Wet Weather

Jamston

Jamston

Adult Guinea Pig
Joined
Apr 22, 2018
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Location
Garstang, Lancashire
Hi I have two outdoor piggies who live in a well insulated and waterproof hutch. The piggies love cleaning out time and run around me and dive into the hay bag as well as doing zoomies. What I am not sure about as the weather turn autumnal is what to do about floor time. Over the summer they have pretty much come and gone from their hutch as they have pleased with the fine weather. Today they have had a little bit of time out in the run but not as much as they or I would have liked. All advice welcome!
 
Could you get an indoor playpen for winter? We have a BunnyBusiness playpen (actually we have 2 we join together because we have 5 piggies) we sit it on a waterproof mat with newspaper on top. These are quite cheap (£25?) on Amazon and fold flat when not in use. There are 8 x 2ft square wire panels hinged together that open out into a 2x6 ft rectangle or a 4ftx4ft square or a 5ft wide octagon... or we have 2 joined into a 6ftx4ft format usually and they go in there for 4 or 5 hours on cleaning out days and weekends!
 
My piggies are urban indoor piggies, they have their own room and live in a big C&C now but on cage clean out days and when I have time I set a big 24 square foot playpen in the living room with different hidey houses and tubes and treat bags for them :)
 
I always thought that outdoor piggies should not be subjected to sudden temperature changes, so by my understanding, bringing them indoors for floor time may not be a good idea as they’d warm up, and then get put out in the cold again?
How big is their hutch? Is their run attached to their hutch? Would there be anyway of covering the run to allow them some time out - even if it’s only 15-20 mins - on dry days and then you just need to provide some warmth in the run.
 
The hutch is big enough for two and the run is a corner of the garden which is fenced off with the hutch in it so I just leave the door open and they can potter around. More worried abouth then getting wet than cold at the moment. Currently I am working on a new house in the shed that will be better for them.
 
I think you would be okay bringing them indoors into a pen at the moment, my indoor piggys are still going outside when it's dry. It's not a good idea to bring them into a warm house when it's cold outside, it's the sudden change in temperature that's the problem. Hopefully you will have your shed up and running by the time the outdoor temperature drops considerably. Some people bring outdoor piggies into an unheated conservatory for a run around when it's wet outside.
 
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