Advice Needed For Indoor Piggies To Play Outside...

[3Tyger]

Hi,
I'm not sure i've posted this in the right place so please staff, feel free to move it if i've did it wrong...
As i've said in previous threads, i moved recently into my first home with a garden and we've built an enclosure so that my indoor cat and my indoor piggies will be able to experience going outside safely. Obviously, its very cold now so i won't be putting my piggies outside until it warms up around spring/summer. But i'm feeling quite nervous now and need to know a few things. I'd be really grateful for feedback around my concerns -
1. Will they be okay to just suddenly start going outside and eating grass? Is a good variety of hay, veg & herbs they already have enough to prepare them? Or must I try introducing them to little bits of readigrass or something now or nearer the time so they don't get an upset tummy?
2. I already take them to the vet and treat them with xeno 1-2 times per year - do I need to increase that when they start going outside?
3. I've never wormed guinea pigs before - would that be necessary?
4. I've not laid down the grass yet - is there a particular kind of grass I should get or avoid?
5. Do I need to limit the time they go outdoors at first, and then increase it - and then how much time outdoors would be a good time for them to be out?
6. Is there anything else I need to be aware of that I haven't thought of yet?
I'm enclosing photos so you can see the space. No other animal will have access to this enclosure apart from my own pets. My cat is very clean and will only use her litter tray indoors, which is far away from my piggies. Obviously I will also be building a run for them inside the enclosure to keep them secure from my cat, any thoughts on that also appreciated.
Really sorry if these questions sound a bit silly, but it's new for me letting my pets outside and i'm excited to be able to let them but also a bit anxious because its new. When they are outside they will be supervised all the time.
Thank you.

 

[TheCavySlave]

Relax! I'm not an expert on this subject but I'll try to reassure you:
1. It's best to get them used to grass, tearing a small amount up for them to eat, increasing the amount steadily works well. Someone says they count grass as veggies, which is wise.
2. I doubt it! If you see them scratching more, an extra treatment would be a good idea.
3. My boys were (I'm so sorry) pet shop pigs, yes I know it's bad, but anyway, I don't know if they're wormed or not, hopefully someone can help!
4. No idea, I'd say just standard lawn grass is best, if that exists? But I have no clue, I'm afraid to say!
5. Once their tummies are fully used to grass, I think a few hours of outdoor time is good, 1-3, or more, depending on weather (not too cold, not too hot in case of heatstroke, damp grass is never good)
6. Hmm. Watch out for any plants growing- buttercups, weeds, daisies.
Oh, and this may be of some help. Best of luck!

 

[3Tyger]

Relax! I'm not an expert on this subject but I'll try to reassure you:
1. It's best to get them used to grass, tearing a small amount up for them to eat, increasing the amount steadily works well. Someone says they count grass as veggies, which is wise.
2. I doubt it! If you see them scratching more, an extra treatment would be a good idea.
3. My boys were (I'm so sorry) pet shop pigs, yes I know it's bad, but anyway, I don't know if they're wormed or not, hopefully someone can help!
4. No idea, I'd say just standard lawn grass is best, if that exists? But I have no clue, I'm afraid to say!
5. Once their tummies are fully used to grass, I think a few hours of outdoor time is good, 1-3, or more, depending on weather (not too cold, not too hot in case of heatstroke, damp grass is never good)
6. Hmm. Watch out for any plants growing- buttercups, weeds, daisies.
Oh, and this may be of some help. Best of luck!

Thank you so much for all of that, you're an angel!

You can probably tell I get slightly anxious about their well-being... no, i wasn't tearing out my hair in panic or anything... (okay, maybe a little)...

To be totally honest, this just got finished today and doing the garden and building this has emptied our bank accounts completely, but me & my OH are slightly over-protective (Ok, ok I know ) and just want them to be safe. We just think if you're gonna cage an animal then they deserve the best you can provide, and now we have outdoor space so should they have.

Also it will be really nice to see them experience grass under their feet, so i think its all gonna be worth it. It's weird, i think I will be excited and terrified all at once when they first go out there! A mixture of and

That link was very helpful, i didn't know they could get UTI if the floor is too cold.

And hey, no need to apologise where your guinea pigs came from. Who am I to judge you? I have a mixture of rescue pets and non-rescue pets. I prefer rescue, but we found the others hard to resist when going through pet bereavements. And it happens, nobody is perfect! (Well I certainly ain't).

Once again, thank you for all your support, all feedback most gratefully received

 

[TheCavySlave]

Finally, another panicker! We all worry, I sort of go into a state of calm, relaxed hyperventilation. Patch of the fleece not 100% dry? WE'RE TERRIBLE OWNERS. Are we feeding them enough? Too much? Do we not cuddle them enough?
Also, we don't cage our piggies, they practically have a mansion! A 2x4 C&C cage attached to a run, both have separate fleece. Honestly, the fleece for the run is huge, washing it is such a faff.
When we first had them, they had a smallish cage with straw bedding and brown hay, all from the shop. after the straw turned out to be basically the WORST THING EVER, we got paper bedding (no smell at all, neat!) And Oxbow Western Timothy hay. Then they upgraded to the C&C cage with fleece, then we added the run first with mats, then fleece.
They are soo pampered. But we have almost full control over their quality of life, why not work hard to make sure they live in piggy luxury? In return, they have to deal with being picked up and kissed a lot. They're SO CUTE. We didn't properly introduce grass and veggies (I know, I know, bad slaves, but we didn't know!) yet they had no problems. They love their run, although they snuggled together once when they were chilly, the munchkins, we brought them in of course. And then there was the time we left the run door open and they both got out! Duncan came back easily, Godfrey, not so much. There were tears and scratched arms, not just from Duncan. Haha, no, I was in tears and our arms were in pieces from the bushes, we had to cut one down. A bush, not an arm! Anyway, our boys are safe and sound. Oh, and we gave them little shallow tubs of cool water in their run on hot days, Godfrey liked to stand in themso adorable!
I've basically typed you a novelI tend to go on and on about out boys. Godfrey once jumped from his pile of cushions to land on my leg and fall asleep. Just suddenly, he leapt majestically onto the inside of my thigh, stretched out and fell asleep. I was so happy, even if my movement was very restricted.
Once again, I'm going on and on! Apologies, if you're still reading this and haven't fallen asleep

 

[VickiA]

Don't worry - when the time comes for indoor piggies to venture out we will post links to our threads about grass time and preparation.

Key things are :
1. Ambient temp and the temp of the floor/grass
2. Dampness - avoid damp or wet grass
3. Introduce grass gradually to the diet before letting them out
4. Build up grass time gradually - imagine letting kids loose in a sweet shop. They go mad for it, overeat and give themselves tummy upsets (and, if you're really unlucky like me with one of mine a case of full blown bloat )
5. Try to find grass clear of areas of use by dogs/cats/foxes etc
6. No fertiliser or weed killer on the grass!

Please don't worry about any of this yet - just enjoy them indoors over the winter.

 

[3Tyger]

Finally, another panicker! We all worry, I sort of go into a state of calm, relaxed hyperventilation. Patch of the fleece not 100% dry? WE'RE TERRIBLE OWNERS. Are we feeding them enough? Too much? Do we not cuddle them enough?
Also, we don't cage our piggies, they practically have a mansion! A 2x4 C&C cage attached to a run, both have separate fleece. Honestly, the fleece for the run is huge, washing it is such a faff.
When we first had them, they had a smallish cage with straw bedding and brown hay, all from the shop. after the straw turned out to be basically the WORST THING EVER, we got paper bedding (no smell at all, neat!) And Oxbow Western Timothy hay. Then they upgraded to the C&C cage with fleece, then we added the run first with mats, then fleece.
They are soo pampered. But we have almost full control over their quality of life, why not work hard to make sure they live in piggy luxury? In return, they have to deal with being picked up and kissed a lot. They're SO CUTE. We didn't properly introduce grass and veggies (I know, I know, bad slaves, but we didn't know!) yet they had no problems. They love their run, although they snuggled together once when they were chilly, the munchkins, we brought them in of course. And then there was the time we left the run door open and they both got out! Duncan came back easily, Godfrey, not so much. There were tears and scratched arms, not just from Duncan. Haha, no, I was in tears and our arms were in pieces from the bushes, we had to cut one down. A bush, not an arm! Anyway, our boys are safe and sound. Oh, and we gave them little shallow tubs of cool water in their run on hot days, Godfrey liked to stand in themso adorable!
I've basically typed you a novelI tend to go on and on about out boys. Godfrey once jumped from his pile of cushions to land on my leg and fall asleep. Just suddenly, he leapt majestically onto the inside of my thigh, stretched out and fell asleep. I was so happy, even if my movement was very restricted.
Once again, I'm going on and on! Apologies, if you're still reading this and haven't fallen asleep

No apologies needed whatsoever, i could chat and read on this forum all day and night when I have the time spare (actually, i'm pretty sure my Facebook friends are reporting me missing or something by now, as they've barely seen me since I joined here last month )

Funny i have kept guinea pigs now for over 2 decades but i'm still learning on here, and so nice to have a place to turn when i'm not sure, and just to talk piggie to other like-minded people. Knowledge is a good thing to seek out, a good thing to share, and best of all it helps us all to keep our guinea pigs happier & healthier.

And thank you so much for your reassurance, it truly means a lot to me

 

[3Tyger]

Don't worry - when the time comes for indoor piggies to venture out we will post links to our threads about grass time and preparation.

Key things are :
1. Ambient temp and the temp of the floor/grass
2. Dampness - avoid damp or wet grass
3. Introduce grass gradually to the diet before letting them out
4. Build up grass time gradually - imagine letting kids loose in a sweet shop. They go mad for it, overeat and give themselves tummy upsets (and, if you're really unlucky like me with one of mine a case of full blown bloat )
5. Try to find grass clear of areas of use by dogs/cats/foxes etc
6. No fertiliser or weed killer on the grass!

Please don't worry about any of this yet - just enjoy them indoors over the winter

Thank you for this, i'm definitely going to be looking out for the links to those threads, and wow, especially if there is any risk of bloat I wasn't expecting that to crop up as a hazard. Never had a piggie with bloat and i'd like to keep it that way if possible! But you're right, i will wait for the links and do it properly to avoid whatever potential hazards are out there nearer the time.

I don't use any weedkillers in my garden, we just pull weeds up. I'm a bit of a wildlife supporter and my next door neighbour has a pond so i have made a 'frog & toad abode' right at the bottom of our garden on her side of our fence, so i'd be too scared of harming them as well - i quite like frogs, love watching them hop about when they're around (they are the opposite end of our garden so shouldn't be able to get into our enclosure though as far as I know). I also feed the birds on the external part of the enclosure so our cat Riley can't reach them.

We will be using fertiliser, but it's for containers we're planning to grow veg in them outside of our enclosure and the fertiliser will also be stored outside in our shed. I'll read up very carefully about that - gardening is very new to me, though my OH is very clued up on it. I love having a garden but have so much to learn about it, i've never had a garden before, nor do i have any gardening experience. And i feel like all I learnt this summer is that I detest slugs!

One thing I would like to ask now if you don't mind - what do you think the size of a guinea pig run outdoors for 4 guinea pigs should be? As my OH will be designing it soon and i'm actually not sure and want to make sure it don't end up too small for them.

Thank you so much for all the support & advice, i really value it It means a lot to me to do it right for my piggies (and of course for Riley as well) and hopefully frogs and birds can't be a risk to my piggies if they're not actually coming inside the enclosure?

 

[eileen]

mine is 6 feet x 4 feet which allows four piggies to exercise easily,i put wooden bendy logs in,a warren tunnel,which they spend an hour running around.i have to relay my pets time in the run,got several piggies andvtwo runs!

 

[3Tyger]

mine is 6 feet x 4 feet which allows four piggies to exercise easily,i put wooden bendy logs in,a warren tunnel,which they spend an hour running around.i have to relay my pets time in the run,got several piggies andvtwo runs!

Thank you so much for this feedback, very appreciated
I need to get my tape measure out now and see how much room i have to play with (i'm terrible remembering numbers and rubbish guessing distance too - i definitely don't have a mathematical brain)!
The shape of the area we have is more long than wide though, we were a bit restricted by planning requirements, do you think it would matter if the run were less wide and more long?

 

[eileen]

no,as long as it is big enough for 4 cavies,mine is just based on wood green rescue suggestion !the largest you can manage and move !x

 

[TheCavySlave]

Thank you for this, i'm definitely going to be looking out for the links to those threads, and wow, especially if there is any risk of bloat I wasn't expecting that to crop up as a hazard. Never had a piggie with bloat and i'd like to keep it that way if possible! But you're right, i will wait for the links and do it properly to avoid whatever potential hazards are out there nearer the time.

I don't use any weedkillers in my garden, we just pull weeds up. I'm a bit of a wildlife supporter and my next door neighbour has a pond so i have made a 'frog & toad abode' right at the bottom of our garden on her side of our fence, so i'd be too scared of harming them as well - i quite like frogs, love watching them hop about when they're around (they are the opposite end of our garden so shouldn't be able to get into our enclosure though as far as I know). I also feed the birds on the external part of the enclosure so our cat Riley can't reach them.

We will be using fertiliser, but it's for containers we're planning to grow veg in them outside of our enclosure and the fertiliser will also be stored outside in our shed. I'll read up very carefully about that - gardening is very new to me, though my OH is very clued up on it. I love having a garden but have so much to learn about it, i've never had a garden before, nor do i have any gardening experience. And i feel like all I learnt this summer is that I detest slugs!

One thing I would like to ask now if you don't mind - what do you think the size of a guinea pig run outdoors for 4 guinea pigs should be? As my OH will be designing it soon and i'm actually not sure and want to make sure it don't end up too small for them.

Thank you so much for all the support & advice, i really value it It means a lot to me to do it right for my piggies (and of course for Riley as well) and hopefully frogs and birds can't be a risk to my piggies if they're not actually coming inside the enclosure?

We have a pond at the bottom of our garden that we've recently had cleared out, and there are frogs in there. Quite sweet, they stick their heads above the surface. Slugs eat the tiny strawberries growing in our garden, we didn't plant them, they just grow.
Frogs and birds are probably too shy, we've never had a problem. Bloat is so scary! It's one of those things I'm always watching out for *shudders*

 

[3Tyger]

We have a pond at the bottom of our garden that we've recently had cleared out, and there are frogs in there. Quite sweet, they stick their heads above the surface. Slugs eat the tiny strawberries growing in our garden, we didn't plant them, they just grow.
Frogs and birds are probably too shy, we've never had a problem. Bloat is so scary! It's one of those things I'm always watching out for *shudders*

Awww... I really do quite like frogs, and wild birds are nice to see. Can't keep pet birds as feathers trigger my asthma (i'm so glad its only feathers though, fortunately I don't want caged birds anyway and i don't react to small furries at all ).

I've heard lots about bloat and it's definitely something I look out for, fortunately never had to deal with that one yet (hopefully it will stay that way *also shudders*).

I get totally paranoid about the health of my guinea pigs as I've had more than my fair share of bad luck with my past piggies, who I still miss dearly. I thought I was doing something wrong as my first guinea pig lived a happy 7yrs but after that i've lost them all before the age of 5yrs, which has devastated me. But i went over everything with my vet and she said I couldn't have done more for any of them, she said that sadly in her opinion they were most likely all genetically weakened by bad breeding and i've just been unlucky

I'm just really trying to do all I can to keep all my new babies strong, i'm totally devoted to them and want them all to have healthy, happy, and ultra-long life's. As i'm sure everyone on this forum feels for their little piggies too. I'm gonna raise a glass to that... "for every member of the guinea pig forum to have healthy & happy piggies that all live to a grand old age"...