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!

Friday's Hunt v 3.05

Goodness me, where do the days go?  It's time for Friday's Hunt, already!  Teresa at Eden Hills has given us the prompts for this week, and they are:  Starts with E, Week's Favourite, and Personal.

Starts with E:  EARS!
We have quite a few pets, and all of them have Ears!  Nature has accommodated each animal by providing them with ears that suit their needs.

Mitten the cat has lovely triangle-shaped ears that are very sensitive to tiny sounds.  He's a bit of a born hunter, although not inside our house.  You can see the fine hairs that sweep across the inside of his ear, preventing dust and debris from entering the ear.  Unfortunately, I think Mitten is giving me the evil eye in this picture, since he does not look impressed at my efforts in ear photography.

Pippin's ears are wonderfully large and covered in his soft fur.  Rabbits need big ears because they are very low down on the "prey" totem pole, and they need every advantage they can get to escape their predators.  Those ears are specially designed to hear the slightest sound, and they swivel independently to let him hear what's going on in different directions.  He has an old injury that makes a little indentation on the edge of his right ear.  That happened to him long before he came to us from the SPCA, so we don't know what caused it.

Toffee and Rolo, on the other hand, have ears that are almost hidden under their fur.  Rolo has black ears, and Toffee has pink ears.  Toffee's ears also waggle when he makes his characteristics guinea pig whistling noises.  It's quite amusing, but I have yet to capture it on video.  Their ears are also very sensitive to sounds because they seem to differentiate between Marc's footsteps and mine, since they know I'm the one who usually brings the morning treats from the refrigerator.  They squeak a lot when I come downstairs in the morning.

Week's Favourite
I hang a formed, bird seed "bell" from under my suet feeder.  The birds enjoy it, and sometimes the squirrels do as well.  This week, one of the squirrels nibbled away at the bell form until the bottom fell off.

 It was on the ground under the feeder.  I happened to be watching when he (or she) tried to carry away the large bottom portion, and I took a video, so this week's favourite is a video!

He eventually took it under some wood, where I could no longer see it.  I think he's a very lucky squirrel!

Personal
I wasn't sure what to do for "personal" this week.  If it's personal, it's probably something I don't want to share on my blog!  In the end, I decided to share my personal workspace.  This is the place I write my blogs, but also the place I spend most of the hours of my day - it's where I work, it's where I play, and where I eat most of my meals.

As you can see, I have two large monitors and a large microphone, since I often do dictation instead of typing (to save my wrists, since I am prone to ulnar nerve problems in my left arm).  I also have an ergonomic keyboard for that reason.  You'll also see, if you look closely, my magnifier glasses for tiny print, my highlighters (very important for highlighting things on technical drawings), the phone, a knitting daily calendar, the rabbit wall calendar, and a lovely wooden turned container under my monitor, where I keep spare change.  Of course...you know my Dad made it!

I keep this little quote stuck to my current file bin, since I am very fond of the sentiment.

This is my view from my desk - I can see my feeders and bird bath outside.  You can also see my knitting couch where I retire for some relaxation after a long day of work!  The knitting bags are hung with different projects on the door knob to the closet in the corner - the closet isn't really a closet - it's just where the Selkirk pipe from the wood stove goes up.  If the room is cold, I open the closet door to let more of the heat disperse into the room.

The little bookshelf beside my desk has all my field guides - birds, flowers, mushrooms, trees, insects...I'm a nature kind of gal!  The mammals guide is on my desk under the binoculars on the corner (which you can see in the picture above).  I was using it this week.

My screen saver is a constant slide show of pictures I like.  Here you can also see, if you look on the far left, that I have some items on top of my computer tower.  In the picture below, you can just see the lathe-turned pear that my father made me from cocobolo wood.  There's a little stoneware sheep, and also a lovely sheep card from my mother.  So, even though it is my workspace, it's very personal - full of sheep, bunnies, yarn-related items, and other personal touches.  You might wonder why I have those odd blocks of wood between the top of the desk and the drawers/cupboard underneath. The truth is, I've had this desk since I was about 12 years old, and I needed it to be taller for ergonomic reasons.  Marc made the risers that lift the desktop height.  Maybe someday I'll get a new desk, but until then, this is my space!

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!