Long haired guineas

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MissPig

Hiya
I'm thinking about getting a long haired guinea. Could anyone give me some advice about them? are they any different to care for than short haired?
Any help would be greatly appreciated.:)
 
I'm hoping to get my first long haired guinea pig too! As far as I know (as I haven't researched yet, it's the grooming part that might take up your time =]
 
I've got a sheltie, and an abbyXperuvian type pig. you need to groom them and cut out any knots. to be honest my abberivan type piggie is no problem coat wise, it's more my sheltie that needs more care with her coat. i would advise you keep the bottom area short haired as it's prone to get wet and matted from pees and poops, trust me they don't like being de-tangled! my beth gets tangled as soon as you comb her! so i tend to cut her hair pretty short as soon as it starts knotting.
 
So cutting around the back end is a good idea? So it doesn't trail in the poops and wees?

i think so, if it gets knotted in the bottom area, it's hard to cut out and the piggy gets sore from sitting on urine as it's acidic.
 
I've had two semi long hairs for a couple of years and this year adopted a sheltie, two perus and a lunkarya; collecting my coronet and a peru in a couple of weeks. Be prepared for grooming, grooming and more grooming. They do need to be brushed every day and hopefully the more you do it the more they will get used to it. The type of grooming depends on the breed. My sheltie and hopefully the coronet are quite easy as their hair flows in one direction away from the head and it is straight so just a brush through with a slicker style brush. I have a slicker and the one with the zig zag teeth (like a cat brush) but not sure what the proper name for it is.

The perus are more difficult to groom and I think its because the rosettes cause the hair to grow in different directions so have to be careful not to brush against the grain of the hair.

My lunka is combed rather than brushed so as to not brush the curls out. Was advised need an afro comb but couldn't find one. Instead I found a tail end comb one end of which has long, wide spaced teeth like an afro comb and works well. I use the ordinary comb end of it as well for grooming the others. The lunka is as much a diva about grooming as the perus and actually even worse. Having curly hair myself I can sympathise that it's not nice having it combed.

I do regularly trim the hair around the bottom, grease gland and sides and with some of mine they get quite long hair on their back legs and also have to very carefully trim it.

Some long hairs will also require regular bottom dunks to keep them clean.

You do need to research the breed of longhair as some, especially the curly hair varieties, require different sorts of grooming and with some of them it's suggested not to comb or brush as you will brush the curl out - think that might be texel but not sure. I don't know how correct that is as the people who I have heard say that comb through with their fingers instead and I wonder how this helps to prevent mats. It's important to keep them groomed and trimmed or they will suffer knots which pull and tighten the skin or if they are constantly getting very wet coat could lead to UTI or urine scald. Their hair constantly grows and grows fast so do need plenty of trims.

In saying all of that I love the time I spend grooming them and they are stunning piggys.
 
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