Bathing

[gorebrush]

Is bathing by human's necessary?

If so, how often?

We are still in the very early stages of piggie ownership so they are still a bit untrusting - though slowly we are getting there!

Just wondering on this subject really - Obviously we will need to get them to trust us first and get used to being handled before we contemplate trying to bath them!

 

[twiams]

Young guinea pigs would find bathing too stressful so it's best to wait if you are going to bath them until they're at least a few months old and obviously until they trust you more.

Bathing isn't really necessary although sometimes piggies just get that smell about them, especially if they're the sort that like to lay in there own wee wee like mine do, so really, you should bath them when and if they smell, which for me is every couple of months, however with my piggie that has a white belly i use a dry foam shampoo that doesn't use water just to keep his white bits from going yellow (:

Hope that helps,

 

[gorebrush]

Oh no - I wasn't considering trying to get the little blighters in the bath as soon as they were big/trusting enough!

I wondered if it was an absolute necessity, that was all!

Thanks for the tip.

 

[bessiehen]

I've had Burt and Clive since last July and only bathed them twice (2nd time today!) as my vet friend told me it's best to leave them to sort themselves out naturally. However I do occasionally use animal friendly wipes on them if they get a bit stinky (maybe once a month, if that), and wipe their 'beards' down if they've eaten something a bit messy. There are washes you can get if you suspect they have mites.

Best bath tip I got on here is to put a towel down in the bath (with the water) to stop them from slipping around. First bath was pretty scary for us owners but today's went OK - Clive even tootled up and down in the water for a little explore. I give them salad leaves throughout the drying process as a little treat. It takes me about 5 minutes to bathe them, then aaaaaaaages to get them dry again, but they do look rather spiffing now