Firework Night Safety

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*Nibbles&Nugget*

*Nibbles&Nugget*

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Ok, so with firework night tomorrow I did a little post on the blog about keeping guinea pigs safe. So many people think about dogs and cats and forget their small furries I'll just copy over the tips and hope it helps someone. You can read the full post here.

~ Amy

Signs of stress:
  • Darting around, running at the walls
  • Or freezing and staying completely still
  • Wide, wild eyes
  • Stiffened body
  • Rapid breathing, almost panting
  • Hiding in a corner head first. The if-whee - can’t - see - the - scary - thing, it - can’t - see - us mentality!
  • Digging at the floor trying to cover ourselves with hay or bedding.


To prepare you need to:
  • Check when main local displays are so you can be ready in time.
  • Hutches/cages should be brought into a quiet room indoors, or into a garage or shed.
  • If you cannot bring our hutch inside, you should turn it around so that it faces a wall or fence instead of the open garden. But really this is only if there is absolutely no other choice.
  • Provide extra hideys and things to do. Hay stuffed tubes, veggies, herbs and cardboard boxes etc. make good distractions. Extra bedding for burrowing into is furry impawtent too.
  • Play some low level soothing music, or louder music to disguise the sounds of the fireworks. In the days leading up to firework night you can play music to get us used to it. Whee almost always have the radio playing or the tv on so whee are comforted by the noises.
  • Black out the windows and put the lights on. That way bright flashes won’t frighten us. If you cannot black out the windows it may be worth putting a thick blanket over the cage to block out the worst of it and give a sort of secure feel.
Click to expand...
 
Thanks for this excellent advise. I'd been meaning to ask about this as I'd been a bit worried about it. Thankfully most of the measures suggested are already in place in my setup so I won't need to make too many adaptations :) Not sure how well the music will go down though as the last time I tried to play music whilst doing 'the big clean' it was met with serious protests - although maybe the boys are just not big fans of One Direction rolleyes Any suggestions for something a little more soothing for piggy ears?
 
I don't have too much problem with fireworks as my boys are pretty brave, but Ryou, my newer piggie who I've only had since around June'ish I'm more worried about as he's skittier over all. He's terrified of my music already so that won't work. I can't put something over their cage as its a CC on the floor with no roof. I can't really cover the window apart from using curtains and I can't even reach it as their cages are in front of it.

I think I will just give them some treats like a paper bag and toss in some veggies so he can explore inside that and hopefully ignore the noises seeing the other 3 aren't afraid.

I know theres going to be a huge display on tomorrow night so I hope it doesn't scare him. He's in the back room and the display is in the front and about five minutes drive away. Luckily they are all indoors.
 
Mine seem to enjoy the radio, the soothing sounds of Magic!

Noah is very skitty too and jumps at every noise, however, following my own advice he managed fine with the few fireworks last night. I had the music channel on the tv and gave extra hay and toys and he got through it ok. He did look a little nervous when the music went quieter and he heard a bang but not panicked as I feared he would.

This time of year really gets on my nerves. Fireworks just upset so many animals

~ Amy
 
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