Grooming
Basic everyday grooming for Guinea Pigs is effortless in comparison to a lot of other long coated dogs and cats.
Even when one does not show your Guinea Pigs, a bath, nail clip and a good dip is more than sufficient for your Guinea Pig to retain excellent coat condition.
Even when one does not show your Guinea Pigs, a bath, nail clip and a good dip is more than sufficient for your Guinea Pig to retain excellent coat condition.
Basically these are the three main grooming tools that I use. The first brush on the left is wonderful for the long coats, as it does not pull hair out when using, which retains the density of the coat.
The next brush on the right I use on my rough coats, it removed dead hairs from the coat. The swivel tooth comb is used to remove knots out the coat. |
Mites & Mites & more Mites
Did I struggle with this, the below dip would cure all issues both fungal and mite originated. However Ectodex it is not available internationally. So I found this product to be my new go to product killing all the mites in my Guinea Pig shed!!
You will get mites to no fault of anyone. They come in the hay. This will resolve your issues and lasts for weeks on end.
Did I struggle with this, the below dip would cure all issues both fungal and mite originated. However Ectodex it is not available internationally. So I found this product to be my new go to product killing all the mites in my Guinea Pig shed!!
You will get mites to no fault of anyone. They come in the hay. This will resolve your issues and lasts for weeks on end.
Dipping
All Guinea Pigs require some form of mite control. Especially here in South Africa. In the past years I have been using a local product called Ectodex. For general signs to assess when dipping is required, you will notice your Guineas starting to scratch continually. This is when I generally will start to dip all my pigs. Normally I take a bucket and add 10 litres of warm water with 10ml of Ectodex. Then place the piggy in the water and slowly massage the dip into the hair. Once I have removed the pig from the water, I just towel dry them. Do not rinse the dip off. |
Clipping Long Coats
The maintenance of a long coat pig is not as difficult as many say. Mostly you will find them knotting up from the small seeds in the hay or bits of wood shavings. If you are not showing your long coat I would recommend that you keep their coats clipped. It is most important to clip the pig's bottom around the anus. This just ensures the piggy stays free from the hair matting from the pigs urine.
Then for general maintenance, not to loose the long hair effect, trim the coat to floor length this does lesson the chance of unnecessary matting.
The maintenance of a long coat pig is not as difficult as many say. Mostly you will find them knotting up from the small seeds in the hay or bits of wood shavings. If you are not showing your long coat I would recommend that you keep their coats clipped. It is most important to clip the pig's bottom around the anus. This just ensures the piggy stays free from the hair matting from the pigs urine.
Then for general maintenance, not to loose the long hair effect, trim the coat to floor length this does lesson the chance of unnecessary matting.
Clipping Toe Nails
One of the most important monthly care for your Guinea Pigs is to clip their nails. Clipping the toe nails of the Guinea Pig is not an option, but a must. In some lines the toe nail grows really fast, in other lines they are slower, but regardless of this it is something that must be tended to.It is difficult on the dark colours to identify the blood vein. So it is safe to simply cut the curve of the nail. Please see the example of how to cut nails on the right. If you do cut too short don't panic, the bleeding will stop after a short while. Picture Source: Guinea Pig Care .com.au |