GPs first time outside

[baddyface]

I've read lots of different advice about this. We haven't had the GPs long and now it's nicer weather I'm hoping to get them outside this week.

Do I need to give them a time limit? I don't want to risk them filling up on grass and getting bloat.

Also what do I need to look out for in the grass? I read that buttercups and/or daisies are bad. Anything else?

Basically I want a fools guide to putting the guinea pigs out please

First time out, take it easy. Start with putting them out on dry grass for 30-40 minutes and build up gradually from there. I do this every year at the start of the 'going out' season. They'll soon adjust. Buttercups aren't good, so I dig them out, but our lawn is fairly weedy and the pigs seem to leave things they don't fancy. They love a good dead dry leaf!

Once they're used to going out, I'll stick them out if it's slightly damp, but I put a few old towels down so they have a dry spot to rest.

My DH words of wisdom: "Only do it if you're capable of catching them" . DH and I had to catch the little ratbags tonight (DD usually folds herself into the run- those gymnastic classes weren't wasted - ) I had to catch the girls in their HopInn tunnel and our boar by coralling him into a corner.
Even though it was getting dark and they wanted supper, they saw the chance to muck about

First off - secure run, don't take chances with their safety. We peg ours down with those heavy duty tent pegs. I put cable ties on the doors to fasten in case something tries to pull at them.
A box or something to hide in, security and shade.

Check the grass is dry - walk barefoot on it.
Put a folded newspaper down if they want to sit on it.

Daisies, buttercup, anything like ivy, bulbs, dock leaves. Look out for spikey weeds .there's ones like dandelions but really prickly. Ours leave anything like buttercup (by instinct I suppose) thankfully.

Give them maybe 30 minutes to begin with, build it up slowly.
I give cut grass in the days before they can graze to get them used to it, they love it

You might be rewarded by a few mad popcorning circuits (take your phone to video them, its so cute )

When its really hot, a sheet over the run to give shade .
A water bottle
Ours like going out in the evening when we get home from work (or DD from school)

And you'll need to move the run when they've done their locust impression, but you'll be left with tiny packages of fertiliser !

Ours haven't been out yet because the ground's been wet after rain, maybe tomorrow will be the day, my top tip is if your run is big enough, put your pet carrier in it and they'll all run inside. Pick up carrier and remove pigs to hitch.

Our GPs live out all year - their hutch is massively insulted and has heat pads in the winter. They are the two most pampered pigs going I assure you.

They really couldn't care less about the grass being wet though. Half their (v large) run is under cover and half not - the other day they were out in the rain (and it certainly wasn't because of hunger as inside their hutch they had hay, pellets and cabbage!

Well they made it outside!

Have to say they weren't that impressed.
One spent the whole time in the box, the other hid under the fleece most of the time.

Very little grass eating went on.

Thanks so much for the advice on catching them. I hadn't thought of that!

I put an igloo in a cardboard box so when they went to hide , I was able to shut the box and keep them in there.

We have a long tunnel, Sadie likes to run through it, Mollie likes to sit in it blocking Sadie out of the way.
When we go to fetch them in they often run into the tunnel, and we can put out hands in and catch them. Usually one at a time
They are so stupid they forget how easy they make it for us and sit in it each time.

Squeak our first ever piggie used to climb onto DH's hand - never mine - when he put it near her and said HAND, we've never managed this with a pig since.

Our guinea pigs love it, the popcorn their way around the run. I am most unpopular today as I cut the grass and they sat in the run afterwards and I swear that they were glaring at me as they had no lovely long grass.

beep when DH cuts the lawn , the piggies look all wide eyed at DD till she fetches them long grass and dandelions from the borders. (She spoils and enables them )

DH maintains that the guineas only mow in rectangles (which is the area of the run x 2) so it'd be a tad patchy if he left them to it.

Our pigs only eat a quarter of the run, the same quarter at the same time. They argue over it!

Hey everyone,

baddyface I hope you don't mind me hijacking this post.

So, I've had pigs for years, they live indoors and we've only ever put them outside on pleasant days without a hint of rain expected. I'm now starting to think I've pampered them a bit too much, and they could go out on cooler days.

We've got a 6' x 4' run, with an igloo, cat box and long tube in there for them to hide away in. The cat box has a fleece inside it, and I've wrapped a fleece around the outside of it to insulate it a bit.

Do you put your pigs outside on the grass if it's damp in the morning but you know it will dry out during the day?

Would you put them out and cover the run (with tarpaulin) if you know it's going to be warmish but might rain?

I've read that wet grass can harm them so I've never dared before.

Any advice much appreciated,
Thanks

You need to wait until the grass is dry, it can give them stomach ache I think.
We also put a water bottle and source of shade on their run.

Ours go out all summer from 8 in morning till 10 at night. We don't have foxes. They have a wooden box shelter and a wood framed run.

They go out rain or shine and our old girl, who finally died at the grand old age of 11, used to sit out in the rain stuffing her face with anything that was in her immediate vicinity. Our lawn has daisies, buttercups and all manner of other weeds but nothing seems to have caused any upset tummies. They seem to prefer the grass with the result that our lawn is now almost grassless and just full of one particular purple weed that they don't like much.

They do spend quite a lot of the day in the box but always come later in the afternoon and at dusk. Depending on who was in with who (we used to have 3 so there would normally be two ganging up against one) would determine who was "allowed" in the box. The other poor soul would have to sit outside mournfully by the door either getting wet or getting hot (we do normally put a tarpaulin over if very sunny).

I wouldn't fret too much about weather conditions. They are quite hardy little creatures.

Thanks for your replies. So would you still put your pigs out if it had been raining during the night and was forecast to rain for the rest of the day (but during summer so not getting too cold)?

Our two, now deceased pigs, used to be free range pigs before we did the garden and got fussy over what was eaten. They did fine.

Our new piggies are in a run but when they are let loose they decimate the mint, it's like cat nip for pigs

Oh I've got tons of mint, I'll give them some for brekky this morning :-)

(They adore parsley but have turned their noses up at other herbs I've given them!)

Nope they don't like mint!!!

Tried mine with mint today. Madampig wouldn't get out of bed to sniff it and Gingerpig approached with caution, had an experimental sniff and then did a very rapid reverse into the safety of his igloo where he sat rumbling away to himself. They both needed substantial amounts of lavender for recovery. Clearly in this pig house mint is as evil as strawberries

Strawberries are food from the gods here,as are blueberries and kale.

We don't mint, or strawberries, blueberries are consumed reluctantly if there appears a food famine is on the horizon

I didn't know that piggies could eat lavender!

Ours aren't fussed about apple or bananas but they will eat lettuce and argue over it.

I didn't know about lavender either, or banana for that matter. I've got tons of lavender in the garden, though I put that there for the bees.
I also bought a bee hotel, not that a single flippin bee has shown any interest in the hotel. Rude.

Let them try lavender - they smell gorgeous after.

There is a great video of a gorgeous boy -Bert eating a banana on You Tube. Takes you to a happy place

We tried the great lavender experiment of 2017.

Gp1 rumbled and refused to try it
Gp2 ate half of it and sat in my knee nodding his head repeatedly and refused the rest

We tried too, 3 pigs looked at us with utter disgust.
1 pig liked it.

That's quite good really, I love the lavender in the garden, would have felt sad if i'd have ended up feeding it all to the girls...