Dandelion Hutch - Do You Insulate Below The Pull Out Plastic Drawer?

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I have the Dandelion Hutch from Pets@Home (bought for its nice long size and got it for £56 in their sale - delivered!), it has a few timber supports below the pull out plastic drawer on the base but otherwise is open to the elements without the plastic drawer in. I don't open the drawer and just clean within the hutch itself which is easy peasy. In the process of making sure I insulate my shed I thought I might insulate below the plastic tray too.

I wanted to pop this on a post as I would have thought the plastic would get pretty cold in winter if the hutch was outside or in a cold shed, and lots of heat would be lost through it - I know shed floors loose alot of heat if not insulated so thought the same would apply to a hutch - maybe I'm wrong thinking that, but has anyone insulated or added an extra layer of ply/similar below the tray to beef it up a bit. :)

A more solid hutch would have been good, but this one is just staying in the giant hutch I call a 'shed'! lol
 
Great question. I have this hutch too and now I know more about guinea pigs (thanks to this forum), I'm also worried about the plastic base and the gap between the base and the hutch (where sawdust spills). I've got the thermal cover on. I've read that some people stick vinyl floor tiles on the base of the hutch. Wonder if that would work with ours?
 
I use lots of layers of newspaper in my hutch with a thick layer of hay on top (I shake down the hay daily between full cleans so that the dropping can be removed and also the wet areas of paper - this was a tip the rescue gave me) so there isn't really any spillage - but there is no gap along mine. I am lucky in that the boys always pee in the corners so I just make sure they have thicker layers of paper and hay there that I change daily too :)
 
Thats a good suggestion BossHogg - the tray surface does work well for me but will look to screw on the ply with insulation under it as the supporting timber would be easy enough to screw into. Must find an off-cut from somewhere! :)
 
The great thing is that my hutch will never leave the shed so I am going to insulate it like some sort of nuclear bunker so hopefully they will be really toasty this winter!
 
My hutch cant leave the shed as its constructed using the inner frame of the shed with the hutch walls screwed to the shed wall. ;)
 
Your shed is great - have seen all the pics and its excellent! - my joinery skills are limited to bodging things together - but I can see the benefit from just building the hutch while building the shed. The quality of the dandelion hutch timber is very lightweight compared to the quality of the shed I bought but hopefully it will be fine as its sheltered - the boys are nibbling away the edges of the doors already though so don't think it would have provided them with much protection if sat in my windy, cat filled garden. lol
 
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