How can I keep my Guinea pig’s bum clean?

[LyraBelaqua]

Hi all, I am after a bit of advice please. I have just got my first long haired guinea pig, a beautiful little 4 month old coronet called Saffron. She’s very tame and has let me trim her claws and hair, I’m intending to keep her hair around her bottom short but I find she sits in her pee and is quite smelly. My question is how do you keep your long haired pigs smelling fresh(er)? Do you bath their rear ends regularly? Get a flannel out and give them a little wash? And what do you use product wise please? I have a little baby Peruvian coming to live with us in a few weeks too so need to get to grips with long haired guinea pig care. As you can see in the photo I also have a dear little Abyssinian called Holly.

If you have to clean it, just use cotton wool and warm water. Certainly no products! I have to shower my dog's bum but your guinea pig's too small for that!

Thanks for your advice . I just wondered about shampoo as I’ve been reading the guinea pig forum and they seem to bath their piggies and use shampoo. I’ll avoid it!

Unless you plan to show your long haired piggie (in which case you'll need to wash/dry and put the fur up in paper rollers) then trim the fur round her bottom for her own comfort.

They are messy little animals but its really not nice for her fur to hold all the pee/pooh, they can get sticky and stinky quickly. They like to sit in their own waste and their bellies ate low slung . . They should groom themselves (provided they can reach - you need to keep a check on your guinea-pigs weight to make sure they are agile enough and not hampered)

You can wash them (Gorgeous Guineas do some lovely ones), I used Cedarwood and Lemongrass to bond our two pigs , but I have Posh&Go for more conditioning.
We have a longer haired girl , we do keep her bum fur trimmed a bit and she needs the occasiononal bum dip.
The main advantage to her longish bum fur is our pest of a boar cannot get near her
Drying them i the tricky bit . Our boar is dry as soon as he comes out the water but I used a cool hairdryer on the sow.

If you trim , keep your fingers between her skin and the scissors. If you dry , keep you hand between the fur and the dryer .

Keep a close check in summer , flies (Flystrike) will be a risk if she's mucky. Keep a check on her droppings . Any loose pooh will get matted in her fur.

Your new baby will be a while till her fur grows but get her used to being combed when she's little .

Our pigs are a Teddy and a long haired (she's not Peruvian though, not sure what she is) My smooth was much easier

That’s really helpful, thanks so much. I’m just picturing rolling Saffy’s hair up in paper rollers . No I won’t be showing her.

She’s gorgeous!

I use a gentle pig shampoo on my two because they smell, but I bath them every 6 weeks or less. I cut the hair round their bums short - I tried clippers which was successful in that the hair was short, but both girls cried 😩 I find bum baths best though as less traumatic all round.
If you bath them make sure they’re dry before you put them in their cage. My two now tolerate a hairdryer on a low setting which they didn’t do begin with.

Attached obligatory photo.

Yes wait, 6 weeks or more? It’s generally every two months.

Both mine HATE being combed (they have sort of tantrums when I try which is very cute but not helpful for grooming them!) but thankfully their hair doesn’t get matter if I keep it short round their bums. When I first got them I trimmed right round so their hair didn’t hit the ground but it’s getting longer just now. I’ll cut it when I feel emotionally ready 😂

Thanks for your advice Letssgetreadytorumba so you would recommend only washing their bottoms every 8 weeks? Or the whole of them? I can picture piggy tantrums and just imagine the upset. I think I’ll avoid whole body baths as much as possible!

My girls get a full body bath every 2 months or so because their underside also gets pretty smelly after a while. Bum baths don’t go down much better, but there’s less scowling and crying 😂

DD boar tends to get dry skin, we use a coconut oil melted in hot water (cooled) to pre-wash then shampoo him . He doesn't get mucky

We usually 'proper' bath them before they go on holiday or if they're bonding.
We married GP6 and GP7 a couple of weeks ago, he was sitting in the bath thinking "What fresh hell is this " (but he was pleased after to bond with GP7)

We put a towel in the bath, the water , a plastic jug to scoop the water.
They go in the sink to shampoo ( towel in the sink) then rinse.

Have a spare pair of hands , everything you need beside you, towels to wrap them, and you'll get soaked and they'll scream at you

They are little toads to wash, they try and jump out of the water (or at least look like they're thinking about it) and you need to keep their faces and ears out of the water.

Mine literally crawl out of the sink, I only do one at a time for that reason!

Hearing about these guinea pigs and their behaviour is really making me laugh. And I love the photo too

I’m rather devoted to my two...