Moving from indoor to outdoor hutch - recommendations please

[umchompsky]

Hello all,
This is my first post!
I am mum to two beautiful male guinea pigs who are almost 4 years old. They have always lived indoors but, due to us moving house soon, we need to find a suitable outdoor hutch.
We will have a big garden in our new house and plenty of grass. We have so far looked at:
- an eglu (we liked that it was plastic so easy cleanability) but I am concerned about space indoors. It is also very expensive Eglu Go Guinea Pig Hutch | Plastic House for Guinea Pigs
- this piggy pagoda Outback Rabbit Hutch Pagoda with Run

Does anybody have any good recommendations and maybe links to share?
I want to make this transition as stressfree as possible for them.

Thank you,

 

[Betsy]

The eglu hitch is not a good idea at all. It has no windows and will be very dark for your piggies in the winter. I would also be concerned about the big door at the back and your piggies escaping. There is also a lack of ventilation when both the back and front doors are shut which they will need to be when it rains. I have a traditional wooden hutch from Scratch and Newton, a hutch snuggle with bye by fly screen covered by a hutch hugger and am very pleased with it. You need to introduce your piggies to the outside gradually and not just shove them outside and leave them there. They need to be treated like tender plants. When the nights start to draw in and the temperature gets cooler you need to think about how you are going to keep them warm in the winter months.

 

[Lady Kelly]

I wouldn't recommend either or those options. I had the pagoda originally and it is not a good use of space and is too exposed for guinea pigs. We had to make a ton of adjustments to it for the pigs to be comfortable in there and then I still wasn't happy as the space is all on the ground floor and directly on the ground which is not good for them when it's cold or damp. I didn't keep it long and felt it was a waste of money.

The eglu is also not good as the inside part is not large enough to keep the pigs shut into and the run is unprotected from the elements so if it rained all day they wouldn't have space to move around freely.

I now have the chartwell 6ft two storey which is by no means ideal but it's a huge amount better than what I had previously. It's enclosed on 3 sides so allows lots of air in through the front but provides the security piggies want. Lots of space to run around in without it being directly on the ground. You can purchase an insulating cover and a weatherproof cover which provides extra comfort to the pigs. My main issue with it is a plywood backboard but someone recently told me their newer one isn't made of plywood so that may not be an issue anymore.

 

[Kindness]

I think the iglu is overpriced although I have seen them go really cheap on gumtree and eBay, although I would think a wooden hutch is easier to keep and they are pretty cheap too!