My Guinea Pigs, wondering whether to put them outside? :-(

[TellAnyone]

I bought two baby male guinea pigs at the beginning of the year. They live in a cage indoors and they are spoilt rotten. Constantly cuddled and bombarded with fruit and veg, treats and toys, spoken to like babies etc.

But they're now quite big and the cage really isn't big enough for them it STINKS a couple of days after been cleaned out and they look all fed up. We do let them run around the pen outside for a few hours a day but DP thinks they'll be better off kept in a larger hutch outside.

I'm worried though that as they're used to the warmth of the home, putting them outside now will kill them. I would be devestated if anything happened to them.

What should I do?

We have no room for a bigger cage indoors.

[OnlyWantsOneDoesntLikeDM]

you can harden them up by leaving them outside for a bit and giving them lots of warm bedding - as there is two of them they will keep each other warm.

Do it sooner before it gets really damp and cold

[Meglet]

Do you have a shed? They will be super cosy in there with a few blankets / duvet chucked over it.

Mine were fine when I relocated them to the shed once I had dc's. We have a 2 storey hutch with ramp.

[OldLadyKnowsNothing]

Have you a shed, as a half-way house? Guinea pigs will do fine outside (I think the notion of keeping rabbits and cavies indoors is fairly recent, never heard of it in my day) but they will need to be acclimatised.

[Littlepumpkinpie]

I have mine in the shed which makes it a whole lot nicer during the winter months. I would hate to be cleaning them out in all weathers. The cold and the damp is not good for them at least inside a shed they are protected from the worst of the winter damp/frost/snow/wind.

[echofalls]

I put mines outside about 6 weeks ago and they are absolutely fine. I am going to put them in the playhouse in a couple of weeks time as I guess they will be a bit more protected. They are in with my mini lop rabbit who was depressed after her partner died. She treats the pigs like her babies and they all snuggle up together...very cute.

[ilovesprouts]

mines been out side for a while now,they are fine i just put lots of bedding in !!