Caravanning Guinea Pigs

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karonus

karonus

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Some of you may have seen some of the pictures I have started posting under "Piggies of the Turner Household".

I was wondering if anyone would be interested in hearing of our exploits and experiences of taking a small group of sows with us in our touring caravan around the UK.

If anyone else is considering this and wants to learn from our experiences I am more than willing to describe how we get on.

Some of it can almost result in hair tearing out and more than once has the refrain "come here you little s^%^" rung out as one of the little darlings has shown that its not just cats that are curious.

Steve
 
Just from a fascination point of view, I'd love to hear about it - although I confess it's for interest rather than anything else, as I won't ever be caravanning, with or without piggies.
 
That would be interesting, anything piggy related is interesting!

Our family have a static caravan on the coast, last year we had planned a weekend there but i had a piggy on meds and contemplated taking him with me, my huge worry was the heat on a sunny day the caravan turns into an oven.
Also the grass outside is used by dogs and ducks.

Let us know how you overcome problems too.
 
I would be interested to hear.

We have a touring caravan permanently sited at Skegness, we go there most weekends and have a some longer holidays there every year, the pigs always come with us and they love it, we have loads of fresh grass for them to be out on and they get to run around better there than at home! xx
 
Firstly, this all started as Katy my daughter wouldnt leave our pigs with nanny as she has 2 cats (one of which thinks he should be in reservoir dogs - currently in turf war with local squirrels). So we had no choice but to take them with us.

As we are members of both caravanning clubs we have a huge selection of sites to chose from. We usually use certificated sites which can only have 5 caravans on but have used club sites as well. These sites have rules that dog walks are away from the actual pitches as there are often small children crawling in the grass.

We tend to check the grass where ever we pitch, looking for any sign of other animal droppings or non-grass plants (we have a wild flower book so that we can double check for poisonous plants).

The run is one of the foldaway steel runs that can have a net fastened to the top. The only problem we have is to ensure we continually rotate around the pitch. We usually leave a range of small crop circles where the piggies have acted like locusts. We find 30 minutes is enough to deforest a small section of grass.

During the summer if we are out for the day all roof vents (with insect nets in place) on van are open as well as windows into awning are open on locked setting. This allows a thruput of fresh air but not cold. Also curtains are drawn slightly so they have sunlight but not completely in the sun. When on a club site or certificated site this is not a problem as people are always about and very friendly.

When outdoors we usually sit with them, either reading or practising guitar (note - GP's dont mind acoustic but complain when amp is on). We do look out for birds of prey especially, the site we use at henley on thames is often overflown by red kites which we are very aware of.

Problems with modern caravans - air blown heating means there are little round vents which seem to summon piggies. We have had an instance when Junior made a break for freedom by running under the van. She sat there for 20 minutes seeming to grin at us while munching the 6 inch high grass underneath. Junior wasnt the one suffering from stress. Fortunately katy was small enough to send underneath to fetch her (she is also pretty good at chimneys, she's now 13 and has to earn her pocket money).

More to come.....
 
Sounds good fun, If we go out for the day we usually leave all windows on our caravan on night vent, so open but locked and have all the silver backed blinds pulled down 80% of the way, but so that the fresh air can flow in nicely at the bottom, as the blinds are silverbacked this reflects the sunlight back so it doesn't get too hot in the van.

The blow heating holes used to worry me, thinking they would climb in but they never have and wouldn't fit now anyway.

Cant wait to hear more and see some piccys,
 
Be good to compare notes. Perhaps we should start a guinea pig caravan section. Have you found that if you stay on a large site they become kid magnets, especially young ones?
 
Our van is permanently sited on one site in skegness, but we have a private corner plot near a river, so we dont tend to get poeple walking anywhere near our van or private garden which makes me feel happier about having them outside.

But before we moved it we were in an open plot, and yes kids always used to come over when we had them out in their run, and most of them used to come over and say oooo rabbits! I was like er no, they are guinea pigs actually lol.
 
One of the funniest times was when we went to the Isle of Wight in 2010, travel down was fine, stayed overnight near Portsmouth, then came ferry day.

The gang was fine going on the ferry, but once we got under way. The carry cases were placed on a seat and I can only assume that they experienced the GP version of travel sickness on the crossing due to the looks we kept getting.

As usual any kids on board came to look when they realised they were there.
 
Before my husband died we had a static caravan in Somerset and we used to take our dog, rabbit and the two piggies we had at the time with us when we went there. One year we went in March for a couple of weeks and stayed down there for seven months! All the animals loved it there as the air was so much fresher. We built a hutch onto the shed we had on our little plot for the rabbit and the piggies were in a big cage in the caravan. If we were going out we'd leave the window open a little bit and locked that way, the big fan was lept on in hot weather and the curtains were closed to keep the sun off them. Whenever we arrived on site with them all we got quite a reception from people wanting to admire our "girls".x:))
 
I've posted some piccies of the piggies under "Piggies of the Turner Household" in the "your stories & photos" section.

Here's one at Bridport last year.

P1020792.jpg


Please note the ravaged grass in front of the run where they had already been.
 
We later discovered that the run could extend to either end of windbreak. Lets say this was fully appreciated.
 
-c Brilliant seeing your piggies having a break :))
We have a static in Worcestershire and hoping to get some decent weather this year so we can get away more - have 18 piggies to take as well, huge runs for outside and they have Liberta pens for indoors overnight :(|)
OH got rid of his old van before Christmas for an estate car so they can travel comfortably - we caused a bit of a stir last week with 12 rescue piggies on board when we broke down in the middle of nowhere :)) The mechanics at the garage we found were quite fascinated with our extra passengers :x
 
wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeek! this is fab Steve, very interesting and loving the tales of the escapee Junior ?/ little monkey!


i have an umbrella just like that in the back of my car :))
 
I have had guinea pigs for years and I want to hit the road and travel in a caravan with the husband and kids. We have 2 cats, 1 dog and 6 guinea pigs and despite suggestions, I refuse to leave anyone behind! I want to buy a caravan and adapt it to be as pet friendly as possible. There are plenty of suggestions about what to do for dogs and even cats, but guinea pigs are of course a little more obscure....
Did you make any adaptions to the van itself of just incorporate your piggies within the van itself? What problems did you come across? I'd love to hear the finer details of what you have done!
Many thanks!
 
I can only speak for a static - we knocked a bedroom out so they could have the space for the pens indoors :x Have 40x20ft of land for their runs. Hoping to get it all finished this Easter but lack of time has prevailed so far mallethead
Will be an experience taking all our lot but you never know until you try :(|)
 
We have a 5 berth touring caravan with an 18 ft long interior. We have made no adaptions at all. What I would do is what we did. Measure the available space you have across the cooker, sink draining board.

Our van has a fold out work surface that covers the draining board.

This is the available length we have for a cage at night. The cage goes on top, the tap is folded back (with a cloth underneath to catch any unwanted drips. We then have a woolen blanket (which happens to be fire retardant from our days doing trade stands at wargame shows). This covers the back, top and sides and prevents any drafts from the door.

Now before everyone has a go about space for the piggies, we use a 3 1/2 by 2 foot cage for 4 piggies. We have never had a problem as they are usually sleeping in the cage.

During the day the cage goes on the back double bed with curtains partially drawn (we look to see where the sun rises in connection to the pitch) so they are not in direct sunlight.

Daily routine on holiday is as follows:

7 am (or thereabouts) - morning cuppa for wife and I (while M in law and daughter sleep) and morning cucumber for piggies.

We then move into awning, grass is checked for dryness. If wet or raining awning groundsheet is lifted partially (this is a breathable mat allowing grass to continue growing) and piggie pen set up in awning.

after an hour or so we all have breakfast (piggies get salad and greens)

We usually go out for the day between 10.30 and 3.30 when the piggies have siesta in cage.

When we get back as long as it is dry piggie run is set up outside and one of us sits with them (usually me) while either reading, practising guitar or painting (miniature wargame figures - I am also a slave to Games Workshop).

The run gets moved regularly as they quickly run out of grass ( I would like to time GP against other grazers, I reckon GP could out munch most).

Once it starts to get cool (to someone in a T-shirt) we bring the GP's into the cage. By this time they have had their fill of grass and just want to snooze or have lap cuddles.

The only extras I would consider is a suitable cage for piggies and one or two
collapsible runs such as the ones on this site

http://ukpetsonline.com/SearchResult.aspx?CategoryID=9

The one we use in the photo is okay, but we used to find Junior could leap the side if she was really fed up and wanted back inside. You can also find them on Amazon.

When you arrive on a site its always wise to check with owners about local wildlife especially birds of prey. Buzzards are a worry but they mainly go for roadkill.
 
One other thing we have started doing is having 2 water bottles, so if the weather is particularly hot, one is kept in the fridge overnight to chill it. We get the bottle out in the morning so it is nice and cool (but not chilled) for when we go out.

We are looking at the current bottle covers at the moment.
 
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