Hot weather!

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jen_w

jen_w

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Living in east anglia we have been lucky to have a rather warm day today but tomorrow and Sunday is set to be even warmer!

I'm out all day tomorrow and worry so much the piggies will be too hot!

They are all indoor piggies are their cages are underneath the stair case (not completly enclosed but the stairs are in the living room so fit nicely underneath

I am currently freezing some water bottles to put into socks and into their cages tomorrow and will give them nice fresh cold water but is this enough?

Their cages aren't in direct sunlight but I worry that they will get too warm!

Ideas welcomed!
 
I do the same with mine, fresh water first thing, nice & cold plus cold bottles/blocks etc wrapped in socks/towels rolleyes There's not much more you can do really. :)
 
To help keep the room they are in cooler - open the windows, even if it's only a little, and keep the curtains/blinds closed.
A fan in the room will help a lot too.
Frozen water bottle/ice pod with a tea towel wrapped around it popped in the cage.
Freshen up their water bottle regularly as this can become tepid and unpleasant to drink, most pigs will drink more from a bowl (and you can pop an ice cube in it).

I keep all doors closed, windows open a crack/curtains drawn, in the rooms on the side of the house that the sun hits; on the shadey side I open everything up wide to allow a flow of air - still air seems to trap the heat more and the humidity rises quickly. It's this that can be a real problem for pigs - get the air moving and humidity down and they cope much better.

This thread also gives lots of tips to help - and the warning signs to look out for.
http://www.theguineapigforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=48840

Suzy x
 
Why not put an electric fan near them on a low setting and i freeze piecea of fruit for ditto he loves frozen apple best :-)
 
I wouldn't advise giving frozen food to piggies it's really not good for them. As Suzy says nice fresh cold water & watery veg, wash it well & give them the veg still nice & wet to keep fluid levels up :)
 
I didn't realise frozen veg was bad for them :/ I give mine frozen cucumber..oops! why's it not good for them? To be quite honest... i think they usually sit on it more than they enjoy eating it frozen! I'll just stick to ice cubes in the water from now on!
I also keep flat stones in each of their cages, which they've been chilled in the fridge stay cold for a long time. We were suggested this by a friend as even in winter (they are indoors, but still) one of ours drinks a lot more than the other, and the vet says there's nothing wrong with him, he might just be hot... and he always feels very warm, anyway, he always has a stone (not always out of the fridge) as it's usually cooler than the floor of the cage :) i guess this is in the same line of thought as frozen bottles, they're just used to the stones and seemed scared of bottles when we put them in!
 
Ailsa92 said:
I didn't realise frozen veg was bad for them :/ I give mine frozen cucumber..oops! why's it not good for them? To be quite honest... i think they usually sit on it more than they enjoy eating it frozen! I'll just stick to ice cubes in the water from now on!
I also keep flat stones in each of their cages, which they've been chilled in the fridge stay cold for a long time. We were suggested this by a friend as even in winter (they are indoors, but still) one of ours drinks a lot more than the other, and the vet says there's nothing wrong with him, he might just be hot... and he always feels very warm, anyway, he always has a stone (not always out of the fridge) as it's usually cooler than the floor of the cage :) i guess this is in the same line of thought as frozen bottles, they're just used to the stones and seemed scared of bottles when we put them in!
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I think it is a bacterial issue regarding frozen veg; ditto veg straight from the fridge, they should be washed & left to stand for 15 mins or so until they are coming up to room temperature before feeding. The risk could be upset piggy tummies, which can be very serious :...

The stones are a great idea, you can get those ice pods specially made for small animals, I have one I pop in the freezer then leave in their indoor C & C house during the day, wrapped in an old pillowcase. My piggies are scared of the bottles too but I guess if they were wrapped in an old sock or something they would be less scary lol :))
 
Ah right! Thanks for that! Yes, I've seen those Ice Pods, which is why we came up with the stone idea - we were trying to think of something nice and flat like the ice pods which we didn't have to buy (cheapskate? maybe...), but we didn't want to use normal ice packs because you can't be sure what's inside them in case they chew through - we had the stones already so it seemed perfect... we did put them in the freezer one time but they were painfully cold even through some fleece! so we left those to warm up a bit for a few hours and fridge it is from now on!
 
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