Tips for Bathing Your Guinea Pig

Guinea pigs are self-groomers, so bathe them only if necessary-and never more often than once every three months.

You can do this right in your kitchen sink; just prepare it before you bring in your pet:

Guinea Pig Bath Preparation

Fill it with a couple inches of warm-not hot-water (Luke Warm).

Have several towels folded nearby.

Keep two basins of warm water on the sideboard for rinsing.

Use a gentle small-animal shampoo, because human shampoos dry out the skin too much.

If you have a male guinea pig, you should also buy something good at grease removal for his grease gland.

Swarfega is mechanic’s hand soap; use it if you can get it in your area.  Otherwise, use Dawn dish soap or Neosporin ointment for that area only.

Grape Seed Oil works well also.

Bath Time

Begin the bath by lowering him into the water; protect him from a sudden leap.

Don’t submerge his head obviously.

Avoid getting water into his ears and respiratory passages.

Use your thumbs to rub soap gently into his skin and the top of his head.

Clean his grease gland (located just where his tail would be) with the Dawn or Swarfega.

The cleaner might need to set for a couple minutes to loosen the grease that collected there.

Then you can rinse your pet in the water basins.  You can try pouring rinse water over him with a small bottle.

Wrap him so he’s snuggly and warm!

Loosen some of the tangles in his fur, but don’t subject him to a complete brushing until the next day so he doesn’t go through too much trauma at once.

If you have a long-haired guinea pig, hold him sprawled across your palm with hind legs spread so that you can trim the hair around his bottom where it’s likely to be dirtier.

When you finished, return him to a warm bed of hay in his cage so he can snuggle down and feel secure once again.

It’s important not to give your pigs a bath on a cold day and make sure they are completely dry within half an hour.

Visit the following link for a more in-depth step by step article on How to Give Your Guinea Pig a Bath.

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