Washing guinea pigs...

Hi there
I agree with both Dazie and Cat - I now have 4 piggies, but when it was just Honey & Ginger I would bath them during the summer season as they live outside. They are funny, I bath them in the sink in shallow warm water and as Dazie says shampoo and rinse, the funny thing is that Ginger loves to bath, even though it´s shallow but she hates the hairdryer, Honey however hates the bath (you´d think she was a boy) but loves the hairdryer. I will have to wait until late spring to try my new two but from experience with them so far I think I might get very wet. Enjoy the bathing. Keren

Hi...thank-you for your advise! it was very informative! I am glad to hear it causes no harm to the gorgeous little piggy´s to be washed! I will make sure I have every-thing to hand before I wash my little piggy, and will ensure she is dry and warm before returning her outside...it will be a good excuse to have her in with me for the day! :-)
Eventually (once I have got the house sorted out) she will be living indoors with me anyway, so it will be a good chance for her to get used to being inside!
Thanks again!

Hi,

You can wash guinea pigs, Dazie´s advice below is excellent. I have never heard of them going into shock after a bath, so that is probably an old wives tale!

Cat

Bathing a guinea pig is fine as long as you do it with care. I bath all my pigs when needed at the moment I have a piggy with lice so he has had a bath in some special guinea pig shampoo that has no nasties in it from gorgeous guineas. I would think if you immersed a guinea pig in water it would certainly harm them. I use a shallow filled bowl of water and Bernie stands in it and I gently pour water over him taking care not to get it near his face I then massage in the shampoo and take sum of the sudds and was around his ears and face taking care not to get it in his eyes then I rinse using either a jug filled with warm water or under the mixer tap which has already been set to the correct temperature. Its a good idea if you aren´t confident to do it on the floor so that piggy cant fall from a hight should they try to escape which some of my pigs do. Also to have everything you will need close by like towels, shampoo, hair dryer etc so you don´t have to leave piggy unattended also if you have a extra pair of hands that always helps. Also have some of piggy´s favourite veg at hand for a treat as you dry them. Also most importantly if your piggy is a outdoor piggy then I would suggest leaving them until the weather is warmer unless your vet has suggested bathing them as piggy´s don´t take well to sudden changes in temperature.