A Bath for a Guinea Pig: Rolo's Spa Day

Our long-haired guinea pig, Rolo, sometimes needs to have a bath.  His fur is so long (6 inches or more) that it trails on the ground, and since he isn't all that particular about where he goes to the bathroom, his fur can sometimes trail in the litter in his cage and he gets a bit grubby.  Guinea pigs shouldn't be bathed too often because it can irritate their skin - once every couple of months for long haired piggies is fine. It's not that difficult to give a guinea pig a bath, so here's the process.

First, I set up a "bathtub" in the shower stall.  I am using a corner litter pan here, but any kind of container of this type will do.  I also have a large water jug handy.  I use warm water in both, and have them prepared before I get Rolo out.  I recommend wearing an apron - it can get a bit splashy!

And here he is, in the tub.  He really doesn't seem to mind the warm water.  It's spa day!  The important thing is to make sure the water is not too deep - a guinea pig should be able to stand comfortably and not feel like it is about to drown.  As you can see, his head is well above the water line.

Here you can see how long his fur is!  I make sure there are no tangles and ensure all the fur gets wet.

Once he's wet all over (except for his face), I use special pet shampoo to get him lathered up.  A bit hard to tell here, but he's all covered in shampoo.  I wash all over, including his belly and underside.  Just gentle lathering and rubbing to ensure he gets all cleaned up.

Then it's back into fresh water - he looks sort of like a mop!  I use the jug to pour fresh warm water over him to rinse out all of the shampoo.  I do 2 or 3 rinses to make sure he's all clean.

Then he's wrapped up in a towel for the initial pat-down drying phase.  Piggie burrito.

I use a blow dryer at this time of year to ensure he doesn't get a chill.  He doesn't seem to mind the blow dryer either, although mine is not especially loud and I use a low heat level because they have sensitive skin.

It takes a while to get the drying done.  It's convenient to put him in the (dry) sink on the towel so he doesn't run around too much.  Only thing is, sometimes I'm not sure which end is which!  He looks like a toupée now!

Nearly finished!  I dry underneath his belly too, but it's too difficult to take a picture with one hand, hold the guinea pig up with the other hand, and take a picture all at the same time! 

And that's a wrap for spa day!  Just a little bit of brushing to ensure there are no tangles.

What a handsome piggie!

The Guinea Pigs!

I said I would write a blog about the guinea pigs that we adopted, so here it is!  We adopted these two male guinea pigs from the Moncton SPCA, along with Pippin the bunny.  They had been left on a downtown Moncton street in a cardboard box, where somebody found them and took them to the SPCA.  They had been named Rollo and Squishy.  We liked Rolo (with one L) because he looked like chocolate and caramel - like the Rolo candy.  We thought Squishy was a possibly bad omen of a name, so we decided to name him Toffee instead.

Since they were found abandoned, we don't know exactly how old they are, but they are not quite fully grown yet, so probably about 6 months or so.

We got a new cage for them that is on wheels, so it's easy to move them when we need to clean under the cage.  Marc made a super little hut for them out of pallet wood.

 This is Rolo - he is the more nervous one, and hides more often.  I think his fur is going to be quite long.  It is much longer than the average short-haired guinea pig.  I've looked up information on different varieties of guinea pigs and there is a breed called a "silkie" (like the chickens!) that has long hair that isn't curly or tufty, so I think he might be one of those.

Marc enjoys the guinea pigs as well - here he is holding Toffee.  Toffee's fur is whorled and always pointing in all directions, which is rather amusing.  I think he is an Abyssinian type of guinea pig.

Toffee likes exploring Marc's desk, and sometimes squeaks with apparent delight when he's up there!

Here I am with Rolo, trying to get him used to being handled.  They are both quite skittish.

We regularly let them run around in a larger box for play and exercise.

We have another smaller box within it that they use for "hiding" in, if they feel nervous.

Toffee likes to try to escape, and is sometimes successful!

He keeps whispering to Rolo his plans to take over the world, but Rolo is very quiet about it.  Look at that crazy fur!

Rolo is more interested in exploring paper tubes.

 But he might try escaping one day as well!