Hot UK Weather Warning - How Can I Keep My Piggies Safe Indoors and Outdoors?

Mother Hubbard said:
The Shed is reading 34! Chuff me...it's a good job they are all outside...It's cooler under the trees with wet covers...
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Mine is the same - 32 degrees and it’s been in the shade for the last 3 hours. Piggies have been in the house, where is it is much cooler, since 9am. Looks like it’ll still be another few hours before they can go back into the shed
 
It's far to hot for me..... pigs are in my front room, all curtains are drawn all day today and they have had a fan blowing ( not directly on them - we share lol ).... I am off for a cool bath as even my eyelids feel hot 😎😎
 
The heat gauge I put in the piggie run this morning registered 36° at the hottest, despite being in dappled shade with a run shade covering most of the run. It's still 32° so I still haven't put the piggies outside. In their hutch it's 24°, I've given them a ice pack and covered the door with a white sheet to try to stop it getting hotter inside. Going to try to give them some run time later when it cools a bit. 🌞🌞🥵
Shucks, forgot to press post when I finished typing at 4:30pm! I finally put them outside when the temperature finally went below 30° at 6:30pm. It's still very warm outside, I'm going to leave them there until it starts to get dark. Especially as it's still 24 in their hutch *phew*
 
I have managed to keep the temperature in the living room (half of which is piggy territory) and overall downstairs to 24 C thanks to increased bed sheets on front of all large windows and wetting the ones at the back several times.

The big test comes tomorrow as is it is not cooling down well ovrnight so we are going to start with a higher room temperature topped by an even hotter day. :(
 
Our work van was reading 30c today. I don't do this heat, it's too much. I have a litre bottle in the freezer tonight, ready for tomorrow. My wife is still off work because of covid 19, so she can keep an eye on the pigs, and rats
 
I’m so pleased I can work from home and monitor them currently. The middle of our house stays relatively cool so they all came in from the shed after 3pm and then I put an additional fan in for them. It was 25 in the house but 32 in their shed and that was with a cooling fan on. Heath and Layla have also been reclipped and seem pretty happy overall.

Love having them in the house more (they usually come in every other day) but boy did they scream for their dinner tonight when they heard me doing ours! They said they could quite get used to this level of slavery! :yahoo::doh:
 
Just been reading up on pet rats as well, they can regulate heat through their tails, but also can't sweat like Guinea pigs can't as well. So I got to put a bowl of water in tomorroe. First time I've had rats through a heatwave.
 
My monitors say it's just under 20° in the run now, and just under 23° in the hutch. I tucked up the piggies for the night nearly an hour ago, but I haven't yet put the screen over the front or shut the door as I normally would, I want it to cool more first.
Thought I'd try leaving the run shade on over night, so that the run is protected from the early sun, see if it stays cooler than today. And I may pin a wet sheet to the door frame of the piggie room first thing to try to cool any breeze for the piggies.
 
David Piggie Lover said:
The piggies want to know why lazy daddy not open curtains this morning lol. Told um because it's warm and auntie @Wiebke says going to be warm again today etc.
They say Thank You. Xx
That's after they laughed at my self haircut. :)) :clap::clap::))
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I bet your hair is ok. I think we are all in the same boat with our hair. (my fringe is like a shetland ponys mane. Lol ) :doh::xd:
 
Also i bought 3 snugglesafe cool pads for my guys,.......... And they were terrified of them. 🙈 Dearest veggies plate ever. Lol. As i figured if i fed veg on them they may think they are actually a good thing.......nope still terrified. 🤔😆IMG_20200530_120602.webpIMG_20200530_120610.webp
 
So hot today already! When I got up at 8am it was 24 degrees in the main piggy room that gets the morning sun... main herd immediately moved to the playpen in the shadiest room but its still 22 degrees in there! Going to dampen some sheets and get the fan going... and possibly get the hair clippers on my floofy girls later and give Blod a bum bath too, its really not the weather for her to be waddling about in her poopy winter pyjama fur!
 
It's hot here too, but thankfully our house stays pretty cool as we have shutters on all the windows.

But becasue I am a good piggy Mum I put tiles in the cages and a cold bottle in an old ski sock.
Ruby is currently curled up fast asleep in a fleecy cuddle cup :eek:

Harry is prancing around like a lunatic and looking boggled eyed in horror at the 'cold tiles of death'.

I am off to lay down with a cold flannel on my forehead.
 
PigglePuggle said:
So hot today already! When I got up at 8am it was 24 degrees in the main piggy room that gets the morning sun... main herd immediately moved to the playpen in the shadiest room but its still 22 degrees in there! Going to dampen some sheets and get the fan going... and possibly get the hair clippers on my floofy girls later and give Blod a bum bath too, its really not the weather for her to be waddling about in her poopy winter pyjama fur!
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Yeah - I had the sheets (and hub up and out) by 8 am, too, as it already started to heat up very quickly. Carys is due another summer cut (she had one in March but it has already grown back) as soon as I have finished with the morning round of threads. That is my main job for today because she HATES having her bum touched!
 
24°C in the piggy room and it's only going to get higher... I just put a frozen towel over the cage, and a wrapped iced bottle in the cage. They pop-corned all around it then started eating their hay again. :lol:
As they're young and very playful, I haven't dared put old tiles in their cage, Eglantine is likely to try to eat it and my clumsy Capucine is probably going to trip over it. Bless them.
At least, I'm homeworking, I can check on them regularly...

Hope you're all fine and are managing to keep your piggies cool. :luv:
 
Helen C said:
24°C in the piggy room and it's only going to get higher... I just put a frozen towel over the cage, and a wrapped iced bottle in the cage. They pop-corned all around it then started eating their hay again. :lol:
As they're young and very playful, I haven't dared put old tiles in their cage, Eglantine is likely to try to eat it and my clumsy Capucine is probably going to trip over it. Bless them.
At least, I'm homeworking, I can check on them regularly...

Hope you're all fine and are managing to keep your piggies cool. :luv:
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If you can get a fan or put old bed sheets in front of the window glass, that helps a lot to keep down the temperature. I've just been to give the sheets that cover the sunny side of the living room and the kitchen another soak - but temperatures have only just reach 24 C here from 22 C at 7 am this morning. I hope that they won't be climbing to more than 25/26 C in here until the evening, and that is considering that we get the full sun from both ends of the room throughout the day.
 
Hi all,

We live in a new build and the piggy room (kept indoors in one of the upstairs room) gets most of the sun in the afternoon. We’ve kept all of the curtains and windows shut upstairs and they have two fans in their room but I think the temperature upstairs is around 25/26. They have cool fresh water topped up and changed every couple of hours, black out blinds in their room, two frozen bottles and two fans. I’m worried as I’ve read your posts saying your rooms are only at 24. They’ve both been out eating and they had haircuts last night as their long haired pigs. Do you think they’ll be ok? Is it worth opening the windows up on the opposite side of the house so let the air blow through or will that warm their room up even more with the fan on?
Thanks!
 
DougalandDiego said:
Hi all,

We live in a new build and the piggy room (kept indoors in one of the upstairs room) gets most of the sun in the afternoon. We’ve kept all of the curtains and windows shut upstairs and they have two fans in their room but I think the temperature upstairs is around 25/26. They have cool fresh water topped up and changed every couple of hours, black out blinds in their room, two frozen bottles and two fans. I’m worried as I’ve read your posts saying your rooms are only at 24. They’ve both been out eating and they had haircuts last night as their long haired pigs. Do you think they’ll be ok? Is it worth opening the windows up on the opposite side of the house so let the air blow through or will that warm their room up even more with the fan on?
Thanks!
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Hi!

In hot weather you ideally move your piggies to the coolest room in the house. If you can, put some old bed sheets in front of the windows to prevent the sun from reaching the glass. That is making a surprisingly massive difference. If you water the sheets occasionally that will create an additional cool layer of air between the sheet and the window from the evaporating water, which helps to further insulate the windows in the sun.

I managed last year to keep the living room to 26 C even though the outdoors was over 35 C!

I don't open the windows on the opposite side as all you get in is iar that is hotter than the inside. You cool down your house overnight as much as possible with through drafts and do so especially in early morning. The cooler a room you start out from, the less hot it will get through the day.

Please take the time to really read our hot weather guide link in the first post. It is REALLY worth it!
 
Wiebke said:
Hi!

In hot weather you ideally move your piggies to the coolest room in the house. If you can, put some old bed sheets in front of the windows to prevent the sun from reaching the glass. That is making a surprisingly massive difference. If you water the sheets occasionally that will create an additional cool layer of air between the sheet and the window from the evaporating water, which helps to further insulate the windows in the sun.

I managed last year to keep the living room to 26 C even though the outdoors was over 35 C!

I don't open the windows on the opposite side as all you get in is iar that is hotter than the inside. You cool down your house overnight as much as possible with through drafts and do so especially in early morning. The cooler a room you start out from, the less hot it will get through the day.

Please take the time to really read our hot weather guide link in the first post. It is REALLY worth it!
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Thank you for your reply! I’ve just gone up to to their room and it does feel much cooler than anywhere else in the house - I came in from the garden so think it felt worse before I’d had chance to cool down. The thermostat is on the opposite side of the house which doesn’t have a fan or black out blinds so I'm hoping that their room is cooler than that - I think it’s probably around 24. I’ve read the thread about keeping the room cool so have done everything I can from there! The black out blinds have really helped to keep them cool. I can’t wait for this hot weather to go away! 😂😂
 
We are just managing to keep our living room at 23/24C, and that is with the aircon on! But blimey! I can't handle the heat in the kitchen! I hate cooking when it's this hot. It's too hot for my liking! 🥵🥵 But if I don't cook, I'd get hungry..and then die...and who would take care and spoil the piggies?!?! 🔥🔥
 
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