Fire Alarm: Pig Freak Out And Travel Cases Help

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Mariah

Mariah

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We just had our fire alarm go off. It, and the resulting pig freak-out have me thinking about travel cases etc in case of emergency or vet-trip.

I basically had to grab her and put her in her cuddlesack and then in her cardboard box (and she won't go near the cuddlesack right now, it was previously a favorite thing).

This worked OK for the short term, but wouldn't work for a vet trip, or if there had been a real fire. We don't have a car, so normally its walking or public transit to places, or in an emergency a cab--but often waiting for those one might as well have taken the transit. I've seen the "Twist-N-Go Small Animal Carriers" in a few places (bottom of the page here), are these any good? Other alternatives? Which size is OK for guinea pigs, and should I have one for both piggies when I have my second girl, or one each?

And of course, any tips on calming down the poor girl? (She's only been with us 4 days, so she's not sure she trusts us yet, and touching her right now is a definite no.)
 
i had 4 carriers but lent two to someone so now only have the 2. I like the top opening ones best as they are easier and less stressful to get the piggies in and out of. I have 10 sows so need a couple more. I would get one big enough for teh two as it will calm them down being together.you could always just buy a storage box and this would double as an emergency cage for a bit if you couldnt get to their normal cage. This is what i think i will replace the carriers with as i can stack them as well.If you keep clean fleece in them as well then its just a case of grabbing the pigs and you know they are ok for a while. Time is the only thing that will calm her down, she will get over it
 
I had to get all of my pigs out a couple of years ago (and 9 hamsters too) when there was a fire in our block. I have enough cat carriers to accomodate all of my pigs. Only mistake we made was not putting fleece in which we will do next time.

Also if our alarm goes off we can usually tell if it is a false alarm or not and judge whether the animals need to be evacuated.
 
This has always been a massive fear of mine :-( I did have a smoke alarm in their shed but the battery started to deteriorate and i went in one morning and found them all stressed out due to the continual beep beep telling me the battery was low. It got me thinking how much stress they would endure if it went off by mistake and i was'nt around? So now I dont have one but that also worries me as there is of course a reason to have it! But arguable would i hear it indoors anyway..probably not.

I do however have large fire extinguisher and a plan in my head what I would do. I have a dustbin which I keep their hay in by there pen. Rather than faff with zips on the carriers (which mine have) I would just sling them in the bin with the hay and remove the bin! Very fast plus they would be in guinea heaven! It is my worst nightmare though.
 
I have three but I do need more "just incase" my mum thinks I'm crackers having so many be I said what if there was a fire. She was like put them all in together! But other than the fact I couldnt get 17 pigs into one carrier I would worry that the boys would tear chunks out of one another as would some of the girls. Its definately on my list for next payday.
 
Guinea Slave said:
This has always been a massive fear of mine :-( I did have a smoke alarm in their shed but the battery started to deteriorate and i went in one morning and found them all stressed out due to the continual beep beep telling me the battery was low. It got me thinking how much stress they would endure if it went off by mistake and i was'nt around? So now I dont have one but that also worries me as there is of course a reason to have it! But arguable would i hear it indoors anyway..probably not.

I do however have large fire extinguisher and a plan in my head what I would do. I have a dustbin which I keep their hay in by there pen. Rather than faff with zips on the carriers (which mine have) I would just sling them in the bin with the hay and remove the bin! Very fast plus they would be in guinea heaven! It is my worst nightmare though.
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I always worry about what would happen if something happened when I wasn't at home - it's one reason I put them in boarding when I go on holiday.

I have a pet carrier for planned trips but wouldn't faff about assembling it in an emergency. My buckets would be the nearest thing to grab and they would suffice. I'd grab a fleece if I had time. I keep a torch in their room too - always in the same place and I check it regularly too.

Will have to get a fire extinguisher too - we have a hand held aerosol type in our kitchen - will have to ask OH where he got it from.
 
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Mariah said:
We just had our fire alarm go off. It, and the resulting pig freak-out have me thinking about travel cases etc in case of emergency or vet-trip.

I basically had to grab her and put her in her cuddlesack and then in her cardboard box (and she won't go near the cuddlesack right now, it was previously a favorite thing).

This worked OK for the short term, but wouldn't work for a vet trip, or if there had been a real fire. We don't have a car, so normally its walking or public transit to places, or in an emergency a cab--but often waiting for those one might as well have taken the transit. I've seen the "Twist-N-Go Small Animal Carriers" in a few places (bottom of the page here), are these any good? Other alternatives? Which size is OK for guinea pigs, and should I have one for both piggies when I have my second girl, or one each?

And of course, any tips on calming down the poor girl? (She's only been with us 4 days, so she's not sure she trusts us yet, and touching her right now is a definite no.)
Click to expand...

Ohh I really like those twist n go carriers. Theyre so cheap on US/CA sites too! I cant find any cheap ones in the UK :(
 
I personally use a standard cat carrier from a local petstore. It does the job for me, but can take a while to fix in the door bars and clamp them down. But if you had a carrier which the top can come off, I would be worried about lifting it up in case it dropped the bottom.
 
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