Guinea pig bath day!

[FauxFox]

Gave my three pigs a lovely bath today and put them out in the lawn run in the sunshine - the water was soooo dirty! Stinky pigs

We only bath ours if they have been frolicking with each other and are, ahem, a little sticky.

This makes me miss mine. I have a crazy chihuahua now though, she also hates baths but has never drawn blood!

Mine were long haired and needed monthly or so baths as well as regular bum trims.

Mine are boys who are more likely to benefit from a bath due to the scent gland area 😳 and Trevor is a teddy which means his fur is quite wiry and difficult for him to groom by himself. I have had lady pigs in the past that never needed baths - you can tell if it’s required 😊

We used to have a teddy but we had to rehome him as he would fight viciously whenever they went to holiday care, he was fine at home but we came back from holiday and he'd broken his brothers leg 😢

Ours are all boars too, we've only had one sow.

Ahhh gorgeous piggies , we've been pigless for a year now since GP7 went off to the Bridge ( four days after the Vet gave her ulcerated eye the all clear and congratulated DD and I on our Pig Husbandary ...she left us )

We used to bathe them:
If the boars were being arsey and we wanted to calm and neutralise them
If they were off on holiday and we wanted to make them look cared for
If they were ill and needed a Bum Dip to keep them clean but it was a minimal swish about then dry properly
If our Teddy boar had dry skin and needed a coconut oil melt bath
Weddings
My Himmy sow used to discourage the (neutered) boars attention by peeing -it is quite a defence skill- she could pee horizontally through the eye of a needle that one . But it left her beautiful ivory coat yellow

They much preferred having their Pighouse scrubbed and relaid with fresh cardboard and paper with hay . A new cardboard box was nice .
All while they munched grass and aired themselves

The best GP is in Dr Doolittle imo!! He is great!!.

Or G-Force
"You try to put a bow on me , you're going to lose a finger"

A disappointing lack of photo updating!!

The lack of bathed piggie photos is shocking isn't it .....

Just to tide you over Amelie , here's a photo of the dearly departed , unwashed Bert our GP6 .
Note the subtle green round his mouth, the classic features of a happy Pig in Grass

Ahhh gorgeous piggies , we've been pigless for a year

A year! It seems like longer. Bert is lovely.

Our pigs are indoor pigs, they have a run (which met with an accident this afternoon - DD fell and landed on it) which they have to go in. GP1 and 2 were sensible piggies who would wander round the garden free range and be easy to find but since then we have had all hyper pigs except for the one that is blind. We're not going to be able to get a new run for a while so they will be stuck indoors.

Sods law, I've just cut the grass and dandelions so we don't have long grass for them now.

I discovered just how high a piggy can jump last time I gave my boys a bath! One leapt from the basin right up into my arms. "Muuuuum, heeeeeelp," he wailed. He's a grumpy boy but was a total sook after bath time!

Thy have short hair so only need to get a bath when they get proper hormonal stinky.

This thread is showing me I need to take more pigtures as I don’t have any good ones to add.

My piggies are not looking their best right now, poor Caramel has lost all the hair around her eyes to ringworm.

They are a week into a five week programme but no improvement yet 😩 I'm having to treat it more seriously than Covid-19. Gloves at all times and bleaching everything. All toys thrown away and bedding washed at 60 degrees. Complete cage change and bleach twice a week. And I can't even get a cuddle!

Ah thank you twin Bert was indeed lovely

We had eight over the years , the boars were soppy and the sows were feisty .

All Rescues . None of them were cruelty cases thankfully but they all had a tale to tell about why they got to where they were .

We always thought it was our gain to have them .
They were either relinquished , ex breeding pigs , accidents or unwanted by the breeder .

We now have 2 cats ( my DH dearly wanted some cats and TBF he put up with eight years of guinea-pigs )
I said he had to wait until the pigs were no more , I wasn't having cats bothering the rodenty ones .
So we waited until our last three old dears dwindled to 2 then 1 then none .

The cats are CPL rescues , born in a garden feral. They like to pretend to still be feral but with the advantage of meals and a house to doss about in !

Novia

I used to get sachets of Virkon S from Amazon ( its used in farming , equine , small animal like boarding rabbits&piggies) to clean our pigs' houses .
Dilute as appropriate , spray bottle , leave to dry thoroughly .
Good for deep cleaning , introducing a new animal, or when we were getting the pig house ready after them being indoors .

Or a steamer is good for disinfecting and no residue ( just water)

Ours were a mix of rescue and pet shop. GP1 was from a pet shop, he'd got a split ear and they couldn't sell him so one of the staff was looking after him - he was so tame when he came to us at nearly a year old. He'd been without a friend all year so we had him neutered and got him a wife (GP2) from a rescue place.

GP2 had to be PTS and so we took GP1 to a rescue place to meet another pig (GP3), they got on well despite him being a boar but then a month later GP1 died so we got GP4 from a pet shop to keep GP3 company. GP3 died of old age which is when we got GP5 (elderly boar we've got now) and then GP6 was an impulse pet shop buy . GP7 had been abandoned in a house when his owners moved and luckily was found in time so he came to live with us as a very scared and timid baby. GP8 was another impulse buy as we fell in love with him. GP6 died when we were on holiday and then GP8 had to be rehomed (he's now happily living with two girlfriends) as he got very violent with GP7 when they were at a holiday care place and broke GP7's shoulder. GP7 died because of it so we just had GP5 and so got GP9 and 10 (the babies) at ten days old when they were orphaned and the breeder didn't know how to look after them.

Thanks 70 - unfortunately I'm in Spain and can't get it here as everything is shut! I have F10 on order from Amazon, but not available until the end of April. 🤦🏼‍♀️ So bleach is the only option for now. My DDs said the house smells like a swimming pool! 😆

User yes they certainly defy the "guinea-pigs don't jump" theory in the bath.
They look like teeny lions with their saturated bodies and the dry mane . You get that glint in their eye then they just launch themselves .

Many years ago (when I was a child) we had a Mum+Daughter Himmys . Daughter loved to swim, we put a towel 'island' in the bath but she went back and forth until we scooped her out .
Her Mum hated a bath and no matter how long we kept her away from our necks , we were punished with a bite . Even hours after she was dry !

Our GP3 (Rex boar) and GP6 (Teddy Boar) had amazing drip-dry fur . Towel wrap , unwrap, bone dry . No need for hayboxes or hair driers.
Unfortunately , massively allergenic for poor DD . Fine with the other pigs unless they cuddled up to GP3 or GP6 .

Does anyone else find their gps are exhausted after garden time? We put our boars out for an hour or two every afternoon and then they nap for the afternoon. Very sweet actually.
They awake in the evening ready for more lettuce!

That's really cute.

Ours sleep a fair bit but then one is old and the other two exhaust themselves with epic popcorning sessions. One of them will sleep on his side with his head against a furry house, the others just flop down whereever they happen to be.

Garden time is hard work for guinea-pigs .
You see it as just wandering about earing grass,
They see it as : mowing the lawn (to save you a job) fertilising the lawn with little slow-release piggie fertiliser pellets, avoiding anything bad like buttercups, looking out for eagles or snakes on the prowl, and adding a decorative feature to the garden.

Ours were starving after a day at grass and quite prepared to tuck into a light supper and loads of hay .

Our lawn has now grown out the scalped rectangles of guinea-pig locusts.

We've just started putting our baby boars out for grass time in the afternoon and they are totally shattered when we bring them back in. They're only 3 months so are still discovering that outside is good and won't venture too far from the hidey to nibble at grass so not much wandering about but it definitely tires them.

Awww loving all the wheekers! Mine wait now to go out for the day and don't move until they are in the garden munching away

Here's 2 of the girls waiting for me earlier today and one of them fast asleep when back in their indoor cage. Also added one of the boys doing what he does best, he really is a walking stomach

Rainbow make sure you give your babies very limited grazing , start with 30 minutes and build up.

All guineas are at risk from bloat when they start in grass so even adult lardy pigs need a slow build up , but for tiny pigs it's especially important

Our pigs were very much "Eh? We've only just planted our bumcheeks on the lawn" and litttle nightmares to catch in the first few days but I told them they had many many hours of nice grazing ahead , just not right now