one that does not get snack.

Literature review

The guinea pig are used with some scientific experimentation, but much less is known

about this species than many other laboratory animals. This rodent has been used for about 200

years and was the first to be used in the study of infectious diseases such as tuberculosis and

diphtheria.

Guinea pig is used as a model for a various of infectious bacterial diseases, including

sexually transmitted, pulmonary, aural and ocular, gastrointestinal, and other infections that

threaten the lives of humans. Most studies on the immune response to these diseases, with

potential therapies and vaccines, have been conducted in some kind of rodents such as rat and

mouse that may have less similarity to humans because of the large number of immunologic

reagents available for these other species. This review presents some of the diseases for which
the guinea pig is considered as the first model to study infections because of its similarity to

humans with regard to symptoms and immune response. They are potentially the best rodent for

use as treatments and vaccines. Future studies of immune regulation of these diseases, novel

therapies, and preventative measures require the development of new immunologic reagents

designed specifically for the guinea pig.

During the 19th and early 20th centuries, the Cavea porcellus or as we known as guinea

pig was a popular experimental rodent for studying prevalent bacterial diseases such as

tuberculosis and diphtheria. Moreover, had it not been for the guinea pig, the famous

bacteriologist Dr. Robert Koch may not have developed his 5 postulates of infectious disease

etiology, which are essential prerequisites for identifying the causative agent of infectious

disease. After that, the guinea pig has been in the study of a human bacterial diseases , including

pulmonary, sexually transmitted, ocular and aural, gastrointestinal, and other, threatening and

often fatal diseases as well as the discovery of potential treatments and prevention opportunities

to combat infection.

Guinea pigs were used in less than 13,000 scientific experiments in the UK in 2012,

representing less than 1% of total animal research. Since 1998, the use of guinea pigs dropped

over three-quarters and mostly due to a reduction in their use in safety testing. A recent

contribution to this reduction has been the introduction of a milder test for the potential of

chemicals to cause allergic skin reactions, which uses mice instead of guinea pigs. However,

guinea pigs remain essential in many of the research.

The organs and tissues of the guinea pig are widely use for research. Especially, Guinea

pig blood components are extensively used, and isolated organ preparations such as guinea pig
lung and intestine are widely used in research to develop new medicines. For instant, tissue and

organ preparations were important in the discovery and development of beta blockers to treat

high blood pressure and drugs to treat stomach ulcers.

The study of Guinea pig diet are really useful for nutrition studies because they require

Vitamin C and need high levels of folic acid, thiamine, arginine and potassium. They also carry

most of their plasma cholesterol in low density lipoprotein, so they are also useful in the study of

cholesterol and lipoprotein metabolism.

Many developments have used guinea pig intestine at some point in their development,

such as the anti-nausea drugs for the cancer patients Guinea pig intestine has also been

extensively used to study the 'little brain' in the gut, which contains as many nerve cells as the

spinal cord. This has given giving insights into not only the control of the gut itself but also the

workings of nerve circuits.

Anaphylactic shock, the extreme allergic reaction, has been widely studied in guinea

pigs, who displays obviously than most of other rodents. Guinea pigs airways are sensitive to

allergens, thats why they are used for studying asthma. Additionally, guinea pigs were used for

developing inhaled medications treating asthma. Guinea pigs were also used for testing vaccines

curing anthrax and testing medicines treating drug-resistant tuberculosis.

Knowledge Gap

Most of the time, Scientists use rats and mice as the rodents instead of using guinea pig.

It is because they are cheaper than the guinea pigs. So, it is hard to find lots of information about

them being experiment. One of the hardest one is how to teach the guinea pig to run the maze
and are there any specific behaviour that can affect them. This experiment plan to teach them in

both ways, the first guinea pig will be train by giving her snacks and the one left will not receive

it. This can answer the question that Does the one that get training by snack is more effective

than the one without snack. Also, this experiment will find out how to they behave to each other

by putting both of the guinea pigs in the same cage. After this experiment finished , it will make

human understand them more and know how well do they learn in the short period.

Experiment Details

-Understand the research question / understand completely of what we want to find.

-Create a maze

-Coach our rodents everyday in the maze to make it familiar with the maze and teach

them how to get out from the maze.

-One of the rodent will be train by get some snack at the way out when it finally get out

from the maze, but the other will not receive any snack.

-At the testing day, observe how both guinea pigs find their way out and record the result.
Materials

1. 2 Female Guinea pigs

2. Maze
3. 2 meters square cage

4. food

5. snacks

6. toys
 7. water bottle

8. bowl

9. wood shavings

Mazes material

10. Polypropylene Corrugated Sheet

11. Cutter

12. Hot glue

Methodology

Part 1: Prepare the guinea pig

1. Prepare the cage by set up the toys, food and water bottle. Also, put the sawdust on the

floor for the guinea pigs.

2. Lets the guinea pigs adapt to their new environment around 3 days.

3. Play talk to the guinea pigs. This will help them use to the human more.

4. Change the food and water daily.

Part 2: Prepare the maze

1. Design the maze for the guinea pigs

2. Prepare the cardboard box and glue for building the maze

3. Cut the cardboard into pieces and attach them together

4. Leave the completed maze for a day to dry and lets the wind blow the smell of the glue

out. So, the guinea pigs will not distracted by the smell of the glue.

Part 3: Experiment, data collection and data analysis

1. Lets the guinea pigs explore the maze for a while to make them use to it.

2. Placing the snack in the exit of the maze for the first guinea pig

3. Record the time and information of the first guinea pig

4. Remove the snack and let the second guinea pig run the maze

5. Record the time and information of the second guinea pig

6. Repeat the process again. Then record the amount of trials need of the guinea pigs to run

the maze.
Maze Design
 The maze will be built by the cardboard boxes. The design of the maze is not too

complex because this experiment does not want the rodents to be stress. There are two ways of

training the guinea pigs to run the maze. The snack will be provide for the first guinea pig during

the experiment and the other will be not.

Procedure

1. Draw the maze design on the cardboard

2. Cut them out and attach the wall

3. Place the food at the end of the maze

4. Add a lid

Literature Review

According to many experiments of the scientist such as dropping the rat in the middle of

the water. He can suddenly swim without any encourage or when the mouse try to find the way

out from the tab. Which these two species are mostly used as the rodent. In this experiment will

use the two females guinea pigs as the experimental animal.

Guinea pigs can be very active when they have an interesting and spacious living space

which allow them to explore and play. In this experiment the snack will be placed at the end of

the maze exit to get the attention from the guinea pig. This can make the guinea pig want to find

the way out. This illustrates the studies of learning and memory of the guinea pig.
Ethical/ Humane statement

The experiment needs to be safe for the animals experimentals and human. The rodents

that will be use during the experiment are two females guinea pig, which them have feeling like

human does. They should not be harm by mentally or physically ways. Also, they need to be

treated carefully.

According to many research studies, environment is the major that cause of stress.

Guinea pig needs a huge space to live, at least 2 meters square per one of the guinea pig. They

also do not like noisiness condition. They should be located away from strong heat place

especially direct sun. Moreover ,they should not be placed in the cold place that have below 70

fahrenheit or 21 celsius because it easily develops respiratory infections. Most of the rodents are

scared of human, which this can make them stress, depress and affect their mental illness. This

issue is very important because it can leads to many problems in the future. For example, it can

make the experiment go harder and slower. Sometimes, if the animal experimentals are very

stress they can died.

There are some possible ways to make the rodents use to human. First, trying to play with

them gently and talking to them can make them useful to human faster and can also decrease the

fear of human. In this experiment, the guinea pigs would not be harmed from human and other

things. Guinea pigs would be provided toys and hides to reduce guinea pigs stress. In addition,

two-story cage that has at least one square meter total area would be provided for the guinea

pigs. Guinea pigs would be tamed by visiting them usually and providing them snacks when they

approach.
Timeline of experiment procedure

Task Date

Create the research question 31/03/2017

Working on the proposal outline 25/04/2017-05/05/2017

Working on the final proposal 05/05/2017-11/05/2017

Finding the materials 12/05/2017

Start to build the maze 13/05/2017-14/05/2017

Working on the experiment 15/05/2017-22/05/2017

Limitation

There are several limitations in this experiment. Firstly, the mazes that will be provided

for the guinea pig would not be too big or too small for guinea pigs. The lanes in the mazes

would be in an appropriate size. The mazes lane would not be too small to make guinea pigs to

be strain. Secondly, the two guinea pigs would be compared by the timer. Guinea pigs would be

observed to see who would take less time to exit each maze. Other factors such as ways that

guinea pigs choosing will be consider too.

Proposal Conclusion
 This experiment will help with the understanding of the guinea pig learning and memory

from the two experiment that will do. Moreover, it will illustrate the information of how the

guinea pigs behave to each other during the experiment.

 References

1. Padilla-Carlin, D. J., McMurray, D. N., & Hickey, A. J. (2008, August). The Guinea Pig

as a Model of Infectious Diseases. Retrieved at May 11, 2017, from

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2706043/

2. Caring for Guinea Pigs. (n.d.). Retrieved at May 11, 2017, from

http://www.peta.org/living/companion-animals/caring-animal-companions/caring-guinea-

pigs/

3. Hanly, S. (2010, January 12). How to Train Pet Mice to Run a Maze. Retrieved at May

11, 2017, from http://www.ehow.com/how_5868123_train-pet-mice-run-maze.html

4. Guinea pig. (n.d.). Retrieved at May 11, 2017, from

http://www.animalresearch.info/en/designing-research/research-animals/guinea-pig/

5. Engber, D. (2011, November 16). A History of Rodent Mazes. Retrieved at May 11,

2017, from

http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/the_mouse_trap/2011/11/rat_mazes_an

d_mouse_mazes_a_history_.html