Warmer bedding = lower room temperature?

Spaniel

Spaniel

Teenage Guinea Pig
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I don’t know if it works like this but if you provide warmer bedding in the cage like vet bed or big hay piles for example, can you keep the room temperature a bit lower? Will the pigs be warm enough?

I debated putting the heating on last night but didn’t then felt guilty this morning when the cage thermometer was 16.9 and the room 17.2. Luckily I put vet bed under the bath mats last night and draped a bigger fleece over the hay.
 
The temperatures you experienced were fine.
But using vetbed will not keep them warm. It’s the air temperature which is the vital factor.
However, stuffing hides with hay will give them somewhere to snuggle into and the temperature within the hide will be slightly higher.
Piggies are most comfortable between 18 and 22 degrees, but below 15 is too cold.
 
My pigs are comfy between 23-26°C. Last night it dropped to below 19 and they were all shivering. My house has to be kept on the warmer side for one of my family members though so they've adapted to higher temps. I added lots of hay and cardboard boxes. One piggy needed a heat pad.

Adding more hay is one of the easiest ways to keep them warm without putting the heating on.
 
Warm fleecy beds will keep then cosy but the main worry is if it gets too cold to come out and eat hay- but fixing this with big piles of hay which is also a good cosy insulator is a good solution.

If your house is not usually heated much and the house temp has dropped naturally and gradually as autumn approaches so there is little day to day change and time to adjust, the piggies should be fine, as long as they arent in a draft- the first slightly chilly nights should prompt them to start growing in a thicker winter coat.

I would always start putting the heating on once the overnight temp might drop to 16 or so, but not all night- just enough to maintain the temperature and keep the chill off, this time of year I would start with the heating on half an hour at 10pm and 6am, then add in extra half hour heating slots through the night and early evening as it gets colder.

The piggies shouldnt be shivering, and their feet should not feel cold to the touch, for them to be comfortable- if you need woolly socks and a thick jumper indoors it is too cold for piggies!

Big temperature swings are much more dangerous than gradual seasonal changes, so unless you plan to heat your house to over 20 degrees all winter dont be tempted to crank up the heating suddenly to warm them up.

This doesnt apply to skinny pigs of course who need to be perpetually tropical in temperature!
 
PigglePuggle said:
This doesnt apply to skinny pigs of course who need to be perpetually tropical in temperature!
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Groan. Don't remind me.

At the moment I generally have the heating set to come on once, somewhere between 4am and 6am, for a couple of hours. It's hard to be more exact than that because this central heating system is probably twice my age. They also get two Snugglesafes in the cage every night, plus at least one other bed. And when I wake up in the morning the heating goes back on.

It dropped to just above 17c in their room overnight. The heating may need to be set to come on twice while I'm asleep atm. Not for long, just an hour each time, but unfortunately needs must.
 
Lorcan said:
Groan. Don't remind me.

At the moment I generally have the heating set to come on once, somewhere between 4am and 6am, for a couple of hours. It's hard to be more exact than that because this central heating system is probably twice my age. They also get two Snugglesafes in the cage every night, plus at least one other bed. And when I wake up in the morning the heating goes back on.

It dropped to just above 17c in their room overnight. The heating may need to be set to come on twice while I'm asleep atm. Not for long, just an hour each time, but unfortunately needs must.
Click to expand...
Feeling your pain there, although I miss Tallulah hippo dreadfully I wont miss the winter heating shennanigans and giant heating bills! Keeping a 120 year old peasant cottage in Northern England with single-brick-thick walls and doors that don't fit properly at tropical temperatures all winter was... a bloody nightmare lol
 
I'm trying to keep it ~20c at the minute, because they're not too cold at that temp and I'm not too warm, lol. Daytime's relatively easy, but overnight is a nightmare because the thermostat's downstairs and downstairs won't get to temperature right. Either it's good downstairs and a sauna upstairs, or it's good upstairs and freezing downstairs. There's no in between, and I can't watch the temp while I'm sleeping.

But I can only do so much, and I can't do better with what I have 🤷‍♂️ Decent windows, double glazing, would go a long way towards helping but it's not going to happen. So Snugglesafes (6 minutes each) and winging it with overnight heating it is.
 
i will start using the snuggle safes for the two skinny pigs rather than put the heating on.temp was 20 degrees throughout the night.i have an emersion heater that heats the hot water at night,so that helps.
 
...I hadn't thought of that, @eileen . The hot water pipes run through the goblin room, too. Overnight it might not be much use but in the daytime that might be invaluable.
 
I think mine must be a different species of guinea pig!

I don't have central heating and although I have a plug in electric heater for the room I sit in, there is no heating in the bedrooms (I'd hate it if there was anyway as I couldn't bear a stuffy hot bedroom myself). It gets pretty chilly in the winter but honestly they haven't ever seemed remotely bothered, in fact the heat wave is the only time I have seen them badly affected by the weather. They looked a great deal less happy during that than during the coldest weather.
If mine went from living in a centrally heated home to live with me, then they would notice the difference, I think perhaps pets get used to the way their owners live.
 
Honestly if I had furry guinea pigs I probably wouldn't be quite so...iffy? But it's like with the heatwave and temp extremes except it's easier to warm a room than cool it. I know the goblins are good at around 20c but it drops sharply overnight. They can't warm themselves up, that's my job 🤷🏻‍♂️
 
Bluebell said:
I think mine must be a different species of guinea pig!

I don't have central heating and although I have a plug in electric heater for the room I sit in, there is no heating in the bedrooms (I'd hate it if there was anyway as I couldn't bear a stuffy hot bedroom myself). It gets pretty chilly in the winter but honestly they haven't ever seemed remotely bothered, in fact the heat wave is the only time I have seen them badly affected by the weather. They looked a great deal less happy during that than during the coldest weather.
If mine went from living in a centrally heated home to live with me, then they would notice the difference, I think perhaps pets get used to the way their owners live.
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My piggies are used to cooler temps too and are absolutely fine. Its the hot weather i worry about. Their bodies are much better designed to keep warm than to keep cool. (Not including skinnies of course)
 
Lorcan said:
Groan. Don't remind me.

At the moment I generally have the heating set to come on once, somewhere between 4am and 6am, for a couple of hours. It's hard to be more exact than that because this central heating system is probably twice my age. They also get two Snugglesafes in the cage every night, plus at least one other bed. And when I wake up in the morning the heating goes back on.

It dropped to just above 17c in their room overnight. The heating may need to be set to come on twice while I'm asleep atm. Not for long, just an hour each time, but unfortunately needs must.
Click to expand...
I feel your pain too! I can’t believe how fast time has gone, from all the panicked trying to keep the room cool, to back to needing to get my oil heater out for the pig room so the skinny’s stay warm! Argh.
 
Unfortunately it is draughty. The heat doesn’t last long downstairs either. Upstairs is a sauna if downstairs is ok.

We only do this for the pigs really. My partner and I feel too hot most of the time,

It’s hard to balance this house. The windows, doors and boiler are old and inefficient. It’s also very open with no internal doors downstairs.

We put bubble wrap on the lower half of the door and windows yesterday so hopefully that’ll help.

That very cold night made us panic but it’s meant to be more stable now.

The pigs seem ok but we always worry more when we have a senior and base it on what they need.
 
I'm less worried now we just have furry pigs but we have 2 eldery ladies over 6 who seem to feel the cold more.
I've moved my whole big cage upstairs now, the main 11x2 C&C piggy cage was downstairs in their own room but it was a bit damp and drafty- now we are down to 1 cage and elderly pigs they are all in my home office/spare front bedroom that has no drafts, gets the morning sun, but also has double layered curtains for cold nights, and a better fitting door!
Elderly Luna who is long haired but tiny and likes it warm looks a bit chilly this morning judging by the giant hay nest she's made and won't come out of so I will be having the heating on this evening for her, probably looking out the snugglesafes too, and yesterday I looked out the extra fleecy beds I'd packed away for the summer- we have a whole autumn theme range of fleecy things seeing my piggies are very posh, orange-and-woodland-print tunnels with matching cuddle couch, a fleecy pumpkin-print cube house, I love seasonal furniture ranges lol :)
 
PigglePuggle said:
I'm less worried now we just have furry pigs but we have 2 eldery ladies over 6 who seem to feel the cold more.
I've moved my whole big cage upstairs now, the main 11x2 C&C piggy cage was downstairs in their own room but it was a bit damp and drafty- now we are down to 1 cage and elderly pigs they are all in my home office/spare front bedroom that has no drafts, gets the morning sun, but also has double layered curtains for cold nights, and a better fitting door!
Elderly Luna who is long haired but tiny and likes it warm looks a bit chilly this morning judging by the giant hay nest she's made and won't come out of so I will be having the heating on this evening for her, probably looking out the snugglesafes too, and yesterday I looked out the extra fleecy beds I'd packed away for the summer- we have a whole autumn theme range of fleecy things seeing my piggies are very posh, orange-and-woodland-print tunnels with matching cuddle couch, a fleecy pumpkin-print cube house, I love seasonal furniture ranges lol :)
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We have an about to turn 6 year old. She’s fluffy but I still worry about her.

We considered switching the bedroom and lounge but next door makes our bedroom practically unusable. Smoke, drugs and scented candles! Depressing.
 
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