It can be tough if they have darker nails, but having little trimmers may help. If they're white nails, you want to take the white part and not touch the pink part at all. If they are darker, then you start with tiny bits to make sure that you're not going to hit their skin and make them bleed. If you're uncomfortable or don't have someone to help you hold them, we can do it for you. Otherwise, I think some of the local humane societies have $5 events every couple of weekends, where you can bring in your guinea pig, and they'll trim the nails for you.

You shouldn't need to. Guinea pigs do have some waxy stuff in their ears, so you probably wouldn't need to clean their ears out unless you notice that it's smelly or they're really going at them, in which case you should bring them to the veterinarian anyway, and then we'll do it for you. There could be a lot going on. There could be an infection or something like that. So make sure to have them seen by a veterinarian and not take it over yourself because there could be a couple of different things going on. We'll need a special scope to see down into the ear canals.

Sometimes they can get dry feet as they get older or if their bedding or the floor of their enclosure is too rough. So make sure it's nice and soft. We love using fleece lining and blankets. Patting them together makes it nice and soft. Otherwise, if they are getting flaky and you have their enclosure nice and soft, get that guinea pig seen because there might be a little infection going on down there. But just make sure everything is nice and soft and clean.

Not moving is a big emergency, so definitely get that guinea pig to a veterinarian as fast as possible. They are prey species, so they hide their illnesses until it's very serious. So if it's not moving, you have a very sick guinea pig. Get them to an ER facility if we're not open. There are a couple of different ones that will see guinea pigs. Otherwise, give us a call.