Aibu to say the guinea pigs will be ok in the greenhouse over winter?

[Poolhater]

They are in hutches that are off the ground. These hutches will be taken into the green house. If the weather isn’t awful, they will have access to runs within the green house (but the runs would be directly on the slabs although they would be able to get back into hutches if they wanted to.

GP forums say never house in a greenhouse. But we don’t have anywhere else for them to go that is a little bit protected from the weather. Surely inside the green house is better than outside in the garden?

The hutches (inside or out) would have old blanket and tarpaulin over them to insulate. And happy to try those heat pads although feel quite ill at the thought of it going in a microwave (I know it will have been cleaned, but still , yuck!).

We’ve moved house and they had been abandoned here (whole other thread), so we are unprepared owners (albeit had them for six months and are now quite taken with them) with not a lot of spare cash and no where inside for them to go.

AIBU to think they’d be ok in the greenhouse? We are in England.

Guinea pigs doesn’t have fur they have hair, sadly my hair doesn’t get thicker in the winter and neither does Guinea pigs.

You need to let them acclimatise and then try and keep the variance of the temperature as small as possible. This also means no bring in for cuddles in the house and then back out into the freezing cold in the middle of winter.

My guinea pigs come in from outside when the temperatures at night dip below 10C and they’ve not been on the grass in a few weeks. Guinea pigs don’t cope well with damp, so making sure the cage doesn’t get too wet with wee also needs to be a consideration.

Better to find a sheltered place in the garden, in a well constructed insulated hutch that can be both airy without draughty.

Good luck and we’ll done on rescuing them.

Ours stay outside in most weathers, with a back up hutch inside for nights where we have snow or its super cold! But, we do lots of extra bedding, extra food and a hot water bottle wrapped in a blanket x

We had ours out year round, we put the hutch against the brick wall. Put a generous amount of wood chips on the bottom, then filled the straw up to the roof of the hutch and they made a little tunnel through it. Lasted for years.

My cousins piggies froze to death in their greenhouse 😶 when the weather was unexpectedly very cold.
If you have lots of warm, fleecey bedding, a hot water bottle and can wrap some insulation around their cage/hutch they should be OK.
Should mention both my cousings piggies were short haired, poor wee guys

If you don’t have room inside for them, I think the best option would be a sheltered part of the garden, near the house if possible (ambient heat from the house) and layer them up with blankets/covers and lots of and lots of hay for warmth. That would be better than the changes of temperature in a greenhouse. I know lots of people who keep theirs outside in the winter and don’t have problems (although mine are very pampered and are brought inside in October in case they get their tootsies chilly! 😂)

@SW1amp FYI straw is not advised for guinea pigs. It’s too hard and can cause eye pokes, it also doesn’t soak up urine like hay so doesn’t keep the cage as dry and their feet as dry. They shouldn’t really eat straw either and as they should have unlimited hay, it’s best to just use hay as bedding too.

I have never heard of keeping guinea pigs outside, but I have heard that they are delicious if they are spit roasted in the proper South American manner by my Colombian and Ecuadorian neighbors. Both of these customs are a little shocking to me. But it is very interesting to hear about.

How hot does your greenhouse get??! I have Guineas in Sydney and they cope fine with temp up to 30, and on days when it’s very warm they come into the air con if it’s too warm in the shade. Amazed it would ever get too hot for piggies in the U.K.

Ours stay outside basically year round although we blanket them up if it’s getting down to 4/5 at night. Lots of hay, blanket over the cage and a blanket over the top of that.

My rabbit when I was younger was ok in winter outside but in a sheltered part of the garden with lots of hay in their bed x

I've recently bought a remote control thermometer for my new greenhouse ready for the winter - I can track the temperature through an app - what's surprised me is not just the temperature fluctuations but also how high the humidity reaches overnight, another reason why it probably wouldn't be a good environment for small animals.

Wow. Thank you for all your replies. I guess the greenhouse is a no go then!

We actually didn’t find them til the Sunday morning - we moved in on the Friday on the most hideous of wet days which continued til the Sat evening meaning we put the outdoors out of bounds for the kids. The GP were in their hutches in an old and very rickety playhouse that was behind some overgrown shrubs. The strange thing was that they didn’t look too bad. We took them to a vet who told us they weren’t too worse for wear - almost like they hadn’t been left for too long. They are very friendly too which ruins my heart of stone exterior when they come running over to me!

We hoped someone might come back for them but no one has and here we are 6 months later. We also had an old car and an empty skip left on the property. ( Should add that the property was an old rental that had been empty for a while.)

Anyway, I’m going to need to stalk the local selling sites - for something very cheap as an alternative and also see if we can fashion a more secluded area for them.

Thanks again all.

Our guinea pigs lived very happily for nearly a decade only coming inside (to live in a box in the utility room) when temps dipped WELL below freezing for days on end. Otherwise, with plenty of newspaper, straw and hay they were happy as Larry. They are from desert regions (I think?) so able to withstand very cold temperatures. Ours had an extra box within their hutch and we put the front up at night. They were toasty.

I don't know enough about greenhouses to say, but I do know (sadly, from experience) that overheating will kill a guinea pig fast. They should do fine in the cold if they have a very thick layer of bedding to snuggle up in, won't have to stand on or rest against any metal or other cold elements, and are sheltered from the wind and damp.

OP, is there any chance you could have them inside?

Only had indoor guinea pigs, and they lived until eight.

They had a huge cage on a table in the living room (I know, I know!). They HAD to be cleaned out every couple of days, or else they'd pong. But they got on well with my dogs, too.

I bloody miss those days, but wouldn't do it again!

I don't know why anyone would bother having guinea pigs and then leaving them outside anyway.

My guinea pigs got frequent attention outside, including from my neighbours (young and old!) Who popped by with treats and for chats. I couldn't have them inside as unfortunately they hugely aggravated my asthma.
I do find it sad though that many piggies and rabbits have lonely lives in small hutches. They are dear little creatures and very sweet pets if treated well.

We used to double wrap the hutch in large bubble plastic, with a flap of bubble plastic that came down over the front at night. A section was left unwrapped to allow for fresh air to breath. We filled the nest side with loads of hay to keep them warm. Even in minus figures they were fine outside. Had GP’s for about ten years in total. They never came in and were fine with the bubble wrap.

@PrincessNutella

I don't know why anyone would bother having guinea pigs and then leaving them outside anyway.

Because they are in pairs, they have company. They are closer to their natural environment. They get fed and played with every day. They get out on the ground to graze and keep their toe nails down. They are not subject to household noise and stress, including proximity to cats and dogs, lack of fresh air, etc etc etc.

I also have cats who spend a lot of time outdoors - does the same apply to them?

Apart from the temperature flucuating don't forget that damp ( condensation in a greenhouse) is a killer for these little rodents .

I used to put straw as a bank under newspaper as an insulator then hay on top to eat/sleep in.
TBH a lot of the straw was softer than hay , more like rafia .

They do need careful management of heat-cold or cold-heat ,
We had a shed/wooden playhouse for ours which we could ventilate or insulate as needed but they came in for winter (at least at night ) then their shed was prepped with dry bedding and a little heater to take the chill off before they went out .

They are lovely little animals but very respiratory sensitive

Ours spend winter in conservatory. It doesn't get too hot in sunshine. We heat the conservatory mornings and evenings. In summer they stay outside.