Outside guinea pigs scotland

[Fhowson]

Hi. I live in Scotland and looking to get 2 guinea pigs which we will be keeping in an outside shed in a cage. Can anyone give any tips on heating the shed and keeping them warm enough? Thank you.

 

[Piggies&buns]

My piggies live in a hutch in my shed. Unfortunately my shed can’t be heated so I can’t help there but I keep my two boys warm by stuffing the hutch completely full with hay, using four snugglesafe heatpads. I then have a thermal hutch cover, two blankets, and a further hutch cover. I then throw a duvet over all of it.

Piggies are most comfortable between 18 and 22 degrees, but definitely not colder than 15 degrees.
I actually find keeping them warm enough much easier than keeping them cool. The shed gets dangerously
very quickly in summer and can easily get to 40 degrees. My boys tend to move into the house in summer so I can keep them cool.

 

[Swissgreys]

A place with lots of ideas and suggestions is the shed thread:
Member Gallery: Sheds

 

[Black piggies]

Hi. I live in Scotland and looking to get 2 guinea pigs which we will be keeping in an outside shed in a cage. Can anyone give any tips on heating the shed and keeping them warm enough? Thank you.

It's really good you're looking into heating options. I was in Scotland in 2010 when it was minus 20 degrees Celsius, so there's a big potential risk. One of my Scottish friend's guinea pigs froze to death outside one winter night Mine are inside, so I can't really help. There are draughts as well as temperatures to think about, would a hutch maybe be better than a cage for that?

 

[Piggies&buns]

If they are going to be in a shed, then even if it is heated and secure, a sturdy hutch is definitely better than a cage

 

[Qualcast&Flymo]

My 3 piggies used to be indoors but are now effectively outside, in a brick outbuilding. I've noticed the temperature in the building and in the hutch has dropped recently with the change on the weather.

I'm fortunate in that the outbuilding has power and light, so I use an oil filled radiator to keep it comfortable for the pigs. I also had insulation panels fitted in the roof joists to help keep the heat in, they do make a difference (the roof is only tiles with basic lining otherwise). I have some spare panels which I'm going to put against outside walls when I can get to them, also.

I have a weather station with a remote sensor which hangs in the hutch so I can see the temperature with having to go out or open the doors. And I then also found a thermal sensor which communicates with a special plug socket, I have the oil filled radiator plugged into that so the radiator is switched off when the sensor detects that the room has reached a comfortable temperature. (Sorry if that info isn't useful if you don't have power to your shed!)

 

[Free Ranger]

I know a lovely family who tragically lost their poor piggies in a hutch fire. They were attempting to keep the outdoor wooden hutch warm using something electrical at night. I have no further details because tbh I couldn't bear to ask Stay safe up there in Scotland. It was only chance that that it didn't spread to the house as the baby woke the dad and he happened to look out the window...