Grooming your Guinea Pig is a task that should be preformed at least once a month. A clean and healthy Guinea Pig is a happy Guinea Pig. Since Guinea Pigs are unable to groom themselves, you as an owner, are responsible for grooming them. If not groomed, or properly groomed, your Guinea Pig can experience health issues. Some in which may not be treatable.
Grooming your Guinea Pig is pretty simple, just takes a little bit of time and a lot of love and care while completing it. You want your Guinea Pig to feel as comfortable and safe as they can so it is easier to complete these tasks. If your Guinea Pig feels frightened at anytime, the best way to comfort them is to talk to them, stop what you are doing until they become more relaxed, pet them, and let them know it’s alright. After a few times, they should become used to what is going on and become more tolerate for what you are doing.
1) Bathing: When bathing a Guinea Pig, you should use “Guinea Pig safe or approved” shampoo. You can usually find these at a local pet store. You will want to fill the sink with semi-warm water but not to warm that it will hurt your little furry friend. The water level should be pretty low, where your Guinea Pig can touch the base of the sink with their feet. Get the Guinea Pig wet with water, lather the shampoo into their fur then rinse off. Be careful that your Guinea Pig does not show signs of stress or scared. These can be determined if your Guinea Pig is trying to get away. After you rinse off your Guinea Pig then you take a towel and completely dry them so they do not get cold. Hint: using a brush after washing your Guinea Pig will help with the drying and make hair smoother. 2) Nail clipping: With any animal, they have the quick; which is the blood vein in their nail. You will need “Small animal trimmers” to clip your Guinea Pig’s nails. For light colored nails, you can see the quick so you can cut according to the quick. With dark nails, you cannot see the quick, so you just cut off the tips. Hint: have styptic powder; which stops bleeding quick, handy incase you accidentally clip the quick. A second person may be helpful when cutting the nails of your Guinea Pig the first few times to ensure the Guinea Pig feels safe. 3) Teeth: Since Guinea Pig teeth continuously grow, you want to check and make sure they are not over grown. Providing chew sticks and toys will help to gnaw down their teeth. 4) Ear Care: Clean your Guinea Pig’s external part of the ears when needed with a cotton swab. Make sure there is no build up of ear wax. Too much earwax built up in your Guinea Pig’s ears may be a sign of an infection.