Piggy Dreadlocks

[RudderlessHippy]

My Mum's been looking after my piggies at the moment, I went home on Saturday to see them (parents and pigs) and noticed my girls seem to be developing dreadlocks, so I gave them a bit of a haircut.

Matilda has very tufty hair, and I noticed her the tufts on her back are getting quite stiff, not quite dreadlocking, but the hair is just kind of sticking together. What's causing this? and do I need to give her a proper haircut, or a bath or something, or is it OK just to leave it?

Cheers xx

 

[klee]

Is it just around their bum that the hair Is getting matted and clumping?Are they both long haired?
Personally if they are long haired I would cut their hair shorter around their bums, likelihood is they are probably sitting in their dirtied bedding are that is why Its getting messy. I have a boy with long hair round his bum, he likes to drag his bum around and sit in his hay tray where they also toilet, so I keep his hair short for that reason (we won't go into the boar glue fiasco.)
Keeping the hair shorter and regular grooming should help keep it from clumping, for now I would try and cut some of the matted bits out as they can be quite uncomfortable.

Should add, if they have an overactive grease gland the hair can get greasy as well. The grease gland is found towards the bottom of the spine (where a tail would be ) if this is quite greasy it may need cleaning as well. We do have a thread about this somewhere, which I will find for you.
http://www.theguineapigforum.co.uk/...inea-pigs-including-ears-grease-glands.47314/

 

[RudderlessHippy]

Thank you, it was mostly around Blodwen and Matilda's bums and back legs, they both have hair that trails a bit. Adora has much shorter hair and she doesn't have the same problem. I have cut all the matted hair off.

Matilda's hair on her back by her bum seems quite greasy though, do I need to give her a bath, would that help?

 

[klee]

You could try giving them a bum bath, and clean the grease gland. Whilst it is so cold, I wouldn't want to give them a full bath. Do they live indoors or outdoors?

This next bit is taken directly from the thread I posted before:

"All guinea pigs have a grease gland located at the base of their spine, roughly where the tail would be if they had one. It is harder to find on some pigs than others, but boars in particular tend to have quite active grease glands, and locating it will be made easier by the greasy circle you can feel - and in some cases see!

Normal shampoo will not shift the grease; a product formulated for degreasing is needed. As unlikely as they sound, the three most effective agents for removing this grease are:

1. Washing-up liquid;
2. Swarfega;
3. Paxcutol shampoo;
4. Cetaphil cleanser.

The trick is to not lather the product up too much at first; as with very greasy dishes and pots and pans, it's more effective if initially applied neat with very little water involved, then lathered up with a wet spongeor in a guinea pigs case, with wet fingers! After a minute or so of massaging the grease gland, the grease will start to loosen up and you can gently peel/rub the grease off without bothering the pig. Once this is done, you can pop the pig in the water to rinse his rear end off, and then move straight on to actually giving him a bath"