Moving pigs for winter

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DLawrance25

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I will need to have my pigs in the shed this year as I have no room in the house. I have seen some of the heat pads for guinea pigs. anything to avoid and anything I must get?
 
My boys live in a hutch in my shed (year round).
In winter their hutch is stuffed full with hay (literally to the top), they have four snugglesafe heatpads between the two of them (they have one heat pad under each hide, and then two other spread elsewhere in the hutch).
On the hutch there is a thermal hutch cover, two blankets, and then a normal hutch cover. I then throw a duvet over all of it come midwinter. These measures work very well usually in keeping them warm.

Dont use any kind of fleece bedding inside the hutch as it won’t dry properly
 
DLawrance25 said:
Ok, what electric heat pads are people using?
Click to expand...

Heatpads which go in the hutch are heated in the microwave and last up to 10 hours. Electric heating inside a hutch itself can pose a risk (cable chewing, perhaps hay catching fire etc)
If you have electric in your shed, then you can heat the shed (thermostatically controlled oil filled radiators tend to work well). You‘d obviously need to ensure your shed is insulated to keep the warmth in
 
Piggies&buns said:
Heatpads which go in the hutch are heated in the microwave and last up to 10 hours. Electric heating inside a hutch itself can pose a risk (cable chewing, perhaps hay catching fire etc)
If you have electric in your shed, then you can heat the shed (thermostatically controlled oil filled radiators tend to work well). You‘d obviously need to ensure your shed is insulated to keep the warmth in
Click to expand...
Was thinking of something like this.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Pecute-15-...S,B07XB6NYX9,B08P4FH642&srpt=PET_BED_MAT&th=1
 
I think I have heard of a couple of people on here who do use those kind of pads. I can’t advise on them though as I don’t have electric in my shed anyway but I’d be too worried about using electric heatpads and would still prefer snugglesafes
 
 
Piggies&buns said:
My boys live in a hutch in my shed (year round).
In winter their hutch is stuffed full with hay (literally to the top), they have four snugglesafe heatpads between the two of them (they have one heat pad under each hide, and then two other spread elsewhere in the hutch).
On the hutch there is a thermal hutch cover, two blankets, and then a normal hutch cover. I then throw a duvet over all of it come midwinter. These measures work very well usually in keeping them warm.

Dont use any kind of fleece bedding inside the hutch as it won’t dry properly
Click to expand...
Do you use just hay for the bedding then? Or do you have something else underneath? Hubby and daughter have developed an allergy to either Hay and/or Guineas and we are thinking of leaving them in the shed over winter if we can keep them warm enough.
 
We have tube heaters/ greenhouse heaters.
They use very little electric so we actually run them constantly through the winter, they are fitted in the hutches, out of reach of course, but it keeps the top of the hutch at a fairly constant temp.
It is easier to heat the hutch than the whole shed, even though they are in the shed the hutches will still be covered with blankets/duvets and we put snuggle safes in too. Along with hideys and extra hay.
At the moment our shed is a good few degrees warmer than outside so they are happy being in their runs and have the freedom to choose but as it cools down they will be shut in the hutches overnight and during the day of it isn't warm enough.
 
Jaxxflower said:
Do you use just hay for the bedding then? Or do you have something else underneath? Hubby and daughter have developed an allergy to either Hay and/or Guineas and we are thinking of leaving them in the shed over winter if we can keep them warm enough.
Click to expand...

They have an absorbent layer of megazorb and then loads of hay in the hutch. As I mention in that post, they then have heatpads, and lots of layers of insulation on the hutch. It does work well, but I always have a back up plan as without the ability to heat the shed, there is always a chance they may need to come indoors for winter (it did happen this winter when it reached -9 outside and I couldn’t keep them warm)
 
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