Grooming

CarnivalPiggy

CarnivalPiggy

Adult Guinea Pig
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Two long haired girls coming soon :) I looked around shops for scissors but could only find ones I liked in p@h as they have rounded tips. Are these okay? Also, bought a toothed comb from HomeBargains I'll find in a bit.

How often do you wash long haired piggies also? I only have had short hairs who bathed max 3 times a year. I'd be worried about drying skin but I've seen people say to bathe every few weeks.
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I got my scissors off Amazon - they're Scaredy Cuts paw and face dog scissors, but they do the trick! I haven't had my boys that long - only about a month - and they've needed three baths in that time. Girls are probably a bit less gross, so you might be able to go a bit longer. What we've done as well is just wipe them down with baby wipes when they're getting a bit icky and that does the trick. A friend told me that you can get special small animal wipes from p@h too :)
If you have any issues cutting their hair, it might be worth having a look at the dog groomers around. We found one that does guineas in Seaford and she was fantastic for advice and getting them used to the whole ordeal.
 
I trim my long haired sows every now and again with scissors like the ones you have there. I also have some hair dressing ones which are good.

I find that keeping the hair short around their bums makes bathing much less frequent. I have only washed their skirts twice since getting them in jan and prob wont do them for ages now thanks to their shorn locks.

Clippers are a good idea. Going tomtry them next.
 
I found Betsy didn't particularly like her comb and she would start complaining as soon as she saw the comb. I bought a porcupine brush from the range and she likes it a lot better. The picture is below.

Porcupine Brush.webp

I got this from The Range. Can't remember the price but it wasn't too expensive.
 
My pigs have all hated baths and I have kept them to a minimum (only when very dirty.) I do clip the fur at the back short to avoid the pigs peeing on it and getting it wet and matted. I actually just use children's craft scissors, your pigs will likely have more even haircuts than mine! ;) I have a slicker brush too that helps to keep the coat nice and reduces shedding (as a lot of fur ready to be shed gets stuck in the brush rather than on your clothes.) Honestly, I don't find the longer-haired pigs any more difficult than the shorter-haired ones, as long as you are not trying to grow out the coat to the point that it drags on the floor. I tried to grow out one of my sheltie crosses, but it didn't last.. it was impossible to keep the bum part clean short of pinning it up, and I didn't think she would particularly enjoying that so it just wasn't worth it!
 
my most recent piggies are have long, soft hair, whereas before I have only had short haired and an aby with medium hair and lots of rosettes, which I could take care of pretty easily. These latest 2 are only 15/16 weeks, and I'm looking for advice on how old they need to be before I try bathing them. They are settling in tonight, and I plan to hair-brush tomorrow. Is that too soon?
 
How long have you had them? I let my Sheltie Betsy settle in for at least a week before I started on the brushing and then only for a bit not a proper brush just a quick down the back job and slowly built it up to the full on hair brush. I also had to cut of her beautiful skirt as it was all matted with wee and poo mixed with hay :vom:
 
I've only had them a few hours, but there's a little bit of matting. Do you think trimming would be preferable to grooming at this stage? I don't want them to end up uncomfortable.
 
Sasra said:
my most recent piggies are have long, soft hair, whereas before I have only had short haired and an aby with medium hair and lots of rosettes, which I could take care of pretty easily. These latest 2 are only 15/16 weeks, and I'm looking for advice on how old they need to be before I try bathing them. They are settling in tonight, and I plan to hair-brush tomorrow. Is that too soon?
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@Sasra

Hello :)

Really no need to bath piggies at all, only for medical reasons. It stresses them out way too much, they will scrabble and to be honest there flight mecahnsim kicks in and this can lead to injury.

Long haired piggies do need a little extra care, Agreeing with posts above about keeping bum fur trimmed short. It won't look pretty :)) but the most important thing is keeping it short so no matts happen through wee and poo... When you trim always keep your fingers between piggy skin and blade as piggies are wrigglers as you know. I would also do it as a two person job, one holds and distracts with food while other trims.

As for settling, piggies are prey animals and their prey reflexes are really strong and evident. Especially when young.... We are currently trying to tame our 6 month old still... we are getting there but with some piggies as humans some are more timid than others.

Start getting your piggies used to the sound of your voice by talking to them when you are around the cage. The first thing to try after this is hand feeding in the cage, pop a little veg in your hand and offer it to them while they are in their hidey - let them take this off you (hopefully)
After a day or two try and get them to venture their head out and take then slowly getting them to come out further and take food from your hand, hopefully you can get them coming over to the bars and take food off your that way.

Food is the best way to bribe and the way to a piggies heart is through their tummy! Use food when you get round to lap times also. Start lap time for a short amount of time at first and build up. We started off we laptimes for 1 minute with new piggies then pop them back, slowly increasing the time. They will soon associate you with food and good things but at first it takes a while to gain their trust. I can also recommend getting something like a cavy cosy for laptime this will help the piggies feel more secure too

We use this method to catch the piggies who aren't used to getting picked up or get stressed when doing so, it takes the stress out for them and you still use this to this day as a less stressed piggy at laptime is a more relaxed pig

Hope that helps

Lee
 
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My Angus is tremendously long haired and it keeps on growing!
He's 7 months old now and although I planned a summer shearing I just can't bear to cut it!
I keep him extra cool on hot days and brush him every single day.
I trim the skirt around his bum and tummy to keep clean and to stop hair going up his dinkle (lovely, I know!)
The best and sharpest scissors I found are a pair I got from hospital when I amputated my finger tip.
These are perfect because they are stubby so less chance of catching legs and sharp so I can use them one handed.
I don't recommend chopping any body parts off to get a pair though!
The best tip I have is to get long haired pigs used to brushing from the very start. Little and often so it's less traumatic.
Angus is a drama queen and kicks and squeals at even the tiniest knot but he's okay with grooming as we have always done it.
It's always good to regularly check through the hair to check for skin issues too.
 
Haha Jingle kicks and squeals at any knots too. I just hold her firmly and gently and snip a couple of times. Little and often.
 
sport_billy said:
Food is the best way to bribe and the way to a piggies heart is through their tummy
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Like a man then really! My Gran said that I had better be a good cook so I could get a husband as the way to a Man's heart is through his stomach!
 
Betsy said:
Like a man then really! My Gran said that I had better be a good cook so I could get a husband as the way to a Man's heart is through his stomach!
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:)) Absolutely!
 
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