Whisker Trim?

PerpLexxity

PerpLexxity

Junior Guinea Pig
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Hi everybody,
I have a coronet and I feel like his whiskers are incredibly long. Is it okay to trim them?
Sorry if this is a dumb question I’ve just never had a long haired pig before.
 
I suggest you don't unless you have consulted a vet, guinea pigs use their whiskers to feel around so many bad things might happen if you trim your pig's whiskers! Maybe ask a vet if you think the whiskers are getting in the way though! :D
 
I wouldn't - guinea pigs use their whiskers as a way of "seeing" things like all animals do. If you take away this you are, in effect, making the walk around half blinded. I should think it would be like me without my glasses on. The world would be a blurry place and not nice to live in!
 
PerpLexxity said:
Hi everybody,
I have a coronet and I feel like his whiskers are incredibly long. Is it okay to trim them?
Sorry if this is a dumb question I’ve just never had a long haired pig before.
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Please DO NOT!

Whiskers are sensory hairs; the wider the face (and coronets have been bred to have broader faces), the longer the whiskers are because they act as the front and side buffers for the face. A guinea pig will not squeeze through a place where its whiskers are touching the sides because it means that the rest of the body will get stuck.

Like all prey animals, guinea pigs have their eyes set sideways and upwards for a wide field of vision to notice sudden predatory movements, but they cannot see straight forward. Whiskers and nose take over that task in the blind angle.
By cutting off whiskers you deprive your piggy essentially of the forward and sideward parking sensors in cars - it's the same principle. Without whiskers they have to move blindly and will be more accident prone. ;)

Rejoice in a wonderful set of whiskers! :love:
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@Wiebke is there a way to encourage whisker growth? I've never cut them, but Binky just doesn't have much in the way of whiskers and since losing most of the remainder of his sight (vet checked, nothing sinister, he's just an old man), he's been bumping into things a heck of a lot! He'll go charging up the landing when I open the door, then veer off course and headbutt the skirting board!

He's certainly not as well endowed in the whisker department as Errol is :/
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Kallasia said:
@Wiebke is there a way to encourage whisker growth? I've never cut them, but Binky just doesn't have much in the way of whiskers and since losing most of the remainder of his sight (vet checked, nothing sinister, he's just an old man), he's been bumping into things a heck of a lot! He'll go charging up the landing when I open the door, then veer off course and headbutt the skirting board!

He's certainly not as well endowed in the whisker department as Errol is :/
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Sadly, how long a piggy's whiskers are is genetically determined. Some piggies have much longer whiskers than others.
But they count as an organ and not as normal hair.
 
Wiebke said:
Sadly, how long a piggy's whiskers are is genetically determined. Some piggies have much longer whiskers than others.
But they count as an organ and not as normal hair.
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Ah, that's a shame. I think longer whiskers would help Binky a lot given that he's struggling to see - even things that we don't move around like skirting boards and walls!
 
Kallasia said:
Ah, that's a shame. I think longer whiskers would help Binky a lot given that he's struggling to see - even things that we don't move around like skirting boards and walls!
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He's still got his nose! I have found that my blind piggies follow scent trails or even lay their own. If you use materials for the ground that keep scent well, like throw-away carpet offcuts from a carpet shop, blind piggies find it much easier to get around.

You can see 7 year old Mali zooming around a loop she has made herself, a bit like a model railway track.
 
Wiebke said:
He's still got his nose! I have found that my blind piggies follow scent trails or even lay their own. If you use materials for the ground that keep scent well, like throw-away carpet offcuts from a carpet shop, blind piggies find it much easier to get around.

You can see 7 year old Mali zooming around a loop she has made herself, a bit like a model railway track.
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I think Binky's nose is working because he sniffs out food, but despite being bedded on fleeces and the hallway etc being carpet they scent on, he seems to not be able to navigate!
Perhaps he has a bad memory?
 
No need to cut them! Guinea pigs do not have the best vision and use them as sensory cues to detect things around their faces. Most rodents to (it's how mice and small guys like that judge what holes they can squeeze into so accurately!)
 
Kallasia said:
I think Binky's nose is working because he sniffs out food, but despite being bedded on fleeces and the hallway etc being carpet they scent on, he seems to not be able to navigate!
Perhaps he has a bad memory?
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Perhaps... however, may I suggest if he likes food so much lay out a trail of food for him? But gradually decrease until your piggy knows his way around. And if uneaten you must throw it out! It might be a bit more trouble but one of my friends had a blind piggy and she claimed this method really works!
 
Personaly I would not consider cutting whiskers,
QUOTE
Guinea pigs have whiskers to feel things around them when they can't see that object. In the dark, guinea pigs use their whiskers as a second pair of eyes. They also use their whiskers for balance. Whiskers are used to tell the guinea pig if they can go in that direction or if the space if big enough to walk through.2 Jun 2014
Guinea Pig Whiskers by Kara Queensberry by Kara ...
 
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