How to Keep Your Guinea Pigs Safe and Cool - Hot Weather Warning for the UK

[PigglePuggle]

I've never thought of that! Tbh Cinder the ginger pig has all of a sudden got really fluffy! The girls in the pictures are all Abyssinians (I think?) But Cinder is particularly fluffy!I also have 2 Teddies with fairly thick hair. Would you suggest using scissors for those 5? The other two are short hair but they may benefit from a trim as they're always laying down! X

It depends on the piggy and their fur type what approach works best, I prefer clippers for safety but they dont go through Aby type fur easily at all so scissors may be better. I usually sit on the floor at the bum end doing the cutting and get piggy daddy sat at the face end saying calm reassuring words and stroking their ears and chin, and ready to stabilise the front end if they try make any sudden moves! Some Abys are quite short haired but some are unusual crazy coat mixes and some are bordering on the Peruvian "just woke up in a bush" look.
Where the rosette edges meet can be quite thick and tufty and those are the bits that might be better taken off in summer I think... there is a hair cutting guide on the forum somewhere that @Betsy wrote, but the main aim is really taking off the thick or long bits that might make them too hot while not overly upsetting the piggy

 

[Tara95]

It depends on the piggy and their fur type what approach works best, I prefer clippers for safety but they dont go through Aby type fur easily at all so scissors may be better. I usually sit on the floor at the bum end doing the cutting and get piggy daddy sat at the face end saying calm reassuring words and stroking their ears and chin, and ready to stabilise the front end if they try make any sudden moves! Some Abys are quite short haired but some are unusual crazy coat mixes and some are bordering on the Peruvian "just woke up in a bush" look.
Where the rosette edges meet can be quite thick and tufty and those are the bits that might be better taken off in summer I think... there is a hair cutting guide on the forum somewhere that @Betsy wrote, but the main aim is really taking off the thick or long bits that might make them too hot while not overly upsetting the piggy

Thank you I may give it ago if I'm brave enough! the last time I cut someone's hair during lockdown they weren't pleased. Made a few mistakes

 

[Wiebke]

The piggy room is at 24 C (was 22 in the morning), so we are not doing badly. I have however got the fan running for the first time this year and keep topping up the water bottles with fridge cooled water.

Please keep in mind that the lower the room temperature you can start with in the mornings, the less heat can build up during the day. Indoors will cool down less and less overnight because the brickwork will retain the heat and the nights also tend to get warmer and stickier as time goes on.

My three fluff balls have not yet forgiven me fully for their summer hair chop on Thursday; but it is making their life a lot more comfortable! The hair will have grown back again come autumn... but no lugging around the equivalent of a ski suit on a tropical beach!

 

[Tara95]

The last piggie iceblock Spam The male of the herd likes to keep out of the females way and does his own thing when it gets a bit hot. There's pros and cons to having 6 girlfriends/wives

 

[Wiebke]

A guinea pig groomers told me they don't cut Abyssinians fur as it's not long enough. Should I be cutting their fur? It's not massively long but it's longer than short haired pigs.

It's useful to know that they will sit on the cool things if they are hot. They haven't done so yet as I was concerned they just weren't rather than they aren't hot.

No! You only have to give long-haired piggies a haircut (See my last post).

 

[EveRose]

My shed has just hit 27°C, I have had the doors open all day, fan in there, ice blocks, cooling mats and lots of cool fresh veg. Wondering whether to bring them inside:/ do you think I'm doing enough?

 

[Winniepeg]

About from 25 C room temperature onward. If your piggies are not going near them, they are not overheated.
Older and frailer piggies or long-haired piggies with a thick coat will generally be happy about extra cooling sooner.

For older piggies, I find that they like regularly changed fridge cooled snugglesafe pads under their favourite cosy better - they are cool but not as cold frozen cool elements or bottles but only when you are around to change them about every 2-3 hours.

Thank you. I’ve left all the windows and blinds closed today and they have spent 5 hours at floor level. All good so far but I will heed your advise.

 

[Wiebke]

Thank you. I’ve left all the windows and blinds closed today and they have spent 5 hours at floor level. All good so far but I will heed your advise.

The real struggle comes when temps climb over 30 C (over 90 F) or even towards and rather sooner than later over 40 C (100 F). Up to 30 C outside is usually manageable.

But getting that practice in, trying out different things, learning what more you can do, what works best for you will help when it really counts.

 

[Winniepeg]

The real struggle comes when temps climb over 30 C (over 90 F) or even towards and rather sooner than later over 40 C (100 F). Up to 30 C outside is usually manageable. But getting that practice in, trying out different things, learning what more you can do will help when it really counts.

Thank you. We are all good here so far. I’ve had my boys on the floor today with curtains and blinds closed. All three pairs were bar biting for their tea and windows now open as we’re all in shade. Will close curtains etc in the early hours of the morning to keep the sun out .

 

[Wiebke]

Thank you. We are all good here so far. I’ve had my boys on the floor today with curtains and blinds closed. All three pairs were bar biting for their tea and windows now open as we’re all in shade. Will close curtains etc in the early hours of the morning to keep the sun out .

Air your flat or house with as many through-drafts during the late evening/night or in the early morning (as and when you can safely) to bring indoors temperatures down as much as possible for the day - the cooler it is inside in the morning, the less heat can build up over the course of the day.
Close the windows and draw the blinds when the sun is fully on them or once the outside gets hotter than the inside of the house. You do this first on the sunny side and then in the shade when it gets hotter than inside. You can find the exact tips on keeping the indoors of your flat as cool as possible in the hot weather link.

Make sure that the piggy room is going to be shaded all day when working away from home.

 

[Wiebke]

My shed has just hit 27°C, I have had the doors open all day, fan in there, ice blocks, cooling mats and lots of cool fresh veg. Wondering whether to bring them inside:/ do you think I'm doing enough?

Hi!

The combination of open doors and fan on really gets the heat into the shed. It is a very common and sadly often fatal mistake for UK people not used to dealing with this kind of more mediterranean and continental heat we are getting due to climate change.

Please bring your piggies indoors if your house is cooler.

Please take the time to read up on our very practical advice - including what you CAN do (a lot, actually) and what NOT to do: Hot Weather Management, Heat Strokes and Fly Strike

 

[Piggies&buns]

My shed has just hit 27°C, I have had the doors open all day, fan in there, ice blocks, cooling mats and lots of cool fresh veg. Wondering whether to bring them inside:/ do you think I'm doing enough?

Definitely bring them indoors.

Mine live in a shed but as my shed gets very hot very quickly with even a small amount of sunshine (Not even when at heatwave temperatures), they don’t stay in the shed beyond 22 degrees (shed temperature). Mine come into the house during the summer - sometimes its just for the day and then they can go back out at night but during a heatwave the shed tends to not even cool overnight so they will spend as long as necessary in the house.
27 degrees outside today but my shed is at 38 so that won’t be cool enough for them to go back in tonight, so they will stay in the house for a few days now, until it cools.

 

[EveRose]

Thank you both for the advice, I have brought them indoors, it was far too hot in there. I now have them upstairs in the spare room with the fan on and some more ice blocks!

 

[LucyP]

My two decided to run away from the ice blocks all day! but I did drape damp fleeces above the places they like to lounge and with the blinds closed managed to keep the temp indoors at 24-25 with outside being over 27. Dreading tomorrow though where it’s meant to be 30+ in London!

 

[Jill B]

Pink was asleep with her head on the 'frozen water bottle in sock' until I moved in for a photo! Both piggies have appreciated their bottles today.

 

[Wiebke]

My two decided to run away from the ice blocks all day! but I did drape damp fleeces above the places they like to lounge and with the blinds closed managed to keep the temp indoors at 24-25 with outside being over 27. Dreading tomorrow though where it’s meant to be 30+ in London!

If your two are running away from the ice blocks, it means that they are not overheated and that you are doing a very good job indeed!

All the best for tomorrow. We should hopefully just touch the 30 C here.

 

[Hope4gem]

Just adding a comment to bump this up.

 

[Viennese Furbabies]

I hope all piggies in the UK make it safe through this weekend.

In Vienna it is finally a little bit cooler outside (just 27° yesterday and 25 or 26° today) and it rained a lot yesterday. Felt like the end of the world for some time yesterday evening.

So sending you all cooling vibes!

 

[Wiebke]

I hope all piggies in the UK make it safe through this weekend.

In Vienna it is finally a little bit cooler outside (just 27° yesterday and 25 or 26° today) and it rained a lot yesterday. Felt like the end of the world for some time yesterday evening.

So sending you all cooling vibes!

I sincerely hope that the big rain now making working its way east along the Alps is not causing havoc in Austria, too!
The Black Forest area just across the border from where I grew up had flooding damage yesterday and the Rhine is still running just below flooding levels in Basel with much of the water working its way down the tributaries and lakes yet to arrive - coinciding with the annual Alpine snow melt adding to the water volume and intensifying the risk of mud slides. Bavaria has suffered overnight.

Today should be another warm to hot day for us with temperatures exceeding 30 C in some areas and with the whole next week now forecast to staying warm/hot and with rather warm, humid nights that do not bring much relief. Up till now we had a very traditional cool British summer with slightly below average temperatures so it rather comes as a shock to the system! Hence why all the heat advice all of a sudden. it will save piggy lives.

Woke up very early with my upstairs bedroom not cooling down much despite a fan and through drafts all night and opened all windows and doors in the house to at least cool down the downstairs and especially the piggy room as much as possible before the sun can get to work again.
Which it is doing now, so my improvised bedsheet shutters have been pegged to the washing line we have fixed to the gutter above the windows and french doors. Shutters to keep the sun off the window glass are virtually unknown in the UK as the houses are built to mainly keep our rain but let in sunlight in those much shorter winter days but in a climate where weather extremes and big temperature jumps have been unusual and most people don't have air conditioning.
But while the bedsheets are not exactly a pretty sight, they make the biggest difference in keeping the piggy room temperatures low for much of the afternoon and evening. It is at least a very cheap and environmentally friendly way of keeping cool. On the really hot over 30 C days I do additionally dampen sheets in the full sun every few hours since the evaporating air creates a very effective insulating layer of cool air between the window glass and the sheet. This makes the difference between my piggies being plastered to cooling elements or not on the extreme days as I can keep the piggy room temperature up to over 10 C lower than the outside compared to 4 C difference without the sheets, even if it means living like a troglodyte!

 

[Viennese Furbabies]

Yes, I hope that there won't be too much flooding. At the moment there are local floodings and mudslides (mostly in the western parts of Austria), but the big catastrophe doesn't seem to have happened so far.
In the east of Austria we will have to wait to see how much the levels of the Danube will rise.

 

[Wiebke]

Yes, I hope that there won't be too much flooding. At the moment there are local floodings and mudslides (mostly in the western parts of Austria), but the big catastrophe doesn't seem to have happened so far.
In the east of Austria we will have to wait to see how much the levels of the Danube will rise.

Most of the deadly and devastating flash flood damage in Belgium and Germany has been in valley villages and towns but - as we know only too well with our own increasingly frequent widespread flooding events in the UK - all the water ends up in the big rivers, which have less and less flood plains to spread out into. A lot of new housing over the last decade here in the UK has actually been on flood plains, so problems will only get worse.

 

[Tara95]

Hope everyone is staying cool, woke up early to shut the windows and blinds but the room still feels hot and was 26 degrees. Have Been changing icepacks regularly and as you can see the pigs are choosing to lay on them. Everyone one is apart from the male who also seems hot. Recently I have put this fan unit thing in which isn't brilliant but the pigs seems to like the breeze but now however the temperature in the room is 27 degrees. Not sure what to do. Do I try the sheet trick? Would it make any difference now or would it be worse ? Should I move them in the lounge? It does feel much cooler in here but still not great. Is it worth the stress for them as they'll have less than half the room Plus it will be a change of environment which they won't like? It is over 30 degrees outside so it's still 3 -4 degrees cooler on here apparently than outside.

 

[PigglePuggle]

A damp pale cotton sheet over the cage will help create a cool microclimate, as the water evaporates from the sheet it takes heat energy from the air around it- you can lower the cage temp 2 to 3 degrees that way. A fan blowing at the sheet will speed up the cooling as long as it isnt drawing in warm air from a hotter room- I just decided against my fan as my living room temp where Ollie and Tallulah live is 24 degrees, but the open plan kitchen round the corner getting full sun is currently 27 degrees- I dont want to stir up the air and risk the piggies getting warmer!

 

[Tara95]

A damp pale cotton sheet over the cage will help create a cool microclimate, as the water evaporates from the sheet it takes heat energy from the air around it- you can lower the cage temp 2 to 3 degrees that way. A fan blowing at the sheet will speed up the cooling as long as it isnt drawing in warm air from a hotter room- I just decided against my fan as my living room temp where Ollie and Tallulah live is 24 degrees, but the open plan kitchen round the corner getting full sun is currently 27 degrees- I dont want to stir up the air and risk the piggies getting warmer!

Thank you!

 

[Tara95]

A damp pale cotton sheet over the cage will help create a cool microclimate, as the water evaporates from the sheet it takes heat energy from the air around it- you can lower the cage temp 2 to 3 degrees that way. A fan blowing at the sheet will speed up the cooling as long as it isnt drawing in warm air from a hotter room- I just decided against my fan as my living room temp where Ollie and Tallulah live is 24 degrees, but the open plan kitchen round the corner getting full sun is currently 27 degrees- I dont want to stir up the air and risk the piggies getting warmer!

 

[PigglePuggle]

Tallulah hippo is sulking because the blinds are down and there is no sun beam shining on her usual playpen basking spot! Sorry little hippo but the sun beams are too strong for hippo basking today...

 

[Qualcast&Flymo]

My hutch is currently at 24.4°, the piggies didn't seem that interested in the ice pack and chilled snugglesafes I put in earlier. The sun isn't so direct now so hopefully it will start to go down soon.

It would be difficult for me to hang a sheet outside their outbuilding, but I suddenly remembered that I have some insulation sheets left over from having its roof insulated, so I put them in front of the building. Probably not early enough to keep all the heat out, but I hope it made some difference- tomorrow they'll be there all day so we'll see.

 

[PigglePuggle]

Every summer I'm so happy my house faces directly East-West, the front main piggy room gets direct sun 9-11am and Ollie-Oolah's room gets direct sun 4-6pm but otherwise we're fine for a lot of the day! Still lots of fussing with blinds and frozen bottles and damp sheets and fans but no midday heat spikes, and always the option of moving the piggies from one side of the house to the other... and my bathroom never gets any sun until 7pm so there is always the possibility of tipping a herd of piggies into the bath as an emergency cool shelter.
Seems the heat is only going to get more intense as this week progresses, hope everyone and everypig is staying safe and keeping cool!

 

[weepweeps]

I hope it gets cooler soon. I know I should be happy we are finally getting some sun but it’s a worry trying to keep the piggies cool.

 

[AidaB]

I am finding it trickier keeping the piggies cool.
Was easier keeping them warm in the winter. (more heating for us!)
They seem to mostly be ignoring all frozen bottles and cool spots and we have mostly managed a max of 24c.
It cools down soon.