Need to move piggies but can’t decide on a room

YorkshireLass

YorkshireLass

Junior Guinea Pig
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Our piggies have been with us for four months and have a C and C cage in the spare bedroom. Unfortunately this has meant we can’t have people to stay. Even when they are freshly cleaned out, hay can be quite irritating (it took me a few weeks to be able to spend longer periods of time with them and I am not usually affected by allergies etc), plus the noise they make when zooming about, interacting or just using their water bottle.

So we would really like to move them but are a bit stuck as to where to. We would love to have them in the kitchen as they would get much more interaction with us and there is room. The problem is that it is South-facing (UK) and I have come home from work in the Summer to find it’s 27‘C in there. The other option is the living room but I don’t think they would like the noise of the TV (other half is a bit deaf and likes his films loud).

Really stuck because the spare room wouldn’t just be for guests, we‘d like to use it for hobbies etc. Though we love them, they are using a whole room up, if you like, plus they are rather tucked away (so we have to actively go and sit there to socialise them, which we do several times a day).

I have read the guidance on temperature and think the kitchen would be too hot, do others agree? I guess this wouldn’t be all year so we might try it for a while but I‘d be worried how warm it could get if we were at work one day and the weather changed.
 
Is there any way to keep the kitchen cool in the summer? Noise can possibly be a bit much, but they could get used to it....how loud is loud?
 
Can you fit vertical blinds to keep the sun out, we have this problem in our conservatory, it gets very hot, totally unsuitable for piggies and humans, luckily we all spend most of the day outside in summer!
 
We have the blinds closed and it still gets hot. I am wondering whether we could possibly leave a fan on low level while we are out.

Re the TV, I can’t comfortably watch it at husband‘s level and he likes crash bang films...
 
I wish I knew how many days it had gone over the recommended piggy temperatures in the kitchen this year. It felt like quite a few but maybe that’s because those are the times I remember.
 
It’s a difficult one because the kitchens hot and the sitting room is noisy... Could you restrict their access to the guest bedroom - they have a cage and on the days you’re not in there doing crafts they can have floor time?...
 
Personally I would worry more about summer heat than noise, in my experience house piggies are quite good at adapting to noise, especially if it’s at a fairly constant level. My four are in our kids playroom (had a similar issue with kitchen diner being too hot) and it can be flipping noisy in our house - three kids, lots of mates over, tv blaring, lively gaming sessions going on - but the guineas generally take all this in their stride and crack on with life regardless, because they are used to it.

I find it’s sudden noise after a period of quiet that they struggle with. Kids running riot + loud TV + shouting + laughing + gaming noise = unfazed pigs chilling out in the open cage, eating hay, utterly unruffled. Quiet daytime periods where kids all at school and I sneeze by accident = pigs freak out, fear they are about to die and skedaddle to hidey boxes at top speed.
 
My piggies are in the living room in a large c&c under the tv. They easily adapt to new noises, and I can't see how that would be different to tv sound for the hard of hearing. Temperatures are far more difficult to manage in my experience
 
I have to agree about the temp vs noise as above. Sudden noises scare mine, but a constant sound doesn’t. Mine live in my shed so are exposed to different kinds of sounds but is effect is the same!
My parents house is south facing and my house is west facing so I know what you mean by blinds not making any difference. Fans are ok, but you’d have to position it so they aren’t exposed to the breeze, but also once the room gets hot, the fan is then only blowing hot air around and can actually make the room feel hotter.
Perhaps you could have them in the kitchen in winter and sitting room in summer to avoid the heat.
 
it's a hard choice.
To hear your piggies being so active is fantastic and i hope you all find a active working medium.
 
LunaPig72 said:
I find it’s sudden noise after a period of quiet that they struggle with. Kids running riot + loud TV + shouting + laughing + gaming noise = unfazed pigs chilling out in the open cage, eating hay, utterly unruffled. Quiet daytime periods where kids all at school and I sneeze by accident = pigs freak out, fear they are about to die and skedaddle to hidey boxes at top speed.
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This!

Mine live in the front room. I have teenage sons that play loud video games and shout at the tv a lot. The pigs don’t care.

If I send an email whilst the kids are out, the little “whoosh” sound is the end of their world 😂
 
I think temperature is the main issue. We had Bill and Ted in our conservatory over winter one year. We had a thermostatically fan assisted electric heater in their at 13 degrees but it still fluctuated and was 19 degrees one sunny afternoon. So since then it’s been the kitchen, followed by the hall and eventually they are now in the spare room!
They never Seem stressed by noise (there’s normally only two oldies) they go out all through the milder month into their bunny barn and run and come inside at night. Bill when little used to hate seagull noise and run inside bput has got used to that Otherwise bomb proof!
 
I would love them to acclimatise to sound but they are such jittery boys I was worried the TV may push them over the edge!
However it’s clear from the responses that this is preferable to heat, so we are going to see if they would fit in there.
 
YorkshireLass said:
I would love them to acclimatise to sound but they are such jittery boys I was worried the TV may push them over the edge!
However it’s clear from the responses that this is preferable to heat, so we are going to see if they would fit in there.
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I guess it would depend on your house layout but maybe move then into the kitchen first (presumably it isn’t too hot in there we this time of year?) so they can hear more day to day life than they do upstairs, but without being in full hearing of the tv straight off, and then once they are more acclimatised to that, then move into the sitting room?
 
My boys are in the living room and we usually have the radio or tv on quite loud. They are completely fine with it (bar the first few days of being downstairs when obviously they were put out at being moved) and can sleep through it and do everything they normally did when they were in my (much quieter) room upstairs
 
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