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Original poster

Will I have frozen guinea pigs?

75 replies

golgi · 16/12/2009 18:41

I am looking after the school guinea pigs for the holidays and am therefore under pressure to make sure that they don't end up as guinea-pig-icicles!
They are in a cage, covered with a rug, in a shed, with plenty of hay and there are two of them. Is there any more I need to do short of bringing them indoors to live in the kitchen? (obviously not an ideal solution)
Please feel free to say "don't be silly, they are covered in fur"

OP posts:
themildmanneredjanitor · 17/12/2009 11:10

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Original poster
golgi · 17/12/2009 11:10

janitor - we have a hutch in the shed, plus a cage for indoors. And a run for the garden. These are very well equipped pigs! (thanks to the PTA)

OP posts:
themildmanneredjanitor · 17/12/2009 11:13

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Flightattendant · 17/12/2009 11:18

Has anyone got that book '101 uses for a dead cat'?

Original poster
golgi · 17/12/2009 11:18

it is, sorry. That's what I meant, anyway.

OP posts:
Original poster
golgi · 17/12/2009 11:18

I've got the Bunny Suicides book.

OP posts:
crankytwanky · 17/12/2009 11:21

So, Wise Women of Mumsnet, if, say, one had a singleton "outie" rabbit, would the hutch in she shed suffice?

And if I bought it inside, say, into the downstairs loo with the run of the house, would it be too hot?

Our little bugger darling bunny, Jesus, lives kind of free-range at the mo, between the house and garden, but he needs to be kept in somewhere, as he keeps eascaping.

Sorry to hjack, but you lot seem knowledgeable.

crankytwanky · 17/12/2009 11:23

Sigh.
the shed.
Escaping.

themildmanneredjanitor · 17/12/2009 11:23

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

crankytwanky · 17/12/2009 11:28

Ooh yes, janitor, thank you.

I was eyeing that stuff up in Homebase the other day, wondering what I could do with it.

Flightattendant · 17/12/2009 11:49

I just received our super duper rabbit hutch cover, complete with clear PVC front, plus silver thermal lining on the rest of it.
There was meant to be an insulated front bit as well but it got forgotten so will arrive soon I am told.

I just looked out and the rabbits are huddled together, behind their PVC, shivering

Not sure what else I can do for them.
I think they need exercise but we don't have a run atm and the end-of-garden enclosure is unfinished.

Oh well.

Flightattendant · 17/12/2009 11:52

Also there is a gap where it blows about at the bottom. I need to somehow get the bottom of the cover to stay right in next to the hutch, or they will just get a draught from underneath...any ideas?

crankytwanky · 17/12/2009 11:55

Is there an overlap? Could you weigh it down with bricks?

What about making a waterproof draught excluder?

ThumbleBells · 17/12/2009 12:00

better safe than sorry, golgi. A friend of mine did lose all her guineapigs overnight when she was small - they all froze to death. Not sure how insulated they were in their hutch/shed/whatever, but still not nice.

Mine live indoors and always have.

Original poster
golgi · 17/12/2009 12:59

Yep, think they'll be in overnight. Couldn't face going back to school in January if I did freeze 'em.

OP posts:
pagwatch · 17/12/2009 13:08

[sigh]

We always kept ours indoors. Actually kept the rabbits indoors too as I am never confident they will be warm enough outside. The bloody dog sleeps in and he is one of these

Golgi. Keep them in. You will only worry and it is blardy freezing.

Thanks to all who realsied that it was just a harmless joke.
Not sure if I should make it worse by saying I LOVE the bunny suicides .

FWIW being snotty and pofaced about a joke does not protect animals. It makes the people who actually would wish to be cruel able to dismiss rational concerns as hysterical wittering.

Blondeshavemorefun · 17/12/2009 13:34

def keep indoors - far too cold for gps to live outside - the furry kind and the relative kind

i have hammies and have piled tons of extra bedding on them as worried they will be cold - dh laughed and said they have fur and live in siberia so used to cold

can you imagine the looks you would get if you killed the school pet

crankytwanky · 17/12/2009 14:49

Ooh, pag, you don't see those about much these days!

And I loved your piggie-ice-cube comment.

silver73 · 17/12/2009 17:12

I don't think I was hysterical and you can keep on posting about me not liking your joke and having digs about it but like it or not I found your joke offensive especially as many GPs die during the winter and can literally freeze to death.

Flightattendant · 17/12/2009 18:07

Silver. no offence intended, I don't think any of us meant to offend and I am sorry you are upset. I understand that many piggies do meet their end in winter and of course that is a tragedy, but Pag's joke was so obviously just plain silly. I suppose many of us are innured to the suffering of such small animals as a defence...if we cried about it we would never stop, they are sadly so prone to disaster...I do find it awful that people can keep them in dreadful conditions and I wish that we could put an end to that.

pagwatch · 17/12/2009 18:13

silver
I genuinely would not wish you to be upset.
I genuinely like guinea pigs and would be sad if any one posted about losing one in real life.
People laugh about killing their mother in law, about flattened hedgehogs - all sorts of things that they would be horrified about if they were real
It really was just a joke.

How about I stop explaining myself and teasing you, if you stop trying to suggest I am Charles Manson or some kind of monster.

What do you say to a truce

silver73 · 18/12/2009 09:40

Flightattendant - thanks for your post. Have you seen whispywisps post about two little gps being neglected? Just one of hundreds of stories I expect.

Pagwatch - thanks for your post. Truce sounds great.

pagwatch · 18/12/2009 14:30

...

whispywhisp · 18/12/2009 17:06

I've read through this thread and I'm sorry but I'm gonna but in....

I worked for the RSPCA for many years...there were loads of cases of dead hutch animals...rabbits, ferrets, guinea pigs....hutches that are simply forgotten about...

It is all too easy to have hutch animals that are cute and cuddly initially but after a while, with a lot of people, the novelty of having them wears off.

This really cold weather we are having at the moment is a killer for hutch animals. They must be kept clean and dry and warm. To joke about guinea pigs dying in this cold is pathetic and anyone who jokes about simply can't give a toss.

The OP on this thread was simply asking for advice - not stupid time-wasters trying to be funny.

I have today rescued two pigs who would, without doubt, have died in their filthy soaking wet hutch. They are now sat in a cage full of fresh hay on my kitchen table by a warm radiator. They are thin and dirty and when I went and got them out of their hutch in my neighbour's filthy garden (dog poo everywhere) they were like blocks of ice.

I just wish those that have hutched animals would consider the long-term commitment of having them..especially during the Winter. I saw many photos of hutches with animals lying dead inside them - no food/water/hay/bedding etc. Animals that had passed away weeks before the RSPCA were called and the owners didn't even know. It is all too easy to neglect these poor creatures but atleast I have saved two today.

diddl · 18/12/2009 17:14

My guinea pigs & rabbits are in now.
In cages in the cellar so not too warm.
It´s minus 4 at the moment-in the day & colder at night!
I figure if I´m uncomfortable standing outside cleaning the hutches then they need to be in!

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