Grooming Guinea Pigs – How to Groom Your Cavy

Guinea pigs are known for being easy to care for. When you want an easy animal and pet, the guinea pig is a great choice. They love a big cage and don’t have any stress about being confined, unless they are left alone all the time without any companionship whatsoever. Some guinea pigs require some hair and nail grooming, while others need very little to stay healthy. Fortunately, even the breeds that require some maintenance do not require much at all.

Short-hair breeds like Americans and Teddies need very little as far as hair care. The long-haired breeds like Peruvian or Silkies, on the other hand, can benefit from the occasional groom and brushing. Bathing is not a required act unless the animal is dirty. Sometimes, you will need to bathe your guinea pig if they need a shampoo to fix their skin condition, but that will be a medical treatment rather than a grooming. With their long ringlets, Texel guinea pigs need regular hair grooming on a regular basis.

No matter what breed you have, your guinea pig can benefit from a nail clipping every once in awhile. Once a month will be a great time for you to clip your pig’s nails. If you wait longer, you might see the quick (the blood vessel near the edge of the nail) grow longer, which will make the nail clipping more difficult.

Trimming guinea pigs’ nails requires a significant amount of patience, practice and a level of being comfortable with your pet. You will most likely need a specialized guinea pig nail clipper in order to see the most success. Just like anything else, your animal will become more accustomed with the task over time. Guinea pigs love physical contact in any form, but it can take a few tries before they realize you are not going to hurt them in any way during their nail clipping time.

Some guinea pigs like to be cradled and flipped on their backs like a baby in your arms or in your lap. Others like to stay on their feet with a gentle, but firm hand. Other techniques include putting your guinea pig’s back against your stomach and you hold it on its stomach to clip their nails. Be sure to not move while you are clipping a nail to cut the quick and cause the animal to bleed profusely, causing pain.

Be sure no matter what you do with the clipping, you do not cut the quick. Nicking the quick will cause your animal a lot of pain not only at the point that you cut it, but over the days that it takes to heal. Most of the time, it is very easy to spot the quick on the animal as it is the only pink portion in the white nail. You can sometimes wet the nail area to make it show up more clearly.

When in doubt, cut less than you think so as not to hit the quick. You can always take a few small cuts than one cut that is too deep and painful to your guinea pig. If you do cut the quick, put some styptic power on it and hold the cavy until it stop bleeding.

         

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