little and often or all in one go

J

Jodieb122

Junior Guinea Pig
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Hi there,
so one of the guinea pigs that I adopted has got some matts on her rump, I know I should cut them out (I am going to buy some clippers and hairdressing scissors as the scissors that iIdo have were not sharp enough). she finds brushing and being trimmed very stressful, is it better to trim and brush occasionally, getting little bits at a time or is it better to just do it all in one go?
 
If she is long haired brushing and trimming is necessary if she is short haired you shouldn’t need to...
 
I would have thought do little and often was better to save her the stress of being held still for a long period. Play it by ear though, if she seems to settle, then perhaps do a little more.
 
I’d suggest just to do as much as you can in one go as often as you think it will need done
 
I would imagine the more it is done (brushing especially) the easier it will be? As it might not get matted up as much :hmm:
 
For the matts you need to get as much out as possible with scissors first otherwise they will keep building. Then brushing little and often especially in problem areas would be best. Perhaps interchange it with days where you have laptime and the brush is there but you don't use it so they get used to it a bit more and don't always associate handling with brushing.

It might be worth trying different styles of brushes as well. My long haired boar is messy so I keep his bum end trimmed fairly short to make things easier and I also use a soft bristled brush as he gets even more vocal and upset with anything else. Yet my Swiss lady likes a fine metal pronged brush best
 
Thank you all! So a friend of mine who used to have guinea pigs and had done some vetinary traing came over and helped me to give them a haircut! Both girls were very calm after she picked them up and we managed to give them a good trim. Once we were holding them they were really good!
 
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