Bathing a guinea pig: what to try first, and drying it

The most useful fact first: most guinea pigs rarely need a full bath at all. They groom themselves, and frequent bathing dries their skin out. In winter there is a second problem, which is that a damp guinea pig gets cold fast. So the first question is whether you need a basin, and usually you do not.

A bath earns its place in three situations. The pig is genuinely dirty, urine staining or something matted into the coat. It is a long-haired breed, a Peruvian or a Silkie, with a soiled back end. Or a vet has asked for a medicated bath. Everything else is spot cleaning.

Things to try before filling anything: a damp warm cloth on the dirty area. A bottom bath, which is rinsing only the rear end in a little warm water. Trimming the long hair around the back end so it stops collecting, carefully or with help. Spot-cleaning the grease gland near the base of the spine on boars, which does not require bathing the whole animal. And brushing often, which prevents most of it.

If a full bath is genuinely needed, the preparation matters more than the bath. Warm the room first, bathroom or kitchen, windows shut, no draughts. Get everything out before you start: two or three towels, a basin, a cup for rinsing, and a shampoo made for small animals rather than a human one. Have the warm dry place ready for afterwards, a towel-lined box or their cage with extra bedding, away from any draught.

Then: an inch or two of lukewarm water in the basin, tested on your wrist, barely warm. Hold them securely with a hand under the chest. Wet the body with the cup and keep water off the face, eyes, ears and nose. A small amount of shampoo, worked in gently, then rinse properly, because shampoo left in the coat irritates skin. Keep the whole thing to a few minutes.

Drying is the part that matters in winter and it is where people stop paying attention. Wrap them straight away and blot rather than rubbing hard. Swap to a dry towel and do it again. If they will tolerate a hair dryer, lowest heat or cool only, held well back and kept moving, and check the air on your own hand constantly, because they overheat and burn easily. Then check they are dry to the skin rather than dry on top, which on a long coat is a different thing and can take a few hours.

And the one that catches people out: do not bathe an outdoor guinea pig and put it back outside in the cold. If it cannot be avoided, keep them in a warm room until they are completely dry, and only put them back if the weather and their shelter are genuinely up to it. For a lot of owners winter is the right moment to bring outdoor pigs in anyway.