Product Review: CritterWARE Groom-N-Kit for Small Animals

Today we're going to review CritterWARE Groom-N-Kit for Small Animals, which actually contains four products in one. The kit contains: a shedding brush, a soft bristle brush, nail clippers, and a "tasty chew treat."

What does the chew treat have to do with grooming?

The humans didn't feel comfortable using the nail clippers. Even though a nail trim at the vet costs $18, so the humans would be saving money by doing it themselves, they were concerned about cutting too far and drawing blood. You can trim your guinea pigs nails at home, but you have to be careful and know what you're doing. Even experienced guinea pig owners can find it difficult. One time, Lola made a sudden movement while the vet was clipping her nails, and the vet cut too far. If even the vet can make this mistake, we'd prefer our humans skip using this particular product on us.

First, we tried the pin brush, also known at the "shedding brush" on the box:

This is kind of nice.

This was pleasant enough, but the human had to be very careful not to let the pins scrape against my skin. I imagine that this could have hurt if they weren't careful. I also think that the pin brush wouldn't have worked well on Buffy. It probably would have gotten caught on her curly full and pulled on it. Pretty sure she would have hated that.

Buffy seems confused by brushing. 

Buffy didn't hate being brushed, but she didn't seem to care much for it, either. She just seemed confused and a bit concerned by the entire experience. At one point towards the end, the brush seems to have pulled on her fur, which the human apologized for. (Keep in mind this is only the soft brush. The pin brush would have hurt more, I'm sure.) As we mentioned in our texels post, texels may have sensitive backs, and brushing can stretch out their fur ringlets, so keep this in mind.

Lola also seems confused/concerned by being brushed.

Lola didn't seem to hate being brushed, but it did make her a little jumpy.

We had no interest in the "tasty treat," by the way. The box said it was the "perfect diversion to entertain chewing pets during grooming sessions." It wasn't.

Our verdict: the soft bristle brush is the best part of this grooming kit. The pin brush and the nail clippers could hurt your piggy if you're not careful, and the chew treat is of no interest to us. It costs about $9.49, so you're paying for one decent product and several not-so-good ones. We'll give it 2/5 stars.