Thursday, February 27, 2014

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!

14 comments:

  1. Our owner got us two months ago, and she hasn't bathed us yet, but we're short-haired, so I think we're good. Are we good?
    XOXO
    Ashley & Wendy

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. If you don't smell or have fur discoloration from getting dirty, you're probably fine. Tell your human to hold off on the bath! :-)

      Delete
  2. Great post! I agree 100%! Guinea pigs should be bathed very infrequently, IF AT ALL! Thanks for sharing this valuable information. xo Jennifer

    ReplyDelete
  3. That picture is too cute!!! I bathe Yoshi every couple months, usually when he gets smelly, and I haven't bathed my new baby piggy at all yet. He's way too wild anyway. Do you have any posts or any advice regarding baby piggies? I got a friend for Yoshi and they get along great, he's just so hyper that I can't even pick him up to take him out of the cage. He sits still for pets but the second a hand goes to lift him he takes off.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Regarding baby piggies, make sure they are correctly sexed so that you don't accidentally end up with a pregnant piggy. Baby piggies might not know what's good to eat yet, and might turn their nose up at veggies until they learn that they're good to eat. Seeing other piggies eat them can help. Be aware that baby piggies need more calcium than adult piggies, so you'll want to feed them things like kale and parsley a few times per week.

      Delete
    2. Thank you!!! That is so true!! He refuses to eat everything except lettuce and carrots but every time Yoshi takes a piece of veggie he steals it off of him. Thanks for the tips. I'll be sure to pick up some kale for baby Koopa.

      Delete
  4. Is it true that guinea pigs like the color green?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. This is an interesting question. We decided we're going to write an Ask A Guinea Pig post on this, so stay tuned!

      Delete
  5. How do I clean my boars ( I have four) grease glands?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. We haven't done a post on this yet, but until we do, you can refer to these pages:
      http://www.guinealynx.info/grooming.html#grease_gland
      http://www.calicavycollective.com/2013/09/cleaning-your-guinea-pigs-grease-gland.html
      http://www.guineapigcages.com/forum/threads/62753-First-time-grease-gland-cleaning
      http://www.guineapigcages.com/forum/threads/88766-Cleaning-Grease-gland

      Delete
  6. Thanks so much! All four of mine have really bad grease glands!

    ReplyDelete
  7. I have a question. We tend to use a small dog shampoo that whitens fur for Larry and Mo. Is this okay for them?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Take a look at the ingredients in it. According to the guinea pig cages forum, you'll want to avoid: "anything with harsh sulphates, silicones, paraffin, parabens, perfume, dangerous additives or with a high ph level." If it doesn't have any of these, you're probably okay, but we'd recommend switching to Gorgeous Guineas just to be on the safe side.

      Delete