Guinea Pig Based Research Project Ideas

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LydiaMinx

LydiaMinx

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I'm starting my 2nd year of my Animal Science degree in September and I'm required to complete a research project throughout the year and obviously, having it on a subject I'm passionate about would be better for me (more likely to try hard on it!).

So I really want to do guinea pigs but I can't think of anything substantial enough to turn into an entire project, it also cannot be changing the way my pigs are cared for (I.e Changing hays to monitor changes in health) because that is verging on testing and my uni isn't licensed. So I'm stuck, any ideas would be great!
 
That is really difficult because it isn't 'research' in its true state as that would involve for eg one group of piggies having nuggets and one group not to assess happiness/hunger levels (who am I kidding)/health.

Did uni give you any examples of other instructions to nat to it down a bit. Otherwise it is really looking more at current practice and reviewing the research out there which would actually be a systematic appraisal and not research. Unless I am totally missing a point
 
I don't think they're entirely clear on it themselves to be honest! They gave us past projects and it was things like 'The correlation between malocclusion and hay in a Domestic Rabbits diet', I was considering doing something along those lines but for the piggies
 
So it will effectively be looking at other people pieces of research and gathering the evidence together in one document as you are not able to actually test things yourself?
 
AbiS said:
So it will effectively be looking at other people pieces of research and gathering the evidence together in one document as you are not able to actually test things yourself?
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That's how my dissertation is going to work as we're also not allowed to do actual testing (apparently it takes too long to get it approved). It's almost like a research proposal more than anything else. So you'd come up with a question like how does x affect y, then research how x affects z and how z is similar to y and therefore you expect x to also affect y in the same way it does z. Or you can take someone else's research and change it slightly to fit a different population to suggest it would be different or moreso or whatever, for example: if someone has rearched that guinea pigs require an extra heat source in the winter, you could basically propose to re-hash the same research looking directly at skinny pigs.

Not sure if I'm making it clearer or more complicated now :/

OP: Sorry, I've no ideas to suggest for you but will keep my thinking cap on!
 
Alternatively, could you do something along the lines of questionnaires to research something, so if you questioned 'are guinea pigs who are fed daily veg more active than those who are only fed veg occasionally?' Then use a questionnaire to survey lots of guinea owners with questions about what veg they feed and how often, and how active they'd rate their guinea pigs to be. This way you wouldn't be testing on any pigs, just comparing pigs who are already being cared for differently.
 
Nicola_ said:
Alternatively, could you do something along the lines of questionnaires to research something, so if you questioned 'are guinea pigs who are fed daily veg more active than those who are only fed veg occasionally?' Then use a questionnaire to survey lots of guinea owners with questions about what veg they feed and how often, and how active they'd rate their guinea pigs to be. This way you wouldn't be testing on any pigs, just comparing pigs who are already being cared for differently.
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I looked at doing something similar to this for my masters dissertation (different field though) - does birth plan effect mode of delivery. it involved auditing notes to find out if women who wrote a birth plan were more likely to end up with a caesarean. I had to put is through the R&D department and they decided that it was 'research' and would therefore have to go through full ethics committee. I would just be careful because even though you wouldn't actually be doing anything to the piggies it may still be classes as 'research' and therefore need full approval.
 
Yea, it certainly wouldn't fly in my course - it's very much a 'hypothetical' dissertation we"ve to do. I was just wondering if it'd be allowed if it's just actual testing that's not licensed rather than all research :/
 
LydiaMinx said:
I don't think they're entirely clear on it themselves to be honest! They gave us past projects and it was things like 'The correlation between malocclusion and hay in a Domestic Rabbits diet', I was considering doing something along those lines but for the piggies
Click to expand...

The example @LydiaMinx gave here seems to be more of a theoretical literature review/systematic appraisal rather than actual research. It sounds to be more based around reviewing other pieces of research, pulling them together and coming up with a conclusion.

If that is the case then I would consider the main problems found in piggies: URI, bladder stones, bloat - cant think of anything else.

Off the top of my head 'the correlation between habitat and URIs in piggies' ie looking at if indoor or outdoor piggies are more likely to get a URI. Or 'the correlation between exercise and bladder sludge/stones' - I thought of that because my vet told me that the more exercise piggies get the less likely they are to develop bladder problems.
 
Could there be anything u could test between.indoor/ outdoor.pigs? Life expectancy, tendency to certain illnesses or anything?
 
... or something to do with diet .

My biggest bugbear is that most commercial feeds (pellets) contain calcium which surprises me when most of us are trying to limit the amount of calcium our guinea pigs get from their veggies.
 
AbiS said:
So it will effectively be looking at other people pieces of research and gathering the evidence together in one document as you are not able to actually test things yourself?
Click to expand...

Exactly, I can gather previous research and compile, along with my own questionnaires to owners but that's kind of it, no modification of care allowed or anything like that, make it tough!

Nicola_ said:
Alternatively, could you do something along the lines of questionnaires to research something, so if you questioned 'are guinea pigs who are fed daily veg more active than those who are only fed veg occasionally?' Then use a questionnaire to survey lots of guinea owners with questions about what veg they feed and how often, and how active they'd rate their guinea pigs to be. This way you wouldn't be testing on any pigs, just comparing pigs who are already being cared for differently.
Click to expand...

I was thinking along the lines of questionnaires, seems the best way to gather my own info for it. I may do about health and its relation to housing (Indoor, outdoor, size/space)

AbiS said:
The example @LydiaMinx gave here seems to be more of a theoretical literature review/systematic appraisal rather than actual research. It sounds to be more based around reviewing other pieces of research, pulling them together and coming up with a conclusion.

If that is the case then I would consider the main problems found in piggies: URI, bladder stones, bloat - cant think of anything else.

Off the top of my head 'the correlation between habitat and URIs in piggies' ie looking at if indoor or outdoor piggies are more likely to get a URI. Or 'the correlation between exercise and bladder sludge/stones' - I thought of that because my vet told me that the more exercise piggies get the less likely they are to develop bladder problems.
Click to expand...

I'm thinking of going with the consequences of housing types on the health of guinea pigs, gives me good range for info from previous sources and allows questionnaires to give me some new information also :)

newtoguineas said:
Could there be anything you could test between.indoor/ outdoor.pigs? Life expectancy, tendency to certain illnesses or anything?
Click to expand...

This is what I've decided to go with :D I find it interesting and there should be plenty of info on it so I can waffle my way through :P


Thanks for the help everyone, I now have my proposal! :D
 
Good luck with it! I'm not looking forward to mine. I've got to research ideas over the summer :(
 
Yay! Ooh i feel honoured (even though u probably woulda gone with this anyway) ;) hope it goes well feel free to send any questionnaires to us lot I'm sure u will get plenty of responses :)
 
Nicola_ said:
Good luck with it! I'm not looking forward to mine. I've got to research ideas over the summer :(
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Oh no :( I hope you find a good idea though

newtoguineas said:
Yay! Ooh i feel honoured (even though you probably woulda gone with this anyway) ;) hope it goes well feel free to send any questionnaires to us lot I'm sure you will get plenty of responses :)
Click to expand...

I will definitely ask on here for people to fill out the questionnaire, I don't know anyone in person who owns Guinea pigs so it will soley be internet questionnaires :P
 
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