When to put the piggies back out...

[Sleepingbunnies]

Our baby girl piggies have been in since the beginning of November... I have just cleaned their outside hutch but am wondering if it's STILL to cold to put them back out?...

Are yours in or out at the moment??

[70isaLimitNotaTarget]

Hi bunnies

Difficult to say- it depends on where you are, how well sheltered the hutch is and how long they are out for.
It's the damp that's worse at the moment, wooden hutches seem to 'hold' it. And if you open them up to air them, they get rained on.
We have a garage (car doesn't live there) but even though it's dry and secure, it's flipping freezing. I prefer them in the Pighouse, better insulation.

My guinea-fur-babies do an "in at night, our by day" all year round (apart from the occasional day if it's really bad).

But: they have a shed Glorified Pighouse + heater.
I put the heater on this morning (it was about 8c) they have a thermometer too and I've just given them grass and put it down to lowest setting.

Mine don't go Out out (in the words of Mickey Flannegan) until about March time. This is our first winter with The Piglet but now he's bigger than GP1, I'm not --too- precious with him.

[fortifiedwithtea]

IMHO too cold and wet especially as they are used to the luxury of indoors. We haven't had a good dump of snow yet either. Weather men are forecasting snow from Siberia hitting Scotland and the North next week and not sure how far South it will reach. So that's something to look forward to

The Fortified Pigs live permanently in the lounge so I can talk to them at all times including when teen daughter has her friends here

[Sleepingbunnies]

Am going to keep them in a but longer!!

[FernieB]

It's only January. I would wait until Spring has well and truly sprung. My boys live indoors and only go out for lawn mowing duties - I work them hard from March until October . They're on their winter break at the moment.

[70isaLimitNotaTarget]

Mine are lardy boars and I found in past winters they go a bit stir-crazy (like toddlers) if they are in all the time (my GP1 and GP2 were very judgey indoors, GP2 used to rattle his empty plates against the bars like those prison scenes with all the tin cups held through the bars)
BUT

when they do go out, they swap a cool-ish bedroom for an equivilant temperature Pighouse with all their hay .
Mine need to run about -so they tell me- and get rid of some of their boary fumes.

It means two lots of cleaning but the important thing is they aren't going from hot/cold or cold/hot. And everything is dry , snug, clean and sheltered.

[FernieB]

70 - you clearly have rowdy boys. My lads are happy to rest up (they say they need lots of sleep to prepare for the mowing season). They have a run inside every day but they spend most of that time sleeping. Current Bun is the same but last night he did mad runs round a chair in the living room for 5 minutes followed by huge binkies and a sprint across the room. He's slept ever since.

[FernieB]

Sorry I did my boys a disservice there - they are not entirely lazy. Scruffy did play 'sharks' last night - he has to get from one end of the sofa to the other without touching the sofa (falling in the ocean and being eaten by sharks). He did it really well by climbing from person to person and only stopped once to chew a shirt button. Smooth refused to join in and watched from my DD's knee.

[MaddAddam]

For the last 2 winters our girl pigs were outside all winter except for nights when it dropped below freezing (not that many nights as we live in a mild area). They were much more lively outdoors even in the middle of winter.
This winter we have just one elderly female and so she's in at night but out most days. She seems to appreciate the grazing. We're trying to keep her busy so she doesn't get lonely, so putting her in and out is variety if nothing else.

[Sleepingbunnies]

Just cleaned the run out and given them some fresh grass :) pics on profile :)

[70isaLimitNotaTarget]

Aaah they are lovely and clearly relishing the grass. Love all the paper (guinea-pigs' playground) bags too.