Bathing guinea-pigs

[LordOfTheFlies]

As the GPs are in the house tonight, we decided it was a good time to give them a bath.
GP1 is the territorial one and although we've only had them 2 weeks we've already had to clean his greasespot with a warm flannel and Johnsons small animal shampoo.He marks everything, little boy GP doesn't.

So they've had their bath, didn't dare use the hairdryer on them! After a rub down they are in a washing basket with their snugglepad, a large rough towel and a load of hay. (I remember from my horseriding days that the best way to dry a wet or sweaty horse was straw on its back and a rug).

They are sulking now quietly enjoying their hay and watching Merlin. Then they can go in the indoor cage and more fresh hay.

Hope this is just an annual event! Greasespot cleaning will be weekly by the looks of it.

I remember bathing guinea pigs they are sooo small when wet!

our big chunky boar looked half his size and the smaller rough coat just looked like a little drowned rat.!

Even weirder because we made sure their necks and heads were dry, so only their bum halves were in water. (I've been looking at online videoes) I used to wash my old GPs in the bath.Didn't want to risk scaring the boars. It was the sink for them.

One of my boars (a texel) has high-maintenance fur, so gets a bath every couple months and a haircut monthly. The other is mainly smooth with a bit of coronet, so he can go for 3 months between shampoos. They live inside, so they have to be clean and fresh. They sulk a bit after, but not for long.

Really,you have to bath them??

My boys will run a mile..

Can they use dust to clean themselves with? My dwarf hamster has some guinea pig dust that she uses - she sort of rolls about in it to get clean, a bit like a dry shampoo :)

Well you won't see MINE for dust!!

I did mine in the summer, then cuddled them in towels. The calmer of the two actually purred. First and only time he's ever done that!

I wasn't planning on doing them again til next year though, should I?

Oh i miss my piggies

Mine get a bath in the spring and one late summer. Grease glands are done about once a month. All my piggies are between 6years old to fours years oldest one died in april at the ripe old estimated age of 9 she was a rescue pig that has 5 homes before she came to me pregnant. I am dreading this winter as I know I am going to loose them all given how old they are now I lost four in 11 month last year. I have two Sows that live alone because their cage mates died and the will not live/bond together they live side by side with a mesh divider. Then I have a Boar (neutered) living with a Sow he adored all his ladies now he only has one wife who refused point blank to share him with the other two.

I'm not planning on bathing them ever until next year at the earliest. I've only had them 2 weeks so we washed them with the Johnsons mite/flea shampoo more as an insurance, I haven't seen anything on them.
They are back outside after the fireworks (stayed in Fri/Sat/Sun and seemed delighted to be back in their pig-pen)

GP1 will get a rub down with a flannel and shampoo on his grease-spot as-and-when.

littlePumpkinPie it is so when the GPs shrug off their mortal coils. I had a collection of piggies as a child, they all (except for the ones we rehomed as babies) died at home, some in our arms, some with their GP housemates.

We had 2 sets of mum/daughter at one time.The older sow fought with the younger pair but when she died her daughter got on fine with them.They seem to have their own little cliques!

One of our two is long haired and needs bathing quite regularly. He loves the hair-dryer!

I have found that some guinea-pigs really like the hairdryer - all that lovely warm air! - whereas my current one really doesn't. I usally put his cage near the fire and plenty of hay with it and that seems to do the trick. You just have to see which way yours like things. Just be careful not to hold the hairdryer too close as the air can be too hot, just like for us.

I don't think dust will work. Bathing isn't really that bad. I used to do them in the sink but actually found out the bath is better (although one almost managed to jump onto my shoulder from the bath, which freaked us both I think!)

I don't think there are any hard and fast rules about frequency of bathing. Some pigs have more grease gland problems so need a clean more often (but make up remover wipes can be used for this in between baths, I've found.) Also, there are boars who need (ahem) maybe fortnightly or monthly "winkle checks" because they get a bit cheesy - thankfully not all do. I try and get DH to do this as I figure he's got more idea what to do

I don't know how often you are supposed to do it, but when I was young my GP's got bathed A LOT, I loved it. They endured enjoyed it and got dried by cuddling them in a towel :) or sometimes in the winter with the hair dryer on a low setting - they didn't seem to mind, but they were cuddled, fussed and generally babied - they probably thought they were human

It's the nail clipping I hate doing... far prefer to take them and have it done.

I'm going to have to tackle the nails soon- not long but they are like flippin needles. Luckily they are not scratching GPs but for GP2, an open neckline is an invitation to climb onto my neck (with the claws) and try to burrow into my sleeve.

I used to have to take one of my sows to have her teeth clipped (when I was a teenager) because she was the last of a group of 4 and quite quiet.Usually they would chew the bars for attention.

The current GPs will wear their teeth out- non-stop chewing

I took my two to the vets to trim their nails cos I chickened out. Best £8 I ever spent

Bathing them was very funny - did it the day I brought them in for the winter using Gorgeous Guineas Lice n Easy shampoo - again as a preventative measure.

They sulked for at least a day