Bathing Keeping a peruvian pig clean?

[doganddisc]

I have two pigs- one is a silkie/american mix (has long wispy hairs that I just cut off) and the other is a peruvian. The peruvian has insanely long fur because he is from show lines- for awhile, I was letting it grow out, but he kept peeing on it and it was causing everything to absolutely reek in the cage. I have since cut it back for his comfort and to control the odor.

The problem is, I apparently haven't done a good enough job because he is still peeing on it.

Is there something else I can do to prevent this from happening? I have noticed that the problem is significantly worse when I have fleece in the cage instead of wood chips- I imagine this is because the fleece is taking too long to wick away the moisture and as he walks across it, he gets the urine on his fur.

I am bathing him weekly at this point- I know that isn't the best thing to be doing, but it's that or have him sit in pee. Short of shaving his entire bum, what can I do about this? Does anyone use hair ties on their peruvians to keep the fur away from their bum? I feel like there's a lot of risk with doing something like that- it could pull the skin or get stuck on something.

Any suggestions?

 

[ellisa]

How much do you cut off? When I had my Peruvian I didn't just trim his hair. I did a full on cut. I can post pictures. He looked a bit hacked at, but he was SO much happier when his hair was really short. It also made it much easier to keep him clean when he got older and was less active.
Here's little Pedro with his hack job:

 

[doganddisc]

Haha what a hack job! He looks so cute!

I just cut a lot more of his hair off- it's all even with his feet now. Hopefully this works!

 

[ellisa]

I know. He had the most beautiful coloring and long locks so I always hated cutting it all off. He was like a different pig when his hair was short, though. So much happier, and he was able to groom easier. I don't blame him. I would hate to have hair like Cousin Itt.

 

[pinky]

I cut my texels' fur short, too. I wish I could cut it really short but it's so thick, it takes me forever to get it to about 1.5". I think that's the easiest way to keep it manageable.