Advice on housing temperature please.

[Mon59]

Hi,

just wanted some experienced advice on outside temperatures please. Although I live in southern England there have been some very low morning temperatures in the last week.

my 4 girls are in a lovely dry garage with a 7x4 enclosure but it’s unheated . I imagine their fur coats protect lower than humans would tolerate and I would move them inside if there was a serious frost or snow ( below zero). They did look particularly miserable this morning with hair standing on end.

when would experienced owners consider moving indoors? I don’t want frozen piggies ..

also any good foods for low temperatures? (don’t mean porridge) Their cabbage out of the fridge and more hay can’t have helped .. although they did woof it down.

 

[Piggies&buns]

What temperature is it in the garage? If you don’t have a thermometer in there, then definitely get one.

Piggies and humans are comfortable in a similar range - piggies ideally need to be between 18 and 22 degrees to be comfortable. Below 15 degrees is risking them getting chilled.
They aren’t quite like other colder weather animals (rabbits for example), and piggies need to be kept warmer.

If you are using a c&c cage, then they are incredibly difficult to keep warm so you may need to move them indoors sooner than if they were in a hutch which is easier to keep warm. Make sure you stuff hides with lots of hay, cover the cage with a blanket and use snugglesafe heatpads if you are going to keep them in the garage.

Mine live in an insulated hutch in an insulated but unheated shed and I don’t let it get below 10 degrees in there (mine are very used to this though and are fine with it - I know your piggies are young so this will be their first winter so won’t be used to the cold). Although due to my extensive warming measures (insulation, thermal covers and snugglesafes etc), it doesnt get that low anyway.

You need to just continue to feed them as normal, with unlimited hay being the most important part. Ensure ŷou don’t feed cabbage much anyway due to it being a bloat risk veg.

 

[Mon59]

Thank you.

so my concerns seem valid. I have a c&c cage so will have to consider what to do? I thought they would tolerate lower than that.

difficult to move the whole cage indoors so I will need insulation. I’ve got a very safe small oil electric radiator which might help but it might be impractical all to run 24/7.

no wonder they were miserable. Must have been under 10 degreees. I’ll get a thermometer and some insulation blankets. They like being covered up at night with cardboard anyway, they seem quieter.

 

[Piggies&buns]

They can slowly adjust to being cooler, as I say, mine are ok as long as it is warmer than 10, but I wouldn’t allow it colder than that.
Being damp as well as cold is a major problem and being ‘outdoors’ exacerbates that. Make sure you check and refresh bedding regularly so it is always dry. I would put in lots of hay in huge piles in lots of places around the cage and inside hides so they have lots of places to snuggle into. Hay is good at insulating.

A c&c is never going to be easy to keep warm in a garage. They are just too open to hold warmth in.
Hutches are much better for outdoors/ unheated sheds/garages but with four piggies you’d have to get one custom made to be big enough (a 6ft is the minimum for four sows, 7ft is recommended and given yours are used to a 7x4 c&c moving to a hutch (even a 7ft one) would severely cut their space and although would still technically be big enough, might cause them to feel hemmed in).

I would suggest you get Snugglesafe heat pads (one for each piggy). They are heated in a microwave and can be put under hides. They stay warm for around 10 hours, but outdoors tends to be slightly less, and will provide them with somewhere warm to sit.

 

[acapae]

My pigs used to be in my partially insulated garage. Although they did have steady heat from the boiler and I also used snugglesafes in winter at night (never stayed warm for more than 4hrs or so). But in addition to a wall thermometer I used a thermostat/ timer plug on an oil-filled radiator. The latter might be helpful for you especially given electricity prices, as it gives reassurance that having the thing turned on is actually helping, and by how much.