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!

Keeping on keeping on

I have been a bit remiss in blogging, but I guess I haven't much felt like it lately.  Sometimes there just seems to be a bit too much on the plate these days, and I get a little bit grumpy about the situation with the house and everything.  Still, it's not as if I'm just sitting in the corner bemoaning things.

This past week, I built a shelf for the temporary bedroom.  It's the temporary bedroom because the master bedroom is a long way off from being finished, let alone started, really.  So the temporary bedroom is a small, cramped room with limited options due to the sloping ceiling.  It scarcely fits the bed and there's no room for nightstands or other useful furniture.  There is a closet but much of it is blocked by the bed, and the part that isn't blocked is used for Richard's clothes since it's more important for him to use the hanging space since he needs to look nice to go to work.  Can't have him looking like he slept in his clothes!  As a result, I had a small shelf on which all my clothes were going, and it wasn't enough once winter came because winter clothes are bulkier and take up more space.  Thus, I had a large heap on the floor that became my closet.  Not a good option!

I decided to remedy this problem by making a shelf out of any materials I could scrounge up around the house.  There was a bifold door that we didn't like that had been presumably bought for the closet door but it won't work for that closet because the bed would prevent the door from opening, so I took it apart.  I used the two pieces as the sides of my shelf unit.  I then found another bifold door that could be chopped open to make a top and bottom shelf.

I scrounged up some boards to use for shelves but some weren't wide enough so I had to use 2 boards for some shelves.  The shelf wood was pretty nasty all around - splintery and in bad shape.  I considered sanding and painting, but that seemed like a lot of work for what will hopefully be a relatively short-term solution, so I got out the staple gun and covered the nasty boards with scraps of cotton jersey that I'd found in the mouse-infested boxes when I was cleaning out the junk earlier in the summer.  I'd washed the pieces twice, thinking they might come in handy, and sure enough they did.

Anyway, it's not pretty or fancy or anything, but it does the job.  I'm constantly kicking myself for all the furniture I sold and/or gave away in Iowa before I left.  I didn't think I'd need it, but I sure do!

I've also continued working on improving the bathroom and the most recent effort has been putting some tile along the bath edge that I previously showed - the one my Dad designed for me.  I'm waiting for the adhesive to dry fully.  The package says 72 hours but I want to leave it for an extra day because the temperature of the house is quite cool so it may need a little extra time.  Then I'll be grouting.  I like the soft blues and whites of the tiles - it will lend itself to an aquatic-themed room.

I'm also still working on finishing the home-office room.  I've been moving stuff around and painting in sections.  It wasn't practical to move stuff out of the room so I just keep moving it around within the room.  Still, it's getting done and I begin to feel better about it - there's still a way to go on the trim and the wall behind me in the picture.  I love the warmth and the colours and it begins to be the first room that actually feels like a home.  Ignore the bare bulb.  Light fixtures will be forthcoming someday...

So, I'm still here, I'm still working on things, and I'm really going to try to blog a bit more often.