Long haired piggies; a few questions

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*Nibbles&Nugget*

*Nibbles&Nugget*

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Ok, so I'm going to be rescuing piggies and one will be my brothers. He just announced he wants a long haired piggy. rolleyes

I know nothing about the care of long haired piggies apart from that they need regular brushing. Do they need anything specific? I'm just asking in case he does find a fall in love with some long haired piggies when we go looking at rescue website.

Thank you in advance for any advice.

Amy
x
 
They also need to have haircuts. More so in the summer than winter.

If not careful they will get little balls of knots, I had to sort out Romano who had a hidden hairball knotted up painfully that I had somehow missed the other day.
 
Shelties are coronets are pretty low maintenance for their hair... Just the occasional trim and brush... Piggies that are peruvians I tend to keep their hair shorter as I've found it knots very easily...
And if they are boys... They have a terrible habit of sucking hair in to their man bits so check regualy for that and try and keep the hair short in that area if possible...
x
 
I absolutely x)x)x) long-haired piggies drooldrool

Ive got 2 peruvians, 1 sheltie, 1 coronet, 1 texel and 1 swiss.

Out of all the above i would say both my texel girl and peruvian boy & girl require the most work grooming wise - as claremw92 pointed out their hair does tend to tangle more easily that other long haired breeds.

Texels (or any other curly long-haired piggies for that matter) are extremely high maintenance and not a breed i'd recommend for those not used to long-haired pigs.

My sheltie and coronet boys are fantastic grooming wise - they require very little work (apart from regular grease gland cleaning) a quick brush/trim and they look great.

Swiss are a good semi long haired piggie - they also require less grooming than other long haired piggies - so would be ideal

It's exciting looking for a new piggie to join your household - bet you fall in love with more than 2 ;) :p
 
I love Berties long hair, I just trim in the summer, and round his bum all the while...this time of the year I tend to leave it longer..mind you having a yorkie and an old english sheepdog Berties bit of hair is nothing!
 
Thank you for all the replies. Just one more question now. Are they more prone to some illnesses or infections than short haired piggies? (Would mites or lice be more likely, or is it just harder to check them for them?)

Thanks again.

Amy
x
 
it depends on their colour. Bertie is mainly white so you can see them, touch wood never had any! My big dog is white so if she has a flea you can see that marching about, whereas the yorkie is not so easy...x)
 
When I've had longer haired guinea pigs they have just been unable to keep themselves clean and really hated being combed. So I've always given them rather severe haircuts. There is some pictures of Angel the Sheltie I had a few years back - the ones at the bottom aren't her, but a show pig.

http://www.erodent.co.uk/GuineaPigHairCut.htm

Priscilla the Sheltie I have now is a different guinea pig with a haircut - when her hair grows long she just sits in one place all day and won't move - particularly in the summer. Give her a severe haircut and she pootles round and even popcorns.

The health problem is that long haired piggies have a habit of weeing and sitting in it an can then get skin problems. So need bathing and combing very regularly. If I can keep prissie's coat short she rarely needs a bath.

Your brother is unlikely to want to slowly and carefully comb a long haired piggie every day for 5-7 years, so you would need to do it if you had one. Short hairs are easiest - never had to bath marmaduke once - he just stays clean.

Here is a thread about me giving Amber and Priscilla a haircut (Priscilla on second page)

http://theguineapigforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=50091

Paula
 
Thanks for the advice. I think the only reason they asked for long haired piggies is because they had one of their friends over (a little girl who said she liked the long haired piggies)

I just don't think they will want to brush them so often, despite enjoying brushing our short haired pigs occassionally. I would probably end up doing it all. If I wasn't so busy already I probably wouldn't mind taking them on. But after thinking about this I think I'll just have to drool your long haired pigs instead. :red

Amy
x
 
Ive got 5 long haired pigs and really they are not that difficult to look after - i certainly don't brush mine everyday. Whilst mine don't mind being brushed i tend to go ahead and cut and tangles out - not worth upsetting the piggy over.

My coronet boy only occassionally gets his hair brushed mainly because he hates anything to do with combs (probably due to what his first owners put him through before i got him from walsall rspca) - likewise my sheltie boy gets brushed a couple of times a week - i use a soft brush for a couple of my pigs as this eliminates any pulling of the hair - so grooming is a pleasurable experience.

Like i said i my post above the only really high maintenance pigs are the long haired curly ones such as texels/merino's/alpaca's/lunkarya's etc - mainly because my texel girl has very tight curls and brushing her is an absolute nightmare.

If your brother really likes the idea of a long haired pig - then don't be put off - as long as he (or you) are willing to brush he/she a couple of times a week, bath them when needed, trim their hair every 6-8wks and regularly check for any tangles/mats - you should be fine.

Good luck with whatever pigs you choose - long or short haired - they'll have a wonderful home with you :)
 
so long as they are combed and brushed from a week old they will enjoy it and sit quite still whilst you groom them, use a wide toothed comb as well as a brush,
the comb will go down to the roots whilst the brush will just groom the top surface of the coat.
keep them trimmed to the length you can cope with, a purebred longhaired pig can have a coat that grows 1" a month
 
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