Too hot on fleece in summer?

Eddie & Elvis

Eddie & Elvis

Adult Guinea Pig
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Hello 🙂
It's going to get up to 28/29°C here this week and I'm unsure if my boys would get too hot on fleece. Obviously I will do everything I can to keep them cool- ice pack wrapped in tea towel, put some ice in their water, keep the curtains closed. But will they overheat on fleece? I know I wouldn't want to sit on fleece in this heat! During the day they are out on the kitchen floor which is tiled so that will be cooler but is there anything I can do to help keep them cool when they're in their cage at night?
Any tips or advice would be very welcome
Thanks 🙂
 
You could use a fan, making sure it’s not pointing directly at them. Also open the window but keep the curtain closed during the day where their cage is.
 
Thank you I'll have a read of that guide. We have some fans so I'll do that too if it feels really hot inside 👍
 
You can always fill 300ml to 500ml drinks bottles with water, pop them in the freezer, then pop them in an old sock in the piggy cage for more cool pads- also putting a damp sheet over the cage with a fan blowing on it makes a surprisingly cool microclimate!
I remember last summer asking about the fleece, but I think most of us keep it in, just add some cool spots and keep the binds or curtains closed in the piggy room and/or use damp sheets or towels to make cool shady areas :)
 
Eddie & Elvis said:
Hello 🙂
It's going to get up to 28/29°C here this week and I'm unsure if my boys would get too hot on fleece. Obviously I will do everything I can to keep them cool- ice pack wrapped in tea towel, put some ice in their water, keep the curtains closed. But will they overheat on fleece? I know I wouldn't want to sit on fleece in this heat! During the day they are out on the kitchen floor which is tiled so that will be cooler but is there anything I can do to help keep them cool when they're in their cage at night?
Any tips or advice would be very welcome
Thanks 🙂
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I have used a hot water bottle filled with water cooled from the fridge with an old tea towel over the top. Once they get used to the sloshing sound of the water, Bill and Ted were happy to lie on it, rather like a water bed! 😆 If you can find a marble slab (Off cut from kitchen showrooms/flooring/kitchen fitters etc) is what my granny used to sit her meat, butter and cheese on back in the 60’s in the cellar. It kept everything lovely and cool 🥶We have an off cut which we lay in the run, although not tried it with the girls yet.
 
@PigglePuggle the fan and sheet combos a great idea I'll do that 👍👍.
@Bill & Ted I don't have any slabs but I do have some ice packs I can wrap in tea towels. I put one it their run this morning and they never sit on it ☹️. Is it that they just don't like it? I've showed it to them so they definitely know it's there...
 
So if there's a sheet over the cage does that mean the fan can point more directly at the cage or still not?
 
I think it still shouldn’t be blowing directly in the cage though I’m not sure. As for the ice packs they may use them or not. The boys didn’t really use them when I first put them in. I’d also say maybe use a bottle with frozen water rather than ice packs. I used those freezer ones and I think they bit one and it started leaking 🙄
 
I wish it were that cool here in the US!
Summer temperatures can climb up to 120 degrees (48.8 degrees Celcius)! 😓😓😓😓😓
 
I put tiles in their cage for them to sit/lay on.
I just asked at the local DIY store if they had any odd tiles they didn't need and they were happy to give me a few.
Some of our piggies like laying on them and some never went near them, but at least they had the choice.
 
Siikibam said:
I think it still shouldn’t be blowing directly in the cage though I’m not sure. As for the ice packs they may use them or not. The boys didn’t really use them when I first put them in. I’d also say maybe use a bottle with frozen water rather than ice packs. I used those freezer ones and I think they bit one and it started leaking 🙄
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Ok I'll do that. A leaky ice pack near piggies does not sound good!
 
Helen C said:
I second that!
We had one day at 40°C last year in Belgium, and I thought I was going to die. Even sitting at my desk at the office seemed like too much effort. 🥵
(And last summer, I didn't have piggies to worry about. 😊)
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It got to 38 where I live last year and it was absolutely horrendous (keeping piggies cool was so hard). I can’t cope much beyond 23 degrees!
 
Eddie & Elvis said:
Thank you I'll have a read of that guide. We have some fans so I'll do that too if it feels really hot inside 👍
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You can also put a thin layer of soaked fabric around the cage where the fan is blowing on. the evaporating water is cooling the air around it.

Fleece doesn't overheat your piggies, but a cheap large ceramic tile or two can bring comfort when it is really hot.
 
Piggies&buns said:
It got to 38 where I live last year and it was absolutely horrendous (keeping piggies cool was so hard). I can’t cope much beyond 23 degrees!
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I struggle, too - and it is getting worse the older I get!

My hub has has taken nearly 20 years to twig that I really know what I am doing in order to keep the temperatures down without the benefit of shutters that let keep the sun off the window glass but still let through air, so I have to improvise in this country (the UK) in view that houses were mainly built to keep out the rain and let in as much light as possible, but not to keep out cold or the kind of heat we are now experiencing.

Anyway, I'd rather not visit my family in Switzerland in summer unless absolutely necessary for a special occasion. We had several summers with near 40 C temperatures back in the eighties. The last summer temps even climbed above 40 C. I guess we'll get that here soon, too! :( :( :(

I can recommend the watered bed sheets in front of the windows in the sun - that has made by far the biggest difference! And it is doing the trick again in keeping the inside much more bearable. We now have extended to putting old bedding over any windows on any side. While you feel like a troglodite, at least you are not feeling quite like melting at least movement!
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I’m going to try your sheet trick @Wiebke! I’ve got three doors and two windows at the downstairs back of my house, two of the doors and both windows I can easily hang sheets on, just need to figure out the best way to do the third door, don’t have an easy way to tie up some string/rope like it looks like you have, but I am definitely onto it!
 
Wiebke said:
You can also put a thin layer of soaked fabric around the cage where the fan is blowing on. the evaporating water is cooling the air around it.

Fleece doesn't overheat your piggies, but a cheap large ceramic tile or two can bring comfort when it is really hot.
Click to expand...
I don't have any tiles but I've draped a damp towel over the cage and put a fan on. There's a damp tea towel over the willow bridge too. The piggies cage had also been moved into the living room which is cooler than the kitchen. It was 23°c outside already by 10 this morning and it's 28 now but it's going to 31 by 3! 🥵🥵🥵🥵🥵🥵🥵
 
Piggies&buns said:
I’m going to try your sheet trick @Wiebke! I’ve got three doors and two windows at the downstairs back of my house, two of the doors and both windows I can easily hang sheets on, just need to figure out the best way to do the third door, don’t have an easy way to tie up some string/rope like it looks like you have, but I am definitely onto it!
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If you can (which is what I am doing with our upstairs windows) is to trap the sheet over the top of the windows/doors as much as possible. I can sadly not cover the whole window, especially not our upstairs bay window but I can cover about half the area - even that makes a bit of a difference. Downstairs hub has put in some hooks above the bay window to peg a large sheet to (although of course not where I wanted him to; that would be asking too much of a man!)
 
Eddie & Elvis said:
@PigglePuggle the fan and sheet combos a great idea I'll do that 👍👍.
@Bill & Ted I don't have any slabs but I do have some ice packs I can wrap in tea towels. I put one it their run this morning and they never sit on it ☹. Is it that they just don't like it? I've showed it to them so they definitely know it's there...
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It just might be a tad too cold to sit on but will keep the air cool around it
 
Eddie & Elvis said:
Ah that would make sense
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if your piggies are plastered to a source of coolness, then you know they are feeling overheated. if they don't go near it, they are fine as they are and are not uncomfortable. it is as simple as that!
 
Piggle is currently nose-jabbing a frozen bottle in a sock and rumbling at it and trying to challenge it to a fight, and Clover has cornered the other one and is protecting her beloved friend Blodwen from it as I think Clover associates the cool pack with Blod's new hair cut and shampoo smell!
This happened in winter with warm snugglesafes too, Jezzy was talking to one trying to make friends with it while Clover and Piggle were trying to chase it off their territory :)
 
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