Bath times are notoriously guilt ridden. I have never had a guineapig that hasn't given me the "This is it.. this is the day I die" routine.
I usually find the process of bathing will end up with one sat still and avoiding her head from the water, the other is thrashing and scampering and lunging. They often take it in turns to change personality. But come dry time they will both just sit there and hate me.
I always place the least plush towel tripled up on my legs.. then on top I have a doubled up super soft towel. The guineapig goes in the supersoft in the middle and with the edges of the towel I ruffle the fur as if i was massaging, in light circles. It takes some time but you have to get down to the deeper layer of fur. The top layer will look dryish but they will still be quite damp near the skin.
This shivering may start out of nerves but will no doubt end up because they are nippy so pre-warming the blankets on a drier/radiator/whatever may add comfort and help them dry quicker!
After I have spent about 10-15 minutes on manual towel drying I whip out the ancient low power hair drier and this normally perks them up a bit. Get out some nibbles! They can chomp whilst you dry behind them (avoiding the face naturally), use your fingers to split the fur. The action of your skin on the fur will help to lift the moisture aswell!
By the time I think they've had enough (maybe about 20 minutes in total) they are sometimes still a little damp but I leave them to scamper amongst some fresh dry warm towels and they can do the very final stages themselves over the next couple of hours. Don't worry about getting them BONE DRY. Just make sure you've given the underlayers a decent bit of attention and the hair has had a little aeration.
And I completely understand not wanting to irritate the guineapigs fur.. but don't be frightened! My parter is so worried about hurting them he gets absolutely no-where. The guineapig can be sat on his lap to an hour and it still looks like it got shot out of a drainpipe. Be careful not to rag the fur around, but being firm wont hurt unless you are at it all day. Keep moving and manipulate the fur like a massage like I said earlier. You'll get the best coverage and you'll keep it moving.
Hope this helps!
p
