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What do your guinea pigs do in the winter?

33 replies

SQLCat · 25/10/2019 21:24

Hello!
We have 2 guinea pigs that we adopted this time last year. They have quite a large 2 tier cage.
In the summer we put them out in an enclosure on the lawn and they would hang around and mow the grass. Now it’s too wet and they stare sadly out the window. I know they’d prefer to be out mowing and playing in their tunnel.
I am putting together a social c&c cage so they can hang out with the family more. Part of the problem is that the boys don’t actually like each other and will only tolerate each other outside of their main cage.

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Dancinghorses36 · 26/10/2019 00:46

Weeksygirls sorry my phone autocorrects and I didn't get your name correct in the above post

TheHobbitMum · 26/10/2019 19:17

2 lots of indoor pigs in our house, they are too used to warmth and snuggly beds to go out in winter. I do go out and pick fresh head daily for them though Grin

What do your guinea pigs do in the winter?
Thatnameistaken · 26/10/2019 22:22

Very cute piggies! Space is key, the more space they have the less likely they are to fight. I have 2 boys that live together indoors, they started off with a large c&c cage but we took the front section of the cage out and they now free range in our living room and dining room. They sleep and eat mostly in the cage area but there is a corner under a chair that they love and under a table in the dining room, we put puppy pads down in these areas. They very rarely poo or pee elsewhere. We use fleece for bedding and have a contained area for hay so it doesn't get trailed all over.
We also have an elderly cat and she has no interest in them at all, they were introduced with great care but it soon became evident that there weren't going to be any issues. Check out 'The Lava Empire' on Facebook, her pigs free range, I modelled my set up on hers.

JaeWhiteCrow88 · 27/10/2019 11:29

I have the sweetest wee girl, 3 months old Fenty she's coming out her shell quite the thing, but since getting her Gerry my 4 month old boy has become really jealous and a bit of a cantankerous menace. So I'm having to give him days of undivided attention.

I'm contemplating getting a third so it will make him less of a nasty boy, and help him be more relaxed and at eased.

Currently they're in house piggies, and get a lot of running around the house together, but Gerry is a bully towards Fenty, quite often he will dominate her and push her to the side to stop her from getting to the food. So I step in and separate some food from and put it in a different area so she can get some, but he chases her and nips her bottom to stop her from getting to it.

Adamant on being the top man! I feel another piggie will help bring in a balance to the mix.

70isaLimitNotaTarget · 28/10/2019 18:27

My DH said he read they’d prefer to be with 3-4 female pigs

They might be happier but you'd need to have one boar in each group (and a neutered boar is quite happy with one wife) so you'd need two large cages to accomodate .

Sows can be just as feisty and stroppy as boars though !

Our forst two pigs (brothers) liked their own space we could tell they slept in different corners of the hay bed by the pooh nests . They hay box was in their shed , DH made it from an old cupboard , about 3'x3' floorspace sleeping area , open front to let them escape . We filled to the brim with hay and they just piled in. It is insulating but needs to be dry , fresh, replaced regularly (they like to sleep/eat/pee in hay )

When we got a piglet boar for GP1 (GP2 died) we gave the older boar a wicker hedgehog house with straw on top and a rubber trug cut to to over , so he had insulation and his own space ( piglet liked the haybed)
They really fretted if they were seperated even briefly but still beaved like the other one was Arch Enemy Grin

Last year I had three oldies , I kept them indoors 24/7 from about early Oct , mainly to keep an eye on them. They had the small bedroom (no door on it) in two big cages .

This morning I woke up to my NDN scraping ice , my first thought was "guinea-pigs" but we haven't had pigs since April when our last old lady died .

WRT veg, you do need to moderate , the darker the green (so spinach, kale Cavelo Nero, watercress, cabbage, herbs ) the higher risk of calcium build up in the bladder and kidney .

They do appreciate if you go out with the scissors to cut them grass, rinse it , dry and let it come to room temperature . My NDNs were used to seeing me out in my dressing gown with a bowl (lowering the tone)

WonkyDonk87 · 28/10/2019 21:35

We've just taken on two boys who live separately due to quarrelling. They have a hutch each, and a run each. They have been out today in their runs but I brought them in mid-afternoon as it turned chilly. The hutches are inside a summer house, to protect them from rain and wind, but I'm worried about them getting cold. I'm going to get them the microwaveable pads tomorrow.

NCTDN · 14/11/2019 08:33

Do you let them run around indoors when it is too cold to go out? Ours love this.

FauxFox · 14/11/2019 16:50

I have three boars that don't like each other, they live in a stack of hutches in a lean to garage and for the winter they have one of these each:
www.amazon.co.uk/Petnap-Flexiguard-33-Metal-electric/dp/B002USGWMA/ref=sr_1_21?keywords=heat+for+pets&tag=mumsnetforu03-21&qid=1573750098&sr=8-21
They go under the cardboard and hay to keep the bedroom areas snuggly warm and you just leave them plugged in all the time - makes me feel a lot better about not being able to bring them inside (DH won't have it Sad)

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