UK Record heat warning - How to keep your guinea pigs alive!

[Wiebke]

- Please BRING YOUR GUINEA PIGS INDOORS into the coolest room; if necessary, keep them in your bathtub after running cold water over it. Move any cages out of direct sunlight!
Even the thickest shade today is exposed to sun-heated hot breezes that can exceed 50 C; including a run on the lawn!
HUTCHES and RUNS even in the shade ARE DEATH TRAPS TODAY!

- Above all: KEEP THE TEMPERATURE AS COOL AS POSSIBLE!
Air your lodgings as much as you can before temperatures climb too much and THEN close all windows and draw any curtains.
The less heat and sun can get to your lodgings, the cooler they will stay. You can even create a DIY awning like me to keep the sun off any exposed glass for that precious extra degree or two off! I am even going to spray the sheets with water to additionally allow the evaporating moisture to cool down the windows, treating them like a greenhouse in hot weather. It REALLY makes a difference!

(The second picture is with the wetted sheets on the scorcher)
Outdoors: 9.30 am - 27 C ; 11 am - 30 C ; 3.30 pm - 34 C
South facing kitchen: 9.30 - 23 C ; 11.30 am - 25 C ; 3.30 pm 26 C (sun off )


- Add CRUSHED ICE TO WATER BOTTLES if you are out for the day and refill with fridge cooled water frequently when at home.
Insulate the bottles with a sock, even indoors, if you are out during the day and cannot keep the water cool by changing it.
Also leave a large piece of cucumber that stays cool at the core for longest when out.
Your guinea pigs don't need to eat more veg; they need access to COOL water/fluid at all times!
Remember: Too much veg and fruit can cause diarrhea or bloating. Don't feed more to guinea pigs that are drinkers, but feed from the fridge today (but NOT from the freezer!) If your piggies stop drinking water, then you are overfeeding fruit and veg. Piggies control their body temperature by increased blood flow through the ears; they do not sweat and they do not pant!

- Frozen bottles, cooling elements, fridge cooled snugglesafes (change every 1-2 hours for the elderlies and ill to lie on), ceramic tiles will all help to keep your piggies cool in the cage. Use whatever you have handy!
If your piggies stay away from cooling elements, they are simply not overheated and you are doing your job!
Here is the full list of any working tips I have come across over the years: Hot Weather Management, Heat Strokes and Fly Strike

- DO NOT NOT NOT USE A FAN WITH AN OPEN WINDOW WHILE IT IS HOT OUTSIDE!
All you achieve is bringing the even hotter sun-heated air (which can surpass 50 C today) right inside and kill your guinea pigs!
Place a damp towel between the fan and the cage to help cool the surrounding air but be aware that any fan doesn't cool the air - it just creates air movement.

- HEAT STROKE: If you find your guinea pigs collapsed, lethargic, unable to move or swallow, wobbly, twitching/fitting, you need to see a vet ASAP AS A LIFE OR DEATH EMERGENCY!
Here is a link for what to do if your guinea pigs suffer from heat stroke: Heat stroke symptoms and what to do
How you get them safely to the vets in the heat: Travelling with guinea pigs

 

[Guineapigfeet]

Mine are down in my downstairs loo today as their room got to 27 degrees yesterday - they were totally fine and looking distainfully at my loveingly frozen water bottles.
Nevertheless, they are now in the coolest room with frozen bottles. Just in case they want them! It was only just big enough to squeeze their pen into!

 

[David Piggie Lover]

Pls Piggie Slaves keep our loved piggies cool.
I've done some things @Wiebke has advised and tempture is down and ok. xx

 

[Claire W]

Thank you @Wiebke I’m in the process of moving the piggies downstairs in their run as their room gets very hot. It’s great in the winter but not in the summer!

 

[Munching Maniac]

Thank you @Wiebke as you may have just saved my guineas. I am moving my outdoor guineas right now, as one of my guineas died two years ago after heatwave. Thank you again for advice.

 

[Tigermoth]

Mine are insisting on sitting in/under their fleece cuddle cups. The room is a chilly 26 degrees...

 

[PigglePuggle]

Mine are insisting on sitting in/under their fleece cuddle cups. The room is a chilly 26 degrees...

Mine too! Big pig Clover is asleep in a fleecy tunnel. I have 3 cool shady wooden hidey houses with 2 doorways and the area under the loft is very shady and cool but they don't care. Fortunately my main piggy room faces East so only gets the sun in the morning, the sun has already moved round by now and there's a nice breeze getting up and its clouding over... I have a big damp sheet and some frozen water bottles ready just in case though...
Better to have the cooling stuff ready and it gets ignored than risk a piggy overheating!

 

[Wiebke]

Mine are insisting on sitting in/under their fleece cuddle cups. The room is a chilly 26 degrees...

Mine too! Big pig Clover is asleep in a fleecy tunnel. I have 3 cool shady wooden hidey houses with 2 doorways and the area under the loft is very shady and cool but they don't care. Fortunately my main piggy room faces East so only gets the sun in the morning, the sun has already moved round by now and there's a nice breeze getting up and its clouding over... I have a big damp sheet and some frozen water bottles ready just in case though...
Better to have the cooling stuff ready and it gets ignored than risk a piggy overheating!

The good news is that as long as they keep doing this, they are not feeling too hot.
My oldies are still using their caves, but I have started to place fridge cooled snugglesafes underneath, which I keep changing after 1-2 hours. This means that they are less likely to move out than if I shoved in a frozen element as long as the temperatures are not yet climbing into the high twenties.

 

[Seven7]

It has been hot in the US too but mine are indoor piggies and I just had the air conditioner serviced by a service tech.
Mine also stay near the refrigerator where they get cool veggies throughout the day.

 

[Wiebke]

It has been hot in the US too but mine are indoor piggies and I just had the air conditioner serviced by a service tech.
Mine also stay near the refrigerator where they get cool veggies throughout the day.

Because the UK is traditionally a country with a very moderate climate and summers that stay around 15-25 C (ca. 60-80 F), we don't have air con in most houses nor are our houses built to accommodate weather extremes. People have also not much experience in how to cope best with heat spikes that could today reach nearly 40 C/pass 100 F.

 

[Sophie B]

Luckily yesterday my boys cage was moved, they’re now in the shade, but still in the same room

 

[Hadams33]

Because the UK is traditionally a country with a very moderate climate and summers that stay around 15-25 C (ca. 60-80 F), we don't have air con in most houses nor are our houses built to accommodate weather extremes. People have also not much experience in how to cope best with heat spikes that could today reach nearly 40 C/pass 100 F.

I wondered why I always saw all these heat advisories and tips! I am in the US too so I wondered why people just didn’t bring their pigs inside. I didn’t realize the U.K. often does not have air conditioned homes. Thinking of all of you and your piggies overseas! Stay cool, it’s been 100-106 here this past week as well!

 

[Seven7]

I wondered why I always saw all these heat advisories and tips! I am in the US too so I wondered why people just didn’t bring their pigs inside. I didn’t realize the U.K. often does not have air conditioned homes. Thinking of all of you and your piggies overseas! Stay cool, it’s been 100-106 here this past week as well!

Agree, and as far as I know, we have air conditioning in all the US states.
I always just like all of my pets indoor with me. However, I do move their cages to be outdoor briefly in the early morning or late at night when it is nice and cool so they can experience the outdoors. I don't feel comfortable with my pets being outdoor unsupervised for a length of time.

 

[David Piggie Lover]

I wondered why I always saw all these heat advisories and tips! I am in the US too so I wondered why people just didn’t bring their pigs inside. I didn’t realize the U.K. often does not have air conditioned homes. Thinking of all of you and your piggies overseas! Stay cool, it’s been 100-106 here this past week as well!

 

[David Piggie Lover]

Don't know what happened there. Sorry.

 

[PigglePuggle]

Thanks for all this advice @Wiebke, I have @Merab's Slave 's herd newly installed in my spare bedroom and its worryingly hot up there even though the sun is round the other side of the house! I have a fan blowing onto a damp sheet and they have frozen water bottles in socks to lie on and they are actually using them! Priscilla has her bum on one, Phoebe has her face on one, Jemimah is lying in the middle, and little Micah in his next door cage has one in his fleecy cube.
Hope everyone's piggies are keeping cool!

 

[Dill&Pepper]

My girls are in the bath tub, looking disgusted at the frozen water bottles wrapped in fleece that I’ve put in with them. Being next to the cold porcelain is still much better than being outside at the moment though.

 

[David Piggie Lover]

Thanks for all this advice @Wiebke, I have @Merab's Slave 's herd newly installed in my spare bedroom and its worryingly hot up there even though the sun is round the other side of the house! I have a fan blowing onto a damp sheet and they have frozen water bottles in socks to lie on and they are actually using them! Priscilla has her bum on one, Phoebe has her face on one, Jemimah is lying in the middle, and little Micah in his next door cage has one in his fleecy cube.
Hope everyone's piggies are keeping cool!

Well done.
I always worry till I get home after work.
Sun on front house where 2 are
Middle room ok where other 2 live
I open door and amazing cool inside. . lovely summer not great winter.

 

[Sophie B]

Would it help to place a frozen bottle, wrapped in a towel (but not completely) in their cage?

 

[Wiebke]

I wondered why I always saw all these heat advisories and tips! I am in the US too so I wondered why people just didn’t bring their pigs inside. I didn’t realize the U.K. often does not have air conditioned homes. Thinking of all of you and your piggies overseas! Stay cool, it’s been 100-106 here this past week as well!

Different climates and cultural backgrounds are the reason why we ask our members to please add their country, state/province or UK county to their details - it is not just differing medical brand names that we try to tailor our advice to.
Rabbits and guinea pigs have generally been kept as outdoors pets in hutches and sadly still often are although there is a greater push towards keeping them indoors or in insulated sheds rather than in much more vulnerable hutches.

I shudder to think just how many poor guinea pigs, rabbits and dogs are dying from heat stroke in this country today...

By the way, the same also goes for winters - we don't to do snow and ice well in this country, and it always comes as a nasty surprise when they happen...

 

[Hadams33]

Different climates and cultural backgrounds are the reason why we ask our members to please add their country, state/province or UK county to their details - it is not just differing medical brand names that we try to tailor our advice to.
Rabbits and guinea pigs have generally been kept as outdoors pets in hutches and sadly still often are although there is a greater push towards keeping them indoors or in insulated sheds rather than in much more vulnerable hutches.

I shudder to think just how many poor guinea pigs, rabbits and dogs are dying from heat stroke in this country today...

By the way, the same also goes for winters - we don't to do snow and ice well in this country, and it always comes as a nasty surprise when they happen...

I love that this forum is so accommodating to people all over the world! Feeling especially fortunate our animals don’t ever have to worry about heat stroke today!

So I’m assuming since you don’t do air conditioning in the summer, you don’t have heat in the winter?

 

[anyar.dris]

Thank heavens for portable aircons! We only bought this around 4 years ago because of the piggies! Best buy ever!

 

[Wiebke]

I love that this forum is so accommodating to people all over the world! Feeling especially fortunate our animals don’t ever have to worry about heat stroke today!

So I’m assuming since you don’t do air conditioning in the summer, you don’t have heat in the winter?

We have radiators on in winter and we can get usually short frost periods, but winters where we get a heavy snow cover are rare, and so are really heavy frosts. Because of the warm Gulf Stream bringing water from the Caribbean across to our shores, Uk people don't do climate, they have weather.
Here in the UK, we are about as far north as Canada (I live on the same latitude as Alberta, for instance) but there is a quite a difference in temperatures across the UK between the warm and frost free Scilly Islands in the Channel to the Shetland Islands in the North where you have a climate that is described as 10 months of winter and two months of bad weather and where 15 C (60 F) counts as a fine summer day!
Heat records are usually set in the Southeast, especially the wider London area, while the coldest areas are in the Scottish Highlands where you combine higher latitudes with a more arctic mountain climate - and blizzards!

New York is on the same latitude as Naples in the Mediterranean, by the way!

 

[Claire W]

I hope that everyone's piggies and other animals are ok. I've just put mine out on the grass. I moved them out of their room for the day following @Wiebke great advice and I'm so glad I did as their room reached 35C as it is South facing.

My poor gerbils have been suffering and loved the frozen peas we offered them both. They don't eat them but hold them in their paws and have a nibble.

Sadly the gerbils and degus haven't been handled today as our hands have just been too hot and sweaty

 

[Dill&Pepper]

Quick question, is it safe to give my girls a frozen blueberry each?

 

[Wiebke]

I hope that everyone's piggies and other animals are ok. I've just put mine out on the grass. I moved them out of their room for the day following @Wiebke great advice and I'm so glad I did as their room reached 35C as it is South facing.

My poor gerbils have been suffering and loved the frozen peas we offered them both. They don't eat them but hold them in their paws and have a nibble.

Sadly the gerbils and degus haven't been handled today as our hands have just been too hot and sweaty

It is still well over 30 C outside, but the piggy room is only 26 C despite reaching 34-35 C this afternoon. The sheets in front of the windows have really made a difference. The piggies have each got an ice pack in their cages, fresh fridge cooled filtered water and the old ladies are crashed out on top fridge cooled snugglesafes, which I keep changing frequently.

No rain here, just some cloud in the middle of the afternoon. But hoping that the wind is turning overnight to a fresher westerly direction to flush the heat out of the house by tomorrow morning.
Getting up before 6 am and opening all doors and windows this morning, I have managed to get the downstairs down to 21 C. I had to closed all the holes as early as 7.30 am as the heat was building up very quickly and early on. It is still like walking into a furnace outside here.

 

[Wiebke]

Quick question, is it safe to give my girls a frozen blueberry each?

Yes. We had one report from a member who tried frozen ice lolly style fruit where their piggy got their tongue frozen to the ice, which is why we do no longer recommend feeding frozen fruit - especially larger pieces.
But any warnings of tummy upsets from frozen fruit are not substantiated as long as the food is not served defrosted.

 

[Claire W]

Thankfully it’s a bit fresher outside here and the piggies have a damp sheet draped over their run. Their eating grass and running around so I think they’re enjoying a bit of breeze.

We’ve been forecast a storm later on