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How We Care for Our Guineas - Grooming & Handling etc.
We groom our guineas at least once a week, this is obviously an excellent way to get them used to being handled. We also give our guineas a thorough health check..
We clip their nails, clean their feet and ears and generally check them over for any problems. If we have one that we are concerned about we also weigh them and keep a record of their weight to make sure there is no weight loss.
If we have adults in together and they have been having a squabble sometimes there will be little scratches on their ears, if this occurs we use a Dr. Johnsons Tea Tree Cream that is available from all good Pet Shops, obviously if there is any cause for more concern then we take them to our Vets. This is a very rare occurence, and we are careful about which guineas we house together and watch them carefully for several hours following any new introductions. We recently had a brilliant tip from our Friend Jenny, who has kept guineas for 25+ years and this was to put them in a run in the garden when introducing new guineas and not transfer them to the hutch until they are settled and happy, this works excellently.
We also clean the boars grease spots, found quite clearly on their rump end and this is their scent gland and if they are with a sow or can smell lots of sows around, they will do lots of scenting and it therefore needs to be kept nice and clean, we use warm water and cotton wool on a weekly basis but if it should get bad or you are going to a Show, then Swarfega works very well.
When clipping their nails, we take a little tip off every week and this causes the quick to recede and therefore eventually their nails can be kept lovely and short and this is an important showing point.
Showing your Guinea Pigs..
We have not reached the point where we are showing out guineas yet, but this is fast approaching, probably in August, and when we learn lots of tips I will post them on here so that you can all share what we learn!
Watch this space!
Shows are a brilliant day out and they are an ideal place to learn and gather lots of helpful advice.
Update added 29/09/06....
We have now shown our guinea pigs and were delighted that out of the 6 that we took, we had 4 firsts and 2 seconds! We are still hankering after our first rosette!
Update added 02/10/06....
We have our first rosette, our beautiful little teddy sow who is only just 3 months got 2 firsts and a 3 in challenge and we received a lovely yellow rosette, we hope this is going to be the first of many!
Our regime for show preparation is that we bathe our piggies approx. one week before the show and at the time of the bath we clip nails, clean ears, clean grease spots and generally give them a thorough MOT! The day before the show we do a little bit of tittyvating in the way of giving their rump ends a little wash, check if the nails need tipping, clean their feet etc.etc. We are careful not to feed beetroot or anything that may leave stains on their faces.
When it comes to handling, there is one simple rule, the more often they are handled properly the tamer they will become! We have acquired a couple of skitty guineas and the way that we have dealt with this is to put them in a smallish box, a cardboard pet carrier is ideal, and to keep picking them up and stroking them for a few minutes and then returning them to the box and repeating this every 10 or 15 mins. for an hour or so, the handling needs to be firm and gently and especially calm and this helps to settle them down in no time at all. We also found that quite a few of them 'scrabbled' when you wanted to put them down and we read a very useful tip which is to hold them gently but firmly in both hands just above the floor of the cage and not to put them down until they are calm and still, they soon learn that the quicker they are calm the quicker they will be put down! simple but effective!
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