Guinea Pig Ownership Statistics USA

Guinea pigs are the second most popular small pet in the U.S. after rabbits — and recent shelter data suggests they're also behind one of the fastest-growing welfare crises among small animals, with surrenders spiking sharply in several major U.S. cities since 2021, even as national ownership data on guinea pigs specifically remains thin.

The statistics below are drawn from the American Pet Products Association's (APPA) December 2025 Bird, Small Animal & Horse Report, Humane World for Animals' shelter-intake reporting (with figures attributed to specific named shelters rather than blended into an unverified national estimate), and the American Cavy Breeders Association (ACBA), the U.S. guinea pig breed registry. Where no dedicated national guinea pig data exists — which is often — that gap is noted rather than filled in with a guess.

How Many Pet Guinea Pigs Are There in the U.S.?

APPA's December 2025 Bird, Small Animal & Horse Report found that 6 million U.S. households own a small animal, with guinea pigs the second most popular species in that category at 23% of small-animal owners — behind rabbits (37%) and ahead of hamsters (18%, which has declined 25% since 2018). Multiplying those two APPA figures gives a rough estimate of roughly 1.4 million U.S. households owning a guinea pig. That figure is a calculation from two separately reported APPA numbers, not an officially published APPA total, and is presented here as an estimate rather than a hard count.

Where Guinea Pigs Come From

According to the same APPA report, 24% of guinea pig owners acquired their pet at a pet superstore — the single largest reported acquisition channel. That pattern matters on the shelter side too: among surrendered guinea pigs whose original source was known, Humane World for Animals reports that 61% had come from a pet store.

A Growing Shelter Crisis

Guinea pigs and other small pets aren't tracked in most national shelter statistics the way dogs and cats are, so the clearest evidence of a surrender surge comes from individual shelters reporting their own numbers. New York City's Animal Care Centers (ACC) took in fewer than 350 guinea pigs a year through 2020, then 709 in 2021 and more than 750 in 2022. Boston's MSPCA reported a 56% increase in abandoned and stray guinea pigs between 2021 and 2022. In Springfield, Massachusetts, Dakin Humane Society told Humane World for Animals it was fielding 60 to 80 guinea pig surrender requests a month while placing only about a dozen into new homes — and MSPCA notes small animals generally take two to three times longer to be adopted than dogs or cats.

For the broader national picture across all pet species, see our pet ownership statistics page.

Guinea pigs are also affected by the shelter surrender trends covered in our animal shelter & rescue statistics page.