EC Veterinary Science

The use of guinea pig has many advanteges in auditory researches. The goal of the present study is to provide data about the basic behaviour in silent and to elucidate the effect of human music on the welfare, behaviour and circadian rhythm of the guinea pigs. A group of three females and one casterated, 2-year-old Abessine guinea pigs were involved in the trial. After a week of habituation the following acoustic stimuli were used: 24h silence (control), 24h Bach music, 24h silence, 24h Schönberg music, 24h silence, 24h white noise (positive control), 24h silence. The used Bach music was the Goldberg variations (BWV 988), the used Schönberg music were the Concerto for Cello and Orchestra, Chamber Symphony no.2. op. 38., Concerto for Piano and Orchestra op. 42. and Die Glückliche Hand op. 18. The differences in behavioural elements show tendencies, but owing to the few number of animals are not significant, with the exception of the drinking time (p = 0.02). Listening to the Bach music the guinea pigs spent more time with drinking (1.1 ± 0.1h) than during the Schönberg pieces (0.9 ± 0.1h). During the Schönberg musical day the animals slept in a sitting-crounching posture, they contracted many times or woke up. On the contrary, during the Bach music they slept soundly, relaxed, leant on their side. There was no transient dozy phase between the wakefulness and resting, making the circadian rhythm more balanced. The behaviour patterns of the silent day and the Bach musical stimulus are similar. On the contrary, the Schönberg music changed the behaviour, the proportion of the sleeping increased, the eating, drinking, interaction and movement decreased. During the white noise, the sleeping and sitting increased, too, on the account of the eating, drinking, interactions and mouvement. The present results provide basic data of the adult guinea pigs' behaviour. The background musical stimuli of Bach improved the animal well-being. Their preference of Bach instead of the inharmonious Schönberg music and the white noise allows the presumption that their "musical taste" may be a model for the human.

Keywords: Guinea Pig; Model; Music; Preference; Behaviour

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