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Cold Weather Care For Guinea Pigs

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Hi I have 4 piggies one of which is a skinny pig and I always drive myself crazy when the weather starts to turn. I keep all my pigs inthe house and all have their own wooden beds they can go into ,with fleecy blankets and extra hay but I still worry about my skinny, Godfrey he's 10 months old now and has a special heat pad I warm up in the microwave for him every 6 to 8 hours , including waking during the night to reheat it . Does any one know of any other good heat pads that stay warm for longer or any special bedding that will keep in the heat? Any suggestions would be much appreciated.
I think snuggle safe is the only one sadly.
 
Hi I have 4 piggies one of which is a skinny pig and I always drive myself crazy when the weather starts to turn. I keep all my pigs inthe house and all have their own wooden beds they can go into ,with fleecy blankets and extra hay but I still worry about my skinny, Godfrey he's 10 months old now and has a special heat pad I warm up in the microwave for him every 6 to 8 hours , including waking during the night to reheat it . Does any one know of any other good heat pads that stay warm for longer or any special bedding that will keep in the heat? Any suggestions would be much appreciated.


We have a petnap chew proof heat mat which plugs into the mains. It is metal with a metal covered chew proof cable & you slip a fleece cover on it.
 
Hi I have 4 piggies one of which is a skinny pig and I always drive myself crazy when the weather starts to turn. I keep all my pigs inthe house and all have their own wooden beds they can go into ,with fleecy blankets and extra hay but I still worry about my skinny, Godfrey he's 10 months old now and has a special heat pad I warm up in the microwave for him every 6 to 8 hours , including waking during the night to reheat it . Does any one know of any other good heat pads that stay warm for longer or any special bedding that will keep in the heat? Any suggestions would be much appreciated.

I find that my elderly piggies with a circulation that is no longer working so well stay snug and warm all night if I place the wrapped-up heat pad underneath a cosy they can sleep in and keep warm themselves with their own body heat as the night goes on.

Please be aware that skinnies do NOT need to be kept at 25 C or more as is widely touted around at the moment; a normal constant room temperature between 17-20 C is best for them. While they cannot cope well with sudden changes and low temperatures, they have got a very active metabolism that keeps them warm.
https://www.theguineapigforum.co.uk/threads/skinny-pigs-and-clothes.122798/

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@helen105281
 
Thank you for all your replies and suggestions,good to know that skinnies don't actually need to be kept at 25 c as that seems almost impossible! Luckily the room I keep all the pigs in stays pretty warm , so not too many temperature fluctuations.
 
You may find these threads help
Thank you for all your replies and suggestions,good to know that skinnies don't actually need to be kept at 25 c as that seems almost impossible! Luckily the room I keep all the pigs in stays pretty warm , so not too many temperature fluctuations.

Your skinnies will be perfectly OK then! Also make sure that any piggy can move off a heat pad and still have a snug place if it gets too warm for them. I have found that an upturned small dog fabric bed makes an excellent winter nights den. I slip the snugglesafe in a fleece bag so the piggies can move on and off it as much as wanted while still able to stay under cover. It is always a favourite! ;)
 
My eight ladies are outside the living room on the covered patio, in four hutches. I make sure they have plenty of snuggles, hay, etc and Snugglesafe pads as soon as the night temperature drops.As well as the silver insulation sheets, grey foam carpet underlay and hutch covers I also cover the front of the hutches with fleecy blankets at night, even now, in August, when it's supposed to be summer - huh! Anyway, last winter I felt so sorry for them during the day, huddled away from the wind and not getting to see what was going on or getting much daylight or fresh air so I devised a 'window' system for the wire fronts of the hutches. I bought some clear rigid perspex, which is easy to cut with a craft knife and cut pieces which cover most of the wire area but leave a space for air where the water bottle is fixed. These are attached to the wooden frame with cable clips which have the advantage that they swivel easily so the 'window' is easy to put on and taken off. There are probably other kinds of clips you could get but cable clips are cheap - i bought the big ones so that they reach well IMG_3638.JPG IMG_3638.JPG across the edges of the perspex. Does that make sense? I hope so. In winter I leave the 'windows' in place at night as well, giving an extra layer of insulation. Here's a picture of Rapunzel and Helen's hutch with the perspex fitted. You can see the gap for air/ water.
 
Since I have a skinny guinea pig in with my haired guinea pigs, I bought two heat lamps for them using 50 watt bulbs, no higher than 75 and they just love them. I put their plastic houses under, keeping the bulbs away from them, and their house, that way it heats up their house, and keeps them warm. I have never had any issues with this, and only use it during Fall and Winter. In this photo their houses are not under, but i do have their houses under the heat lamps now because i don't want the light directly on them.

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I hav fund the snugglesafe pads excellent.i put two in bedroom area and place a wooden igloo over top with lots of hay.the cavies seem to love it.
 
My two are 6mth old. They live outside under the carport away from rain and majority of the wind. I have a duvet I throw over the hutch on an evening. Salt has been off colour recently and vets say he has a slight crackle when he breathes.so currently both pigs are indoors. My house is like the tropics.
It isn't readable for them to stay inside long-term tho. So my options are the garage but I think that will be too dark,or the conservatory attached to the garage-it has no heating and gets cold but is draught free and dry. Do you think this would be enough for winter if I move their wood hutch into the conservatory?
 
my pigs live outside only because its not my house (otherwise they'd be house piggies) but during the cold times they've come in.
at the moment he's in the garage with the tumble dyer which creates some heat he's been in there since September-October?
ive wanted to try out the snugglesafe but always worry about a fire risk since he has a hay igloo i'm always afraid that will set alight ...
 
I've lost salt.vet thinks its because he was too frail from being harassed by pepper that the turn in temp just finished him.
 
my pigs live outside only because its not my house (otherwise they'd be house piggies) but during the cold times they've come in.
at the moment he's in the garage with the tumble dyer which creates some heat he's been in there since September-October?
ive wanted to try out the snugglesafe but always worry about a fire risk since he has a hay igloo i'm always afraid that will set alight ...
I have seen reviews about them melting ....
But never causing fire.
 
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