Snugglesafes, room temp, and longer term solutions

Lorcan

Lorcan

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Okay, so. I'm really looking for advice tonight for further down the line. If that makes sense. It's been a thing today because of the weather but today won't be the last.

First off, Snugglesafes. I put them in originally about 6 hours ago. Assuming I want to put them in the microwave again before I go to sleep, how long should/could I leave it? Timings wise I'm not bothered, as long as I wait to take my meds I'm not likely to fall asleep first. And it's too cold right now not to, the wind's picked up again and the temp in their room dropped again and I hadn't noticed :no:

Then there's the temp. I know this has to be somewhere in the guides but I can't work out where - I have a room thermometer in their room, if it drops to 19.xC I turn the heating on, and above 21C I'm switching it off again. But I don't know if I've got those temps right, or the leeway to switch on/off right, or if I'm just trying to give myself a panic atttack by overthinking it?

If I've got Camowen's weight on arrival correct, then he's gained ~100g in 3 1/2 weeks, but it was said originally that maybe they were being kept slightly too cold and then a lot of energy was going on keeping them warm. He's not overweight, I swear, and I don't believe he was underfed at all (I'm really not trying to accuse their previous owners of anything because I really don't believe that's fair at all, they've arrived in good health and the only reason I want the thing abou them being kept maybe too cold before, is because it was brought up by them first. I just want that out there before someone starts badmouthing them for nothing.)

ETA: I don't feel the cold very well. I have Raynauds, diagnosed when I was 6 or 7, and it's a circulatory disorder. I have been known to not realise I'm cold til I've lost the feeling in my fingers/hands and toes/feet. I have to rely on the room thermometer for that reason.
 
I don't know about skinnies temps but I'm sure someone else will be along soon. This house is drafty when it's windy, as well as snugglesafes in the cages I put fleece blankets over the top and down the sides to keep warmth in and drafts out.
 
piggieminder said:
I don't know about skinnies temps but I'm sure someone else will be along soon. This house is drafty when it's windy, as well as snugglesafes in the cages I put fleece blankets over the top and down the sides to keep warmth in and drafts out.
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I don't quite have the spare fleece - they've got plenty of fleece beds to hide in mind you - but I do have a quilt Mum made me a couple of years back, I could maybe peg it to the cage, at least at one end. Hmm.
 
I can't really comment about skinnies either, but I know that handwarmers are a good option for power outages too. If you lose power, you won't be able to use a microwave to heat up a snuggle safe. It is possible to lose power where I live for a week (it hasn't happened in a while, but it could). My plan is if we do lose power, I can use a couple of handwarmers and put them under the fleece where the piggies can't reach it, but they can lay down on top of it if they want too.
 
I don't think we're gonna lose power tonight, if we were it would probably have already happened. What I mean about the Snugglesafes is, if I put them in originally at 4pm, what sort of time frame do I need to leave before I can reheat them? Like if it's specifically 12 hours, or if I could do it at midnight/2am...etc. I'm not prepared to skip them overnight, they need them. I can't be checking the room temps in my sleep.
 
I believe 18-21 degrees is the 'comfortable' range for piggies, 15-17 degrees ok for a short time - but that's for hairy piggies. I imagine skinnies need more warmth though. Maybe @PigglePuggle can advise, she has demanding Tallulah and a coolish house like you..

Any blanket or towel will be okay over the end of the cage to keep out draughts, so long as it's thick enough to do the job, it doesn't have to be fleece. Hope you can get your piggie room comfy for your boys (never mind yourself, piggies come first ;) ...:D)
 
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I know you don’t have outdoor piggies but I know that skinnies are more sensitive. When I had outdoor piggies and used snuggle safes, I would heat their snuggle safes up at around 10pm to last them the night. But then I was up again at 6am to reheat them
 
Yeah, normally I do them about 23.15/23.30, and the temp will generally be around 20C at that point. I did them in the afternoon today because the weather's been so spectacularly awful. The heating would then come on for an hour ~3am, and then again for a couple of hours at ~7am. That way I can sleep without overheating, but their room isn't cold and they have the Snugglesafes if it is. Plus the various beds and hay.
 
Don't worry 17/18 C is fine for them and mine have occasionally spent a night at 16 C (when I forgot to switch on their heater). They came to no harm at all. Before we had the double glazing done I would peg a blanket over their cage if the room got a bit draughty.

With their fleece beds and Snugglesafes, they will be fine.
 
I have skinny pigs in the bedroom.i keep the room at 20 degrees Celsius.i ve got an oil filled portable heater in there and it switches on and of as the temp is set to 20c.i use heatpads on my outdoor pigs,heat at 2300 hours.last for 10 hours.i don't use them during the day.just stuff lots hay in the hutche's.
 
I reheat the snuggle safes when they are no longer warm to the touch (as if they'd never been microwaved, if that makes sense). Ive never paid much attention to how long ago i last microwaved them as its so dependent on external temperature and what they're in/under.

Our pig room is normally between 18 and 21 oC. But on (very rare) occasion does go up 24, But then it would feel very uncomfortably warm to you that high.

The fleecey hides do get very warm just with their own body heat in there (have you tried sticking your hand in?! Skinny pigs are like little radiators!). My 2 now share hides too which gets VERY hot.

This is them currently on my lap. Only took them nearly a year to learn to share....20220218_232458.webp
 
Thank you everyone :nod: I'll give the Snugglesafes til about 1am and then put them back in the microwave for a bit. They don't seem to want hay in their beds? Although i might put some more packing paper in, Camowen likes to drag it into bed with him, and it might help a bit too. Unfortunately the central heating thermostat is fixed to my lounge and it's always the second coldest room in the house lol. The hottest it's ever got in their room is 22.4C, and that's because I overslept and wasn't in time to turn the heating off again. I do not have a particularly great central heating system, the timers are appalling and because of the thermostat it's easier to have the timers set for an hour and then a couple of hours and just turn the dial as and when it needs on and off. Works fine until I oversleep :mal: the lowest it dropped is 17.6C.

@ThatPurpleB they don't like my hands, because they're permanently too cold and too dry, heh. I also don't put the Snugglesafes under the beds - one goes under a small square of fleece because the cover's split slightly, and the other one goes out in the open but near a hidey. It not being under a shelter doesn't bother them, I've seen them using it anyway, and they don't squabble about who gets which this way.
 
Lorcan said:
I don't think we're gonna lose power tonight, if we were it would probably have already happened. What I mean about the Snugglesafes is, if I put them in originally at 4pm, what sort of time frame do I need to leave before I can reheat them? Like if it's specifically 12 hours, or if I could do it at midnight/2am...etc. I'm not prepared to skip them overnight, they need them. I can't be checking the room temps in my sleep.
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I just checked on the Snugglesafe website, it says they should be cooled to room temperature before reheating - i'm pretty sure it says that on the boxes too. Yours may have cooled to that by now if your room is quite cool. I find that the ones I put in my hutch, unerneath fleecy beds, are still slightly warm to the touch 11 hours after I put them in. But some of that could be body heat maybe?
 
Qualcast&Flymo said:
I just checked on the Snugglesafe website, it says they should be cooled to room temperature before reheating - i'm pretty sure it says that on the boxes too. Yours may have cooled to that by now if your room is quite cool. I find that the ones I put in my hutch, unerneath fleecy beds, are still slightly warm to the touch 11 hours after I put them in. But some of that could be body heat maybe?
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So, I just tested your theory. Well, Camowen did. One Snugglesafe, it's like it was never in the microwave. The other, the one Cam's been sitting on, very warm (not hot), to the touch.
 
YvonneBlue said:
Dora and Ginger drag all sorts into their beds. Toilet roll middles and pieces of carrot cottage are favourites. I do add pieces of loose fleece to their beds when it's cold but they often just push them out.
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Those small pieces of grey fleece, I'll put those in the bed and Bann will mostly leave them be. They'll move because he'll move but that's it. It's Camowen who turns bedtime onto playtime, lol. Under the fleece, between the fleece, put the fleece on the ceiling, drag the paper in, shred the paper onto smaller parts for it to fit...
 
Lorcan said:
Thank you everyone :nod: I'll give the Snugglesafes til about 1am and then put them back in the microwave for a bit. They don't seem to want hay in their beds? Although i might put some more packing paper in, Camowen likes to drag it into bed with him, and it might help a bit too. Unfortunately the central heating thermostat is fixed to my lounge and it's always the second coldest room in the house lol. The hottest it's ever got in their room is 22.4C, and that's because I overslept and wasn't in time to turn the heating off again. I do not have a particularly great central heating system, the timers are appalling and because of the thermostat it's easier to have the timers set for an hour and then a couple of hours and just turn the dial as and when it needs on and off. Works fine until I oversleep :mal: the lowest it dropped is 17.6C.

@ThatPurpleB they don't like my hands, because they're permanently too cold and too dry, heh. I also don't put the Snugglesafes under the beds - one goes under a small square of fleece because the cover's split slightly, and the other one goes out in the open but near a hidey. It not being under a shelter doesn't bother them, I've seen them using it anyway, and they don't squabble about who gets which this way.
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I have poor circulation so very cold hands too. When I pick them up I'm just like "sorry sorry sorry sorry, I know cold!" 🤣

I stick the snuggle safes in a fleecey as they dont ever sleep in the open. It's only really Luna that uses them. Nova doesn't seem to care. They've just had a run on the livingroom floor and Luna kept running behind the bedsheets on the radiator as the heating is on. She likes it toasty! Their cage is on the floor in front of the radiator so now they have a loft Luna sits up there in a fleecey cube when the radiator is on taking full advantage.
 
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They always sleep in their fleece but I feel if I put a snugglesafe in there too it'd be too easy to overheat? And I don't want that, but if they're closer to their food, they can eat and run around and not get cold doing it.

YvonneBlue said:
Oddly mine never sleep in the hay, even in the summer. I do wonder if they find it a bit prickly on their bare skin.
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Same. They're happy to sit in it and eat but even when I had the very soft timothy in they weren't keen on sleeping in it. And it was too soft for them to want to eat it much too :xd:
 
I'd given them a paper bag with some of the Burgess feeding hay in it (because it was softer than their timothy) but while they both sat and ate and toileted in it (and turfed each other out), they still slept in the beds.
 
I hope you all had a comfy night. We live in an old draughty house, and our boys are not skinny pigs.
I don't know if this will help you, but this is what we usually do….
During the winter the boys have fleece round 3 sides of their home and a blanket over the top overnight. Usually the heating goes off overnight and they get 2 snugglesafes. When it is super chilly I would occasionally heat the snugglesafes during the day too, but for a shorter time, then when I want too heat them again for overnight I put them on the cold kitchen floor, which helps them cool faster before putting them back in the microwave(once cold).
This month, we have been a little different and experimented with leaving the heating on overnight at a low temp, (around 15/16C thermostat is temperamental) We do have a portable thermostat which helps. It also helps that our room stays cooler than where the piggies are, so they get the thermostat near them overnight! We await with apprehension to see what this will have done to our gas bill! :yikes:
 
AidaB said:
I hope you all had a comfy night. We live in an old draughty house, and our boys are not skinny pigs.
I don't know if this will help you, but this is what we usually do….
During the winter the boys have fleece round 3 sides of their home and a blanket over the top overnight. Usually the heating goes off overnight and they get 2 snugglesafes. When it is super chilly I would occasionally heat the snugglesafes during the day too, but for a shorter time, then when I want too heat them again for overnight I put them on the cold kitchen floor, which helps them cool faster before putting them back in the microwave(once cold).
This month, we have been a little different and experimented with leaving the heating on overnight at a low temp, (around 15/16C thermostat is temperamental) We do have a portable thermostat which helps. It also helps that our room stays cooler than where the piggies are, so they get the thermostat near them overnight! We await with apprehension to see what this will have done to our gas bill! :yikes:
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I did that with the warmer snugglesafe last night, left it in the kitchen (coldest room in the house) and then put it on for 4 minutes instead of 6, and it seemed to help. Woke up about 10 minutes ago, room thermometer was at 20.2C. I was just drifting off last night when I realised I'd forgotten about the quilt, but they really don't like it when I've switched the light off and closed the door, then come back in for anything before it's daylight again. Not that it seems to have bothered them from the screeching I got this morning for being late with breakfast.
 
Lorcan said:
I did that with the warmer snugglesafe last night, left it in the kitchen (coldest room in the house) and then put it on for 4 minutes instead of 6, and it seemed to help. Woke up about 10 minutes ago, room thermometer was at 20.2C. I was just drifting off last night when I realised I'd forgotten about the quilt, but they really don't like it when I've switched the light off and closed the door, then come back in for anything before it's daylight again. Not that it seems to have bothered them from the screeching I got this morning for being late with breakfast.
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Glad you all stayed warm. Guinea pigs make a good alarm clock! 🤣
 
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