Keeping GPs outdoors question

[MagicHouse]

Can anyone advise me here?
I am about to get 2 guinea pigs for my daughter's 6th birthday. I keep reading conflicting advice about whther or not they can stay outdoors in the winter. If they did I would buy one of those insulating hutch covers as well as a waterproof one. We haven't got the option of a shed or garage. The alternative would be to buy an indoor hutch for winter - though the ones I've seen look very small for everyday use.
What is the general consensus about keeping them outdoors??
TIA.

My gp's are about 4 now I think. They have had 3 winters outside and they have been fine. In the winter I put their hutch against the house wall, (for warmth), and have fashioned a one layer cover of bubble-wrap and another layer of old shower curtains, (it's a nice look). In the summer I move them away from the house though otherwise their hutch is in direct sunlight all day and is too hot. They are in their summer position in the shade now, but still covered at night. Outside will be fine as long as you cover them and make sure they have lots and lots of hay for warmth.

We got one for 5th birthday last year and have kept it outdoors all year but we have had a pretty mild winter so I haven't been too worried. We gave it loads of straw and bedding and extra little shelters to go in the hutch.

What I would say though is that dd got pretty bored of the Gp pretty quickly.

There's a thread on here "Please advice GP living outside". You do well to think ahead ,I know I'm thinking about summer, my pigs overheating, flystrike and if my Chaste boys are going to go all Leslie Phillips when they are on holiday and might meet girls .

Your GPs will be what age when you get them?

It got very cold at night last winter, quite a few times their water bowl froze up, so I was glad they were in.

They can if they are dry, insulated and protected.No draughts, make sure the bedding is dry, even if it means a daily change. Ours liked fleecy blankets to cuddle in.
My hogs were in at night since early Dec til last week and out in their pighouse every day.
But at 6.30 am I was putting a fan heater in for 15 minutes while I filled up 3-4 hot water bottles (I kid you not). And a good light is essential for dark mornings.
They came in at 6pm.Their indoor cage is small 4'x2' split into 2 (they get arsey in confined spaces). so need to be seperate at night (or it's Fight Club in our house)

Loads of hay (I use half a big bag per bedchange) in their wooden house in the shed. I know it's considered not done but I put soft barley straw as a thick layer at the back and sides to insulate the box .They don't eat it, you have to make sure they can't stab themselves (this stuff is softer than alot of the hay) but it bulks up more, and they have plenty of hay.

Insulate with loads of newspaper, cardboard, carpet.

This worked well for us , we got our boys last October, they were 1 yo. Boars don't cuddle up, girls tend to.
But our boys needed run around space and we always quick to tell me off if I was late putting them out.

ladida that your DD fell out with GP. It means you do all the cleaning and cuddling. Have you still got GP?

My 9yo DD is surgically attatched to her boar.
I'm hoping my DS falls out with his boar because I want him.

And I do all the cleaning and 6.30am pighouse set up. I sadid right from the start that I would.
DD helps me feed them.
DS does Bu**er All TBH.

carpet where they can't chew it. Ours is wedged at the back of their hay box.
I use thick rubber carmats under the cardboard. I can get boxes from work.
Ours don't tend to chew non food things- where's the sense in eating non edible stuff they think!

ladida - have you only got one piggie? They need to live with at least one other pig as they are social animals and get miserable alone.

I think the general consensus is that you can safely keep them outside in UK winter but with provision for extra shelter (perhaps in a clean-air shed or garage, even) when it gets below freezing. And only if they are otherwise dry & draft free within the cage, and have someone to cuddle up with.

We only bought one and then were later told about needing two (not sure why the pet shop didn't tell me .

Would it be ok to get another one now? Have worried that the first one would be aggressive?

I do the cleaning and most of the cuddling but ds is very keen on it now so he likes to play with it. DD unfortuantely is allergic to the main ingredients in the gp food (Wagg, dd allergic to peas and soya bean) so kept getting hives after touching it .

Hi LaDiDaDi you can still get another one. Easier with females. GPs need to have at least one other friend. They are not only social creatures but also they clean each others eyes etc. You could talk to your nearest GP rescue and they will find a way forward for you. What sex is your piggie?

Thanks for all the advice :) I'm prepared for dd to (probably - hopefully not!)get bored and for me to be doing the looking after. I'll keep thinking about what will be best come December. The hutch I've got has a same-size cover
"- material designed by Nasa" (or is that a sales con!) so I'm thinking I'll go for that with all the extra hay etc, and maybe get an indoor cage if the winter is particularly bad.

Another question - what do you line the floor of the cage with? - the pet shop says wood shavings, but in a book I read the author was against that I seem to remember?? And would once a week for a thorough clean be enough?

TIA again

Oh no never wood shavings it is so bad for them. I use megazorb and it is fab - less cleaning out, cheaper in the long run as don't need to use as much. I get it from the hay experts. It costs £11 to have 3 bags delivered and £7 ish pounds to have two bags delivered. It is well worth it even though it seems expensive when you first buy it.

With megazorb it is easy to do spot cleaning as and when and then a good clean out once a week. With my girls I completely clean them out twice a week. It takes no more than 5 minutes but I have them indoors. I don't even need to take them out of their C & G cage. They know the routine. All houses etc go to one end of the cage so they move over to that side so I can clean and put down megazorb the other side. Then do the same for the other side. It is really quite sweet as they love having a clean cage.

I use a variety of bedding with my boys depending on what I've got and how aromatic they are!

For the inside cage at night in winter (that's the one I had to divide into 2 because they had a nasty old fight) I use Catsan cat litter, then newspaper then a load of hay. They have a dish of veg each and sit in hay to eat, hide. (I don't like the smell of hay, but I love the sound of happy guineas).

My pigs go in their pighouse every day even in winter (with their hot water bottles and a tubular heater. Fan to blast heat first to warm up).

Their hoghouse is 5'5" x5'5" with a big wooden box they can sit on and a ramp.
I put newspaper on the floor in the corners, their wooden box has rubber mats, cardboard, newspaper, soft barley straw at the back and sides and hay in the middle. It takes alot of hay.
I scoop out wet bedding, shake out the poohs daily.
Every 3 days or 3 times a week depending on their mankiness, I empty completely, clean and refill.

Tried Megazorb
Shredded paper
Fleeces

All work and I'd use any all of them, but that's what works for my little boys.
Though I'll do a rethink for summer.

When my DD got the GPs I didn't expect her to clean the pighouse TBH. I do it during the day on my non-work days and sometimes at 9pm if they need a ready house for the next morning (they go out 6.30 am)

And I find it quite theraputic (in a sad way) preparing my hogbed.

Must get a life

Wood shavings don't absorb, they are sharp , they dry out the GP skin and feet and there are chemicals which irritate the GP respiratory system. Respiratory problems are one of the biggest killers of GPs.
Sawdust can get in their eyes too.

TBH straw isn't 100% recommended (I wouldn't give it to baby guineas ) but I've checked and the stuff I buy (bagged) is softer than hay and it keeps it's bulk whereas hay flattens.

They love to bury themselves in hay, it's part of their burrowing pig behaviour.

GP1 sounds like a cavy Rab C Nesbitt when he goes into the haybox first and has a fight with himself. GP2 sits outside then piles in after him.

I recently read a long essay on why wood shavings are fine, and the supposed problems with them & rodents only applied to cedar shavings, any other sort fine. Sorry can't find quick link. I've definitely never encountered "sharp" wood shavings.

Megazorb costs just about the same as wood shavings, though, ime, so easy enough to take the lower risk option.

The GPigs I look after are on newspaper+straw (which I suspect could be an eye issue, though no problems yet), or our own sawdust (from DH's chainsawing). tbh, they are on the grass so much of the time that we don't get thru a lot of bedding.

Belligerant throw-back psycho GP never eats hay, only straw!!

Mine don't burrow in hay, only trample it down.

So much advice :) thanks again. They sound like lots of work!!!

70isalimit don't worry I wouldn't expect my dd to clean out the hutch either, maybe just add the new hay!

The more I ask the more I realise I need to know!

Can anyone recommend where they order megazorb? Or do all petshops have it? Is newspaper ok then - the petshop said the ink wasn't good for them? Would I stuff the enclosed bit of the hutch full of hay? How much goes in the other bit where food bowls/ toys are etc - loads too?. I've only ever had hamsters - can't quite imagine GPs! How much hay do they tend to get through - do you need to top up every day?

The next question is about handling them - I work 4 days a week, home about quarter to 6. So I was intending to get them out for a while then. Fridays/ weekends can be longer/ more frequent handling. Would it be ok (in warmer weather) to keep them in their hutch all day when I'm at work - or would it be kinder to buy a run (with a sheltered part) so they can be on the grass during the day (garden is pretty shaded)??

Feel like a complete novice! 22 days till dd's B'day! Empty hutch set up - just need to get my research done now!

Gah. I wrote a huge post and the computer gremlins ate it!
Right, I'll write small bits.

Megazorb is a horsebedding. I got some from Farmways online. You can get Carefresh in P@H ,maybe try that first?

I buy hay from The Range, P@H or Jolleys depending on where I am .About £4 a bag. I use a bag of hay and one of soft barley straw a week. My 'haybox' is 3' square.
You could give your piglets a cardboard box full of hay (I wouldn't give babies straw TBH ,the stalks and longers, some owners say it can cause injury. I put mine at the back to insulate (it doesn't flatten, more boyant).

Cut 2 holes in a box, don't risk your bolshier pig trapping the meeker one.

Food/water- I do mine at night, fresh pellets and water changed daily. Baby GPs sit in their bowls. You'll find out how much they eat, give a little bit spare to save fights, but avoid waste.
I give fresh veg breakfast and supper.If they've had a grazing day, then I cut down the supper veg.

I give mine newspaper, they don't chew. This is on top of cardboard on rubber car mats. Then hay/straw on the newspaper. Make sure there's no staples or sellotape .

I go into the hay with my bare hands and take out any damp hay and little nests of pooh. (They each use a corner at the back). Then I fluff the dry hay.That's every day).

Every 3 days I comletely remove hay, newspaper and replace. The cardboard is fine for up to a week with ours.

I'm at work 3 days, so they get a 30-60 min hug after dinner. Longer at weekends. I don't leave mine in the run alone (foxes and cats round here) but if your run is predator proof and you give them shelter, then it's as safe as their cage., They'd need a waterproof hideaway that they could escape to if it rains or something bothers them.
I don't put mine out till the grass has dried.They've got a wicker hedgehog house and I give them a bathmat. I'm thinking about one of those wooden houses that fastens onto the side opening.

The more you handle them,the tamer they'll be.They'll be easier to bathe and check over. And nail clipping. Little toads let me know they didn't enjoy that. Are you going to let them run free indoors? in a chew proof area.

Ours peed a few times ,then gave us the Stampy Dance which is their que to go on a towel in the washing basket to pee. Pity GP2 doesn't warn us when he passes gas vom face.

Have you got your GPs lined up? are you after girls/boys/mixed?

Babies or adults?

If you get girls, make sure they are both girls. (I got 2 surprise litters as a child). 2 girls turned out to be girl/boy. We were adviced not to separate them once she was pg. "The boar won't harm the piglets". No, but he got the female pg again as soon as they were born. Tsk Tsk.

And a girl I bought was already pg!

I'm going to go slightly against the grain here and say that they are a much, much better, happier indoor pet. I'm not saying that outdoors in the UK is a negative as long as there is weatherproofing - but personally I would say indoors every time.

Firstly, no matter what, they will be warmer and happier. They will bond with you all far more quickly and be more tame. The negative of this set up is that you will never be able to open the fridge/rattle a carrier without being screamed at. I used to live in a loft Bedroom in a house share in London, and they could hear the fridge down 2 storeys. My eldest female rarely lived in her cage at this time - her door was always open and I'd usually find she had climbed onto my bed to sleep. She was like a tiny dog.

Being prey animals, they hide illness very well. In general a pig who looks ill is likely to have been that way for a while, and respiratory and other infections can kill quickly this way. You are more likely to spittoon sniffles and other manifestations of illness indoors so that vet treatment can happen more quickly.

Indoors I would use fleece as a bedding. It's a massive saving, requires changing every 3 days (depending on cage, pig habits etc) - a quick shake outside, brief vacuum and into the wash.

If its cage size and expense you are worried about for indoors, google "cavy cages" - which gives instructions for building the most magnificent cages very cheaply. I had an enormous cage, 3 storeys - I paid around £15 for the grids and got my chloroplast from a local sign maker for free.

Any way you do it is a compromise though really.
Indoors all the time, you need alot of space. I can't pig proof a room for them, we've got too many wires and they'd get stuck somewhere or other .

I bought the largest indoor cage I could find 4'x2' and 18" high. According to websites this should be large enough. But ours had a fight so we had to divide it. They only used it to sleep in, so we filled it with hay and let them chomp away.

They are together in the pighouse, but they've got room to be apart. (They do fret if one is away from the other)
AS long as they are cuddled, checked morning and night and kept dry, warm and safe. Mine don't want human company all the time. They have boar battles, GP1 rumblestomps and popcorns. They hide in the hay, we see two small noses.They sleep in opposite corners of the box.They're animals who need to do animal things.
They want the same piece of veg, even though there's a plateful.
Yesterday they circled like sharks. GP1 nudged GP2s bottom, but nothing more.
They do a heads up,face-off "What's your problem" "Your face "!

Their fight was a one off, coriander induced (guinea-pig crack allegedly )

Some live outside in all weather. Some inside and never see grass.
We do both and compromise.It works for us.
And now they're out all night I can open the fridge safely !