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Caravaning With Guinea Pigs

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Wendy 1964

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Hiya I am looking for help and advice for looking after Guinea Pigs. I have just got 2 little ladies who are 2 years old from a young mum who was unable to cope with small children and the ladies. I go Caravaning in the New Forest for the summer and need ideas, suggestions and help to ensure they have a fabulous holiday too. They are indoor guinea pigs but go in an outside run during the day. They drive is approx 1 hour from my home. Would they be able to stay in the awning over night? And any suggestions would be wonderful...... thanking you in advance...looking to learn careful and enjoy these beautiful creatures
 
Hello and welcome to the forum. I was just going to give you the same information as Wiebke, she beat me to it! Hope you and the piggys have a lovely holiday.
 
I'd imagine the temperature would be more stable in the van as the awning can get really cold at night and really hot if the sun is strong and rises early because the zips will all be done up. Never taken a pig before though!
 
Thank you both so much, just working out where I can put the ladies in the Caravan... looking forward to having a wonderful holiday with them
 
Hi and welcome.

In my experience it all depends on what type of camping you do.
At the moment I have a small 2 berth camper van which I have used a couple of times accompanied by piggies- the last two times have been with an awning in September and March. In September the piggies stayed out in the awning with a blanket covering the cage at night and were perfectly fine. In March it was a bit chillier at night so I had the cage sitting on my kitchen overnight. It was a faff moving the bulky cage around though.

Before the van however I used a tent. Summer holidays included a fortnight away in a 5 berth tent which housed 4 people and upwards of ten piggies.
I located them as far away from the sun as possible inside the tent and supplied them with a lot of watery veg, a couple of fans in strategic locations and left all the vents open. A few of the sites had a freezer service so I was able to keep them cool using ice packs.
Touch wood but not had any heat related problems yet!

I make sure that I get them outside in the evening when it cools down as much as possible too.

This weekend should be a test though as me and my cat and two of my piggies are going away overnight and staying in a car park!
 
We have 8 years experience travelling the country with piggies in a touring caravan. We usually do 40 nights a year in the van. We have a website at www.caravanningcavies.co.uk which offers lots of advice and a blog of out travels. First off I would not recommend the awning as it's difficult to control the heat. We find at night having a cage over the kitchen area works well but as we have been doing it now so long it's second nature.
 
Thank you every one for your responses, I have sorted out a place for the ladies would I need to use flea protection as was looking at lettingbthem graze in the New Forest in the afternoons? Thank u for your help
 
Wendy 1964 said:
Thank you every one for your responses, I have sorted out a place for the ladies would I need to use flea protection as was looking at lettingbthem graze in the New Forest in the afternoons? Thank you for your help
Click to expand...

We have never had issues with fleas. You may want to check on the local tick situation but that applies to you as well.
 
I have put my guniea pigs in a washing basket that has legs. I have lined it with fleeces and hay, their bowl of pellets and water on the side. I placed a wire mesh door on the top. This basket is also their sleeping place in the caravan... they love it! I cover it with a blanket at night and in the car they can see all around, my son talks to them and soothes them thtough the 2 hour journey. They loved the car motion and I could of carried on driving... very happy piggies with no sign of any stress at all. We are back down to the forest again today and looking forward to it....even the cat comes too, they have all become friends
 
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