Time for bathing guinea pigs?

What do you need for bathing guinea pigs?

You will need:

• shampoo
• small plastic tub
• a cup
• some towels
• a cotton cloth

You could also need something to clean the boar's grease gland (like Swarfega soap). Hair drier is optional. In case your guinea pig can't stand the hair dryer you might need a box to keep him warm after the bath.

When to give them baths?

Guinea pigs should not have baths on regular basis. They should get it only when they are dirty or get very smelly. If you clean your pets' cage regularly, they will not get dirty so often.

Guinea pigs are not even too smelly by nature, they groom themselves so I personally consider them pretty clean small pets.

Guinea pig bath preparation

Put a little towel on the bottom of the plastic tub and then put lukewarm water in it. The water level should only be one to two inches high. You don't want your pet to drown. The towel is there so the pet does not slip and hurt itself.

Prepare the shampoo you will use. You can use formulas for guinea pigs or gentle baby shampoos. Good choice of guinea pig shampoo is FP BUNNY BATH SHAMPOO .

Get the towels ready. You will need them to dry your pet with. Also, get a little cotton cloth prepared.

Time to start!

How to do it?

All the time while bathing guinea pigs you need to talk to them and pet them. They need to feel safe especially if it is the first time they are having a bath.

With the plastic cup you prepared, pour some lukewarm water over the guinea pig. Don't get water over its head or in their eyes and ears. Make sure the coat is wet under the stomach too.

When the guinea pig's body is wet, put some shampoo on it and start washing the pet. Clean the coat good and pay special attention to the stomach, legs and paws.

In case you are bathing male guinea pigs you should do some extra cleaning where their grease gland is. It is in a spot where the pet's tail would be, if it had one. To make sure you clean this area good you might wash it twice.

After you applied the shampoo rinse the pet. Just pour water over him until all the shampoo is gone. Again, watch out for ears and eyes, don't get water in them.

When the pet is rinsed, take him out of the tub and start drying the coat with the towels. You can use a hair drier but most of the guinea pigs I encountered were afraid of it, so I don't use it.

Take the cotton cloth you prepared, get it a bit wet and clean the piggy's eyes and ears. Just wipe them. Be gentle.

Since you can never completely dry the coat with towels you should put the pet in the box you prepared. Put the box in some warm place. Put some dry towels in the box. You can even put a bottle of warm water in the box but make sure there are some towels between the bottle and the guinea pig so he doesn't get burned. All that will keep him warm until his coat is completely dry.

There, it's all it takes when it comes to bathing guinea pigs and now you've got yourself a clean and shiny pet.

If you don't want to go through all this trouble of bathing guinea pigs or he just can't stand it, you could use a waterless bath solution. A good one is Veterinarian's Best Waterless No-Rinse Bath for Small Animals .

For those who like to see how it is done, here is a good video that will show you: