Ask A Guinea Pig: How Frequently Should I Bathe My Guinea Pig?

Reilley Turner asks: "how often should guinea pigs be bathed? Currently we bathe them once a week, but we don’t use any shampoo. Is this a problem or is this fine?"

Please, don't put me through this more often than you have to!

Answer:
Guinea pigs should be bathed infrequently, if at all. In general, short-haired guinea pigs should only be bathed 1-2 time per year, although long-haired piggies like Buffy need baths more often than short-haired piggies (perhaps once every month or two). You don't want to bathe a guinea pig too often because it can dry out the skin, making it itchy and causing us to scratch ourselves a lot. We can even hurt ourselves if we scratch too much. To avoid drying out the skin, make sure you use a quality shampoo like Gorgeous Guineas that is made with guinea pigs in mind, and lacks bad ingredients like harsh sulfates. Please, no human shampoos! (Four Paws Bunny Bath is another acceptable shampoo.)

 Certain factors can cause us to need a bath more often, including:

• If you aren't cleaning your guinea pig's cage regularly;
• If we have long fur around our backsides that is trapping our waste products (in which case, it may be time for a trim);
• If our favorite sleeping spot doubles as a bathroom (in which case, you might want to do additional spot cleanings between full cage cleanings);
• If you feed us certain foods that cause us to have mushy poops, making it easier to get dirty;
• If your guinea pigs tend to spray their urine at each other; 
• If your vet recommends bathing due to lice or other parasites. (In which case, your vet will likely want you to use some sort of special medicated shampoo.)

The best way to know if your piggy needs a bath is to use the sniff test. If we don't smell bad, then we probably don't need a bath. Lola and Broccoli have never had a bath, but since I'm a long haired pig, I have to have a bath every two months or so!