Can guinea pigs go grey?

[threedeer]

We have two male piggies, now 5 1/2 years old, one with long hair - Peruvian style and the other a tufty Abyssinian. The Peruvian one is black with sandy patches but this year I've noticed lots of very pale long hairs among his dark coat. Could it just be age?

Our older boy has some white hairs on the bit between where his ears are - started as one or two then increased now to 12+.
They do show signs of age bless them. Bit more arthritic, nap more, but more fussy with food (and unfortunately with boars, more prone to Saggy Arse-ed-ness and impaction )

But we love them

Ah. He sounds cute. They do seem to nap more these days. But I didn't think 5 1/2 was that old. It's only happened this year.

Is impaction where their long fur gets matted? That has started too. He gets a lot of trimming round the back end these days. Never used to.

I love them so much. I mustn't start to fret that they are elderly. Some live to 9 or 10 don't they? (Hopeful.)

Our chap is 3.7 and we call him "middleaged"
9 or 10 is really good going .

Erm....impaction. No, not fur matting.
(Do you want to Google it? )
It's where they lose the tone in their bum muscles (mainly affects older non-neutered chubby boars) and their pooh gets wedged. So you need to ease it out

Don't know about pigs but a previous bunny of mine went grey around her edges in her twilight years.

I'm so looking forward to impaction with my two boys

Ew about impaction. Think my boys are neutered but not sure. They are brothers and don't fight. We rescued them from a closing down pet shop when they were 5 months old. Judging by the amount of pellets they drop, I don't think that's a problem at the moment.