More Guinea Pig Breads - Hair Types

By Gwen Garrett

As you may have noticed, Guinea pigs have hair, not fur like most other animals. There are three types of hair a guinea may have; long, fuzzy(frizzy), or curly. Lets talk about...

Hair Types

Smooth-Coated

Smooth-haired guinea pigs have, at the risk of repeating myself, smooth coats. The coat lays in the direction from the head down to the tail. The guinea's coat is made of two different layers of hair. The first layer, called the guard hair, forms the top of the coat and is strong, and coarse to the touch. The second layer is composed of much shorter and softer hairs that lay underneath the guard hair. When the guard hair is properly groomed the second layer is much more shiny and soft than the guard layer. Smooth-coated gcavvies come in a variety of colors that can range from a solid color to various multi-color patterns. Some even come in a pattern that has the hair one color from the base of the root and then another at the very tip!

Long-Haired

The hair of a long-haired guinea pig grows at the rate of about an inch per month. Because of this, much trimming is required in order to keep your guinea's hair manageable and clean, if your guinea's hair gets matted, be very very careful when trimming or cutting it. It is hard to tell what part is the piggy's body and what is the hair, you do not want to cut your piggy. There are six different breeds of long haired guinea pigs. Three of these breeds have smooth hair, which all lay in different ways. The other three are simply variations of the first three, including one breed that has long curly hair.

Rosetted Coats

The breeds associated with this particular type of coat are talked about in the breeds article. Rosetted coats come in three particular styles. There is one where the coat is smooth despite the one rosette on the guinea's forehead. There is another whose whole coat is composed of various ridges and rosettes. These rosettes are in an order along the piggy's sides and rear end. The ridges lay in between the rosettes. The third of these types have a thick, frizzy undercoat with long guard hairs. This coat lays in the direction from the rear end to the head, and sticks out, giving the guinea pig a larger-than-normal appearance.