Guinea Pig pups

Question
Thank you again for your answer to my last question. Now I have another one.

At what age can I bathe the pups. I would not even think about giving them a full bath within the next few months, but if they happened to go outside in their playpen (supervised of course) & got dirty, how old would the need to be to have a full bath (not spot cleaned). I'm just trying to get all the info I can so I can take care of them right.

Thank You,
Tammy
&
The Guinea Pigs:
Snowball, Piglet, Nibbles & Stripe

Answer
I love the baby names! I wouldn't bathe them until they're about three months old. Usually the babies maintain a very clean soft coat for a considerable time.  When I'm getting mine ready to show I never have to bathe the pigs that are under about five months.

When you do give them a bath you can use your bathroom or kitchen sink. Put a couple of inches of water in the sink and use your own shampoo for them. I use Dawn dish soap on my older pigs, especially the boars. They tend to get that greasy behind and Dawn is excellent for cleaning them.

The secret is to rinse them well. Hold the pig in your hands and run some water from the tap. Just hold them right under it, protecting the eyes and ears, and rinse them thoroughly. Believe it or not guinea pigs can swim. Some actually enjoy it.

During the warm days of summer you don't need to use anything but a towel to dry them. Just pat them so they're not dripping and then let them finish drying on their own. It helps to cool them and they seem to enjoy it.

When they're senior pigs (over six months) you can bathe once a month, but I wouldn't do it more than that. Otherwise you dry out the coat. When grooming for show we always bathe a week before a show. That way the oils in the coat have replenished enough so the coat feels good and you don't get the dry skin dandruff.

With the longer haired pigs like my Teddies it has to be at least a week. Bathing within a couple of days of a show the coat is so soft it won't stand up like it's supposed to.

Now all you need to do is start a little 'baby book' for the pups. You'll be amazed at how fast they grow before your eyes. They'll be trying the water bottle within the first week, then they try to eat out of the pellet dish.

Be very careful about giving veggies and fruits to the babies. They get diarrhea very easily and often don't survive it. They're fine with the pellets but fruits, lettuce, etc. seems to cause digestive problems. So if you want to give the goodies to mom use that as a good excuse to play with the babies while she eats.

I have to ask about the three little pigs!  The one in the middle looks like he's the real porker, is that right?  I'd love to see a picture from the front if you can get them to be still long enough to snap one.  I can't see the baby on the far right too well, but the other two (if you're interested in knowing their variety aka color) are known as TSW's. That stands for Tortoise Shell and White. A TSW is black/red/white.  

That happens to be one of my specialties in my Teddies. Ideally we like them to be patched like a quilt with equal amounts of each color. But of course that seldom happens. If the baby on the right has no red, then he is called a broken color, which can mean any combination of colors other than TSW.