Hot weather warning for the UK - Member questions and heatwave feedback

Just reviving this thread with lots of practical advice and feedback. Please keep it going in the coming days.

Please keep in mind that the cooler you can keep your accommodation in the first place, the less extra measures will your piggies need - and the more comfortable you'll be, too.
Air your house/flat as much as possible overnight and in the early morning and keep the sun off your window glass as much as possible on the sunny side. Close all your windows as soon as outside temperatures get hotter than your indoors. It will get uncomfortable, but temperatures can only climb so much over the course of the day in what is essentially a closed box.
Keep in mind that the air outside is much hotter than temperatures in the shade (up to 40-50 C) and that a strong hot breeze can penetrate into the shade or into a room with open windows with fatal results.

For those in hose pipe ban areas: You can still quickly wet a sheet in the cold shower or use an empty spray bottle filled with water to wet/dampen your sheets as often as possible in front or on your window glass on the inside if you have curtains and don't mind messy windows to create that insulating layer of evaporating cooler air, especially when the sun is on them. You can also dampen curtains on the sunny side but please make sure that they can cope with being wet first. If you cannot create a barrier by the window, you can still peg a damp sheet or towel between on the side of the cage and train a fan on it; please do not train the fan or air con directly on the cage from close by - your piggies could develop URI.

Please bring any outdoors piggies inside again. This time it is a more prolonged heat wave period with temperatures over 30 C forecast for several consecutive days in many parts of England and Wales. Keep in mind that the heat will build up more with every passing day and that your accommodation won't cool down as much as the heat is increasingly absorbed by the walls (and tarmac) as well and reflected at night - that is why city nights are so much hotter than those in the country.

Your piggies will accustom to the higher temperatures to a degree over the course of the week but the frail/elderly, the very young and the pregnant/nursing mothers are at increased risk as their immune system is not working fully and the extra strain on it from the heat can tip a fragile health balance.

Be aware that fly strike can also affect indoors guinea pigs that are not able to clean themselves (arthritis, mobility issues etc). Check your piggies at risk both in the mornings and evenings and see a vet at any time of the day as a life or death emergency.
For our full in-depth hot weather measures and travel advice with guinea pigs (including vet trips), how to spot and deal with heat stroke/exhaustion and fly strike, please see our comprehensive guide and ideally bookmark it: Hot Weather Management, Heat Strokes and Fly Strike

PS: I am still recovering from my bad bout of Covid and will definitely not be moderating on the forum this month and potentially into the next month until I am full well again.

This also means that I won't be around to host this thread here but you will find lots of your bigger and smaller questions already answered when you read through it and lots of tips tested as to whether they really make a difference.
Please read the guide link above (which is very practical and detailed) and this thread first if you have any questions.
Forum members with their own hot weather care experiences will be able to share tips and help you. Never assume that you know it all already and that what you are already doing could not be improved. One measure may not necessarily be enough.
If your piggies are plastered to any cooling elements, then this means that they are actually feeling overheated. You are actually aiming at your piggies staying away from any colling elements, which means that they are not feeling too hot. Please make sure that your piggies have access to cool, drinkable water at all times.
 
Thank you @Wiebke. Hope you feel better soon x

My 'defences' have gone back up today. We managed to keep the house in the mid to high twenties last time. We closed all the blinds and curtains, and put up tin foil covered cardboard up at the piggy windows/our bedroom windows as they don't have blinds, which made a huge difference. We've ordered some reflective fabric to make some actual blinds so that's a job for next weekend.

Hope everyone can stay cool!
 
Sorry to hear you are so poorly Wiekbe - take care and get over it and get stronger.
We’ll be thinking of you 🥰
 
I've just put all the sheets away from last time and looked at the forecast only to drag them all back out again. Burnt my shoulders yesterday from going back and forth to the washing line. I can't remember the last time I burnt. Not looking forward to the heat

Don't worry about us Wiebke, focus on your recovery.
 
All the best as it gets warmer with every day. I have taken to peg my sheets on the sunny side in place before I go to bed in case I oversleep; the sun still comes in soon after 7-8 am. Already dampened them so as soon as the sun hits, I have insulation on the glass and can keep the room much cooler for longer as the window glass won't heat up. One degree less (or three fahrenheit) at the other end of the day does really make a difference, especially over longer heat waves; it means that the heat in the house will build up more slowly over the coming days.

PS: This thread is now stickied in the green field at the top of our Guinea Pig Section, so you can easily find it again at all times.
The Hot Weather Guide is in the green field at the top of the Housing, Enrichment and Seasonal Care section.
 
Pound Shilling & Pig said:
Just wanted to bump this thread. Hope everyone is keeping cool
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Everyone here is fine, just keeping an eye on the ratties as they're so old as they suffered the most last time (they're the equivalent to someone in their early 90s!) Wet sheets are up, currently the same temperature inside as it is out which isn't too bad (25°c). Animal room got to 26° yesterday while the shed got to high 30s (nothing was in there besides forage drying and substrate.)

On the plus side I haven't dislocated anything yet. Last heat wave my fingers were all splinted as I had dislocated 3 fingers, one of which I then dislocated twice and I nearly set the kitchen on fire as a result.
 
the heat is building each day.wet sheets over windows,cages ,ice pods.fans going.temp still 29 degrees .ive resorted to tepid sponging the long haired piggies.as I'm to scared to go to sleep,incase the worst happens.placed some pigs in the lounge as it is cooler.what insulation material do some members use to keep the heat out ?
 
LondonLady said:
The last couple of days I haven't been able to get the temperature to go below 24C day or night. and believe it or not the piggy room is the coolest part of my flat. Yesterday afternoon it went up to 27.5 and this morning it's 26.5 already. I've got the windows wide open at the moment but I close them and pull the curtains across well before the sun comes round (room faces north west) Strangely the piggies seem to be perfectly happy at the moment - theyre coping much better than me! But I'm dreading next weekend.
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Please take heart! Your piggies are now accustomed to living in higher temperatures (which are actually still very much at the upper end of their ideal comfort zone). But they can actually cope well with higher temperatures once they have had time to acclimatise so you have still got quite a bit more wiggle space without you having to worry. It's temperatures well over 30 C and especially over 40 C when it can get critical.

It is the sudden temperature spikes and falls and a really hot breeze getting into the room/a hutch or lawn set up overheating that are the reall killers since guinea pigs don't react well to major quick temperature changes as their heat ventilation is not the most efficient (increased blood flow through the skin, namely the ears and feet). Once

Considering that the London area has been on the hot side for weeks now, you are doing amazingly well. Big cities are always much hotter than the surrounding areas; especially with their much warmer nights.
 
I hope that everybody and their piggies are still hanging in there?

The one good thing about heatwaves which build up gradually is that your piggies have a much better chance to adapt gradually to higher temperatures, which is the reason why sudden heat spikes can be more of a killer, directly or indirectly by weakening the immune system.

I can't wait until next week, though! I don't do heat and high humidity.
 
Wiebke said:
I hope that everybody and their piggies are still hanging in there?

The one good thing about heatwaves that build up gradually is that your piggies have a much better chance to adapt gradually to higher temperatures, which is why sudden heat spikes can be more of a killer, directly or indirectly by weakening the immune system.

I can wait until next week, though! I don't do heat and high humidity.
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I can’t wait for next week either. I think my pigs are doing much better than I am at this point! They seem to be taking it in their stride. I’m just a sweaty, tired headache mess! Had to go to bed with a migraine starting the other day and it’s definitely the heat. I’m glad it’s now the weekend so at least I’m lucky and don’t have work, trying to use my brain this week has been interesting!

Hope you are doing ok @Wiebke. X
 
Me too the weather better change to fresher air ! We all need it

If you take everything out your guinea pig or rabbit hutches / cages and just leave food water then your guinea pigs will be cooler put hay in a box and fan in door way to let the air flow around room 20220813_083640.webp
 
jayne said:
Me too the weather better change to fresher air ! We all need it

If you take everything out your guinea pig or rabbit hutches / cages and just leave food water then your guinea pigs will be cooler put hay in a box and fan in door way to let the air flow around room
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I do worry about fleece bedding in hot weather; I've switched from Vetbed to paper bedding at the moment and I think it's doing a great job of keeping them cool, comfy, and sanitary. 😊 Can recommend!

We've got some fresh air at the moment but I know it won't last 😓 I'm not made for this weather...
 
Lavinia said:
I can’t wait for next week either. I think my pigs are doing much better than I am at this point! They seem to be taking it in their stride. I’m just a sweaty, tired headache mess! Had to go to bed with a migraine starting the other day and it’s definitely the heat. I’m glad it’s now the weekend so at least I’m lucky and don’t have work, trying to use my brain this week has been interesting!

Hope you are doing ok @Wiebke. X
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I am doing a very good job at keeping the piggy room in the low to mid-twenties with lounge temperatures never climbing more than 3-4 C over the course of the day, so any cooling elements have been totally ignored so far by the piggies, considering we have had pretty much a whole week of hot weather now.
But going to bed very late and getting up very early to air and cool the house as much as possible overnight, keeping all the bedsheets dampened regularly (at the moment even those in the shade between late morning until late afternoon when temperatures are at their highest to keep the window glass as cool as possible), turning off my computer in the lounge for long stretches and topping up the water bottles with fridge-cooled water during the day and evening takes out more of me than I would like. Lack of sleep is also starting to take its toll.

Like you, I am faring a lot worse in this weather than the pigs. I am still struggling to make it through a full day and am tiring very quickly with the heat sapping away whatever little strength I am regaining ever so slowly. Overdo it, and I am back in bed just getting up to do the absolutely necessary for another day. And the fan is needed to keep me going! The increasing humidity is actually hitting me worse than the high temperatures. I've definitely not been engineered for the tropics... :(

Any strenuous jobs, like lugging watering cans around and clearing off the worst piggy messes have to happen early in the morning or not at all. The next round of cage cleaning has to wait until the heatwave is over; I struggle enough with them as it is.

We've switched to eating lots of easy-make no/minimal cooking veg salads and won't have anything to do on this front over the weekend - tasty but also healthy. Everything that needed doing has been sorted yesterday or - if it involved longer cooking or baking (I love Swiss-style fruit flans; they are like a quiche just with seasonal fresh fruit and not too much sugar and are a popular alternative to a lunch sandwich in Switzerland) - at the start of last week, so that is another source of heat in the house eliminated.
 
Sorry you’re still feeling so rough- sounds like you’re extremely well prepared and have some brilliant systems in place to make the best of it but it still must be exhausting. Let’s hope both the weather and your fatigue ease off as the days pass.
 
Wiebke said:
(I love Swiss-style fruit flans; they are like a quiche just with seasonal fresh fruit and not too much sugar and are a popular alternative to a lunch sandwich in Switzerland)
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Those sound pretty good if I'm honest, no wonder you love them!

Not doing too bad today with the goblins, though it's not great either. It's 23.4C on the floor of their room at the moment, with the window still open because the air temp's still decent outside. There's a couple of towels (and a noodle mat) in the wash because they needed washing before they could go in over their cages anyway, plus I'm debating whether to put the noodle mat in with them too.

I nearly put it on a cold wash purely because when the water's warm in the machine, the kitchen's warm too.
 
We’ve had one incident here with my very old frail piggy getting overheated, but thankfully I got her cooled back down in time! Hung sheets up and trying to keep the room as cold as possible, she’s off the ice pack and munching now which is a huge relief. The room is thankfully down to 26 which a massive improvement from yesterday, it crept into 30’s! Trying to keep it around that area. Honestly if the weather is going to be like this yearly now it’s going to be so difficult. Fingers crossed everyone and their humans are doing okay in this weather!
 
We're doing ok here. House has crept up gradually to 26/27 so reckon by the end of this we might still get lucky and be below 30.

That makes me happy too as I hate the heat! The house is already too warm for my taste today although the boys are fine.

Our reflective fabric has arrived so I'll be making some blinds that we can put up next time round. The tin foil wrapped cardboard has done a good job but it's a bit make shift and makes a right racket when the masking tape sticking it to the uPVC gives up 😂
 
Thankfully the highest it's got in the pig room over the last few days is 28°C. There hasn't been a major spike in temp, only rising 2-3 degrees throughout the day. Today is meant to be hotter so I may add a few ice packs in and drape a damp sheet over the cage. Hope everyone is doing ok!
 
Keep hanging in there! Hopefully this terrible heat will end soon for you. If you have access to watermelon, I highly recommend it in this weather especially when it is kept cool in the fridge. I can't even imagine living without my air conditioning; it is just way too hot here all summer.

I do have a silly question, but what do you do when it isn't this hot out? Do you keep your windows open all the time or keep the house closed up? It's either boiling hot here or freezing cold, we don't have many days that are pleasant where I can keep the heat or air conditioner off.
 
Depends on the weather. If it's cold and hailing, or snowing, or chucking it down, or if there's a thunderstorm, close the windows. If it's not horrendously warm outside and it's dry, or the rain's not too heavy, open the windows.
 
I have to say I've been struggling a bit today. My flat doesn't really cool down overnight and I'm finding this more stressful than last time.
I had a mini panic yesterday afternoon. I went in and saw Toffee lying flat with his eyes half closed. I grabbed another frozen bottle from the freezer and put it down next to him... at which he jumped up, did a little popcorn and ran off to eat some hay! I think he was just trying to fool me. The temperature in thwir room has been just over 27C this afternoon (34 outside!) despite everything I'm doing, but they seem to be ok. Both of them are ignoring their frozen water bottles.
I've just now (8pm) taken the wet sheets down and opened the windows. there's a bit of a breeze so hopefully it will cool down a bit.
Can't wait for this to be over.
 
RedLoredAmazon said:
Keep hanging in there! Hopefully this terrible heat will end soon for you. If you have access to watermelon, I highly recommend it in this weather especially when it is kept cool in the fridge. I can't even imagine living without my air conditioning; it is just way too hot here all summer.

I do have a silly question, but what do you do when it isn't this hot out? Do you keep your windows open all the time or keep the house closed up? It's either boiling hot here or freezing cold, we don't have many days that are pleasant where I can keep the heat or air conditioner off.
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I don't like melon, pigs will have some though. We're British, we'll complain regardless. Too hot, too cold, not enough daylight, too much sun, too much rain.

My windows are always open unless it's really hot/cold.
 
Engel said:
I don't like melon, pigs will have some though. We're British, we'll complain regardless. Too hot, too cold, not enough daylight, too much sun, too much rain.

My windows are always open unless it's really hot/cold.
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I think complaining is a universal human trait. It's in our DNA.

I did have a thought, when I was a child we would stay at my aunt's farm in New Hampshire and she didn't have air conditioning. She kept the house cool by keeping a box fan (square shaped fan) in the open window. If the air outside was cooler, then she would turn the fan so it pulled the cooler air in. If the house was way too hot, she would turn the fan so it blew the hot air outside.
 
Honestly I haven’t been coping at all in this weather this time around - it’s insane, last time I was out working in it! Still worried about my oldest, but to be frank I’m shocked she coped in the last one. She’s well over 7 now, doing everything I can. She’s still running abojt and munching!

I’m on cold shower number 5, ran out of cold milk to drink, ran out of ice cream but the thought of washing my hair is too much to cope with right now 😂
 
RedLoredAmazon said:
I did have a thought, when I was a child we would stay at my aunt's farm in New Hampshire and she didn't have air conditioning. She kept the house cool by keeping a box fan (square shaped fan) in the open window. If the air outside was cooler, then she would turn the fan so it pulled the cooler air in. If the house was way too hot, she would turn the fan so it blew the hot air outside.
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This is what we do with our normal fans in the early morning/evening. I put the downstairs fan on outside the back door and pull in as much cool air in as possible.
 
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