Hutch & run plans - what do you think?

Sally Newbie

Sally Newbie

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Hi everyone I've been reading the posts on this site for weeks and there are a lot of knowledgeable people on here! So I would welcome your thoughts on my plans:
Buying a 4ft Chartwell hutch, waterproof cover and the insulation cover. I would have liked a bigger hutch but it won't fit in the shed.
I don't want the exercise area of the 4ft hutch to become cluttered so the 2 new young female pigs have as much floor space as possible,so what do you think are the minimum equipment to put there? Water bottle, food bowl (do I need 2?), bowl for their vegetables and a hideaway as a minimum. Hay rack or where would you advise I put their hay (sleeping area will be full of it) but I'm thinking of keeping that exercise area free from clutter?
Can you train them to use one area as the toilet?
My "plan" is that they will live outside in the summer. My dad is building me a 6ft by 4ft run with a lid and my plan is that the hutch will sit in this on the grass and at night the piggies will be shut in the hutch with the run around them with the lid on to keep foxes out. Sound ok?
In the winter I plan to bring them into the shed. I know it's a while away yet but I wonder about them still using their run in winter if the ground is not too cold/wet? Or I build a small pen with a lid in the shed that I let them into to exercise? If I do that, would I need to protect them from rats during the day in the shed (I know there are rats about - don't know if they would attack them during the day?) I just worry with bad weather ( in summer and winter) they will just be shut in their cage with no access to exercise - how do other outdoor piggie owners manage?
I want to get the right set up from the start so we can give them a good life so would welcome everyone's thoughts!
Thank you!
 
They will need a hidey house and a water bottle each. One hidey house isn’t enough as you have to provide one for each piggy to stop hogging and potential fall outs. If you choose to use bowls, then again one each. I don’t use bowls and just scatter feed pellets and veg for my boys. If you choose to use a hayrack then that is fine but I’d get one each. I put meadow hay all over the floor for bedding and then have two piles rather than racks of Timothy hay (one each) for eating.

You can’t train piggies however they will tend to pee where they eat but they will poop everywhere.

If you have foxes around your area then I would be incredibly wary of them being outside over night. Foxes can and will get through wire if they are determined enough.

In winter, they can’t go on the on wet and cold grass. The guide is if you can’t stand on the ground in bare feet without feeling cold and wet, then the piggies can’t be on it. If you can give them an exercise area in the shed then that will help on the exercise front, but again if you’ve got rats in the area then that is going to need consideration. They will attack piggies if they want to. The wire will need to be incredibly fine gauge as rats can squeeze through very small gaps.

My two live outside year round. They live in a 8ft x 6ft shed year round. They have a hutch within the shed but it is left permanently open during the warmer months and they free roam (coming out on to the lawn during the day as the shed gets too hot). In winter they are locked in the hutch at night and still come out to play in the shed during the day but only if it is warm enough. Some days they don’t get out at all. Temperatures below 15 are too chilly for guinea pigs, so keeping them warm is vital. I have multiple covers on their hutch - thermal hutch cover and several blankets, along with snugglesafe heat pads, loads of hay and fleece items for them to snuggle into. Within the shed it is around 5 degrees warmer than outside during the winter but it still takes a lot of work.
 
Thanks so much Piggies&buns. I thought only 1 hidey house would be ok in the hutch as the other pig could hide in the sleeping area? I'm quite happy to scatter the pellets and veg - I just thought they might get wee-ed/pooed on?
 
Sally Newbie said:
Thanks so much Piggies&buns. I thought only 1 hidey house would be ok in the hutch as the other pig could hide in the sleeping area? I'm quite happy to scatter the pellets and veg - I just thought they might get wee-ed/pooed on?
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It won’t work like that I’m afraid. I have four hideys between my two boys in their hutch - two in the bedroom area and two downstairs, and then another four hideys in the shed itself in the playpen

Their veg and pellets are kept strictly limited so they won’t be in the cage long enough to get too pooped on. If veg and pellets are being left in the cage for too long, then they are being overfed. Just 50g of veg per day and one tablespoon of pellets per pig per day. The only food they should have constant access to is hay.
 
That's great, I'll get 4 hideys for the hutch then as a minimum. In the outdoor run/playpen they will have loads of hideys, I was just trying to minimise the amount of stuff in the hutch. And I'm glad I don't need to clutter it with food bowls now. Thanks for taking the time to advise - I want them to be as happy as possible. Do you have anything else in their hutch apart from the hideys - I'm seeing that you can buy toys, fleece pads for them to sit on, etc!
 
Sally Newbie said:
That's great, I'll get 4 hideys for the hutch then as a minimum. In the outdoor run/playpen they will have loads of hideys, I was just trying to minimise the amount of stuff in the hutch. And I'm glad I don't need to clutter it with food bowls now. Thanks for taking the time to advise - I want them to be as happy as possible. Do you have anything else in their hutch apart from the hideys - I'm seeing toys and fleece pads for them to sit on!
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What you don’t want is for them to argue over the best hidey. The dominant piggy will have the right to choose the best which could mean your submissive piggy gets left out with nowhere to go if you don’t have enough.

My two are bedded on hay in their hutch but fleece in the shed. I have wooden and fleece hideys and tunnels for them but that is all. They aren’t into toys but they do like a cardboard tunnel or carrot cottage to chew.
 
Great advice, thank you. What hideaways do you use? If there are 2 hideaways in the sleeping area with hay in and lots of bedding hay around them is that the best set up?
 
Sally Newbie said:
Great advice, thank you. What hideaways do you use? If there are 2 hideaways in the sleeping area with hay in and lots of bedding hay around them is that the best set up?
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I use fiddlesticks log tunnels (pic below) and fleece tunnels. Tunnels or hides with two exits are best as an enclosed hidey particularly for new and teenage piggies as enclosed hideys can mean a piggy gets cornered and there is the potential for problems. I do have some enclosed hideys now but my boys are older, past their teens and settled with each other.

Yes I two fleece tunnels in the bedroom area and the whole thing surrounded by hay. I can then pop a snugglesafe heat pad under each tunnel in the winter so they are always warm
 

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Great, I will order some of these. My logic for putting the hutch out with the run around it is that I think (?) that when they come they have access to their hutch and run whilst they get used to us. If they were in the shed, we would have to carry them out to their run and I know that can be stressful. So I think we will pop them in their hutch and just sit near them and chat to them so they get used to our voices. Sitting in the shed chatting to them is not as appealing as sitting in the garden!
 
Just had a thought - presumably they will be weeing and pooing in their sleeping area fleece tunnels so I'll need to buy 4 to wash the dirty ones. How often should I wash them and will it stress them losing the smell of it ecach time it is washed?
 
Sally Newbie said:
Just had a thought - presumably they will be weeing and pooing in their sleeping area fleece tunnels so I'll need to buy 4 to wash the dirty ones. How often should I wash them and will it stress them losing the smell of it ecach time it is washed?
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Yes if you’re going to use any fleece items and don’t want them to ever be without them, then you will need enough to swap them in and out.
My fleece items are changed out and washed every 4-7 days - it depends how much time they are spending in the shed vs on the lawn (I don’t put their fleece items in the lawn run with them, they stay in the shed).
Having a fully cleaned out hutch with no bedding remaining can cause boars to scent mark more than normal, it’s never stressed my two out. Some boars can be really bothered by not having anything smelling of them, but my two are quite laid back. If you are worried, then you can always ensure you don’t always fully remove everything in one go - Ie swap out the hay bedding one day and then do the fleece items a day or two later – that way when the hay doesn’t smell of them, the fleece will and when the fleece doesn’t smell of them the hay will.
To be honest though, you need to remove any wet hay daily (I do it twice daily in winter) so they have fresh bedding being out in and out daily anyway.

Sally Newbie said:
Great, I will order some of these. My logic for putting the hutch out with the run around it is that I think (?) that when they come they have access to their hutch and run whilst they get used to us. If they were in the shed, we would have to carry them out to their run and I know that can be stressful. So I think we will pop them in their hutch and just sit near them and chat to them so they get used to our voices. Sitting in the shed chatting to them is not as appealing as sitting in the garden!
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It will be good for them to be able to have access to the hutch from the run. I prefer moving mine from the shed to their lawn run as it gives me a chance to have a little bit of handling (my two don’t like being handled much so health checks is the only time they were picked up).
I guess it depends on your set up! I love nothing more than sitting in my boys shed with them but my shed is purely for them so I’m not sat amongst gardening equipment! Being in the shed with my piggies is my quiet time away from hubby and kids!
 
I would be sat amongst gardening equipment! I think when they get used to us that next summer maybe their hutch could stay in the shed and we'd carry them to their run. But this summer they won't know us very well, and whilst they get to know us they can access a nice run. We will buy females but I like the idea of leaving older hay with fresh fleece so they still have their familiar smells.
This is all so stressful ,setting up for the first time! Do you put pee pads under their fleece tunnels? If so, what do you use? I know you said you wash these every 4 days minimum but don't they get soaked before then or are they hygenic enough not to wee too much in their bed?!
 
Sally Newbie said:
I would be sat amongst gardening equipment! I think when they get used to us that next summer maybe their hutch could stay in the shed and we'd carry them to their run. But this summer they won't know us very well, and whilst they get to know us they can access a nice run. We will buy females but I like the idea of leaving older hay with fresh fleece so they still have their familiar smells.
This is all so stressful ,setting up for the first time! Do you put pee pads under their fleece tunnels? If so, what do you use? I know you said you wash these every 4 days minimum but don't they get soaked before then or are they hygenic enough not to wee too much in their bed?!
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If possible don’t buy piggies, adopt from a rescue centre. Buying from a pet shop can bring problems - missexing, unexpected pregnancies as well as potential illnesses and potential problems with the bonding (pet shop piggies are just put together for sale and not correctly matched for their character. Character compatibility is vital to a successful bond and incorrectly matched piggies will fall out).
Given the size of your hutch, females would be best - 4ft (120cm) is the minimum welfare size two piggies should be kept in but for two boys it needs to be considerably bigger (a 6ft/180cm cage)

They don’t get soaked because fleece wicks through to under layers of bedding (absorbent layer). If they are wet then they get replaced but normally they stay nice and dry. My two tend to poop in their fleece beds but they don’t seem to pee in them much. However, this is where using fleece outside in winter can be problematic so you will have to see how it works for your- sometimes fleece outside just won’t dry properly and needs to be changed out daily or not used at all.
 
I've look at rspca, blue cross and a few others for adoption and there aren't any listed at the moment. I would love to adopt but there don't seem to be any around near me.
 
Do consider looking a little further afield. Send emails to the rescues saying you’re looking to adopt (two sows) and they’ll hopefully get back to you in good time. There is likely a waiting list so you will have to exercise patience, and they’re not open yet.
 
Hello again, @Piggies&buns with regard to the hideys - do all the hideys need to have 2 exits or just one hidey? They are quite expensive the ones with 2 exits and quite large for their hutch. I was thinking of getting a few hideys and if I got one bigger one with 2 exits, if a pig was being bullied it would know to go in that one so that it could get away? Or I could get a few of the log tunnels instead?
And in the sleep area can i put 2 hideys with only 1 entrance so they can sleep in each?
 
Two exits are better so they can’t be trapped. You could use cardboard boxes and just cut out two exits. Nice and cheap.
 
Thank you so much Siikibam. Would they eat the boxes?! What do you think I should do in the sleeping area?
 
Yes they chew on them which is fine. I would try for two exit hides. Maybe some fleece tunnels or something similar.
 
Sally Newbie said:
Hello again, @Piggies&buns with regard to the hideys - do all the hideys need to have 2 exits or just one hidey? They are quite expensive the ones with 2 exits and quite large for their hutch. I was thinking of getting a few hideys and if I got one bigger one with 2 exits, if a pig was being bullied it would know to go in that one so that it could get away? Or I could get a few of the log tunnels instead?
And in the sleep area can i put 2 hideys with only 1 entrance so they can sleep in each?
Click to expand...
Hello, the hutch we have started off as a 4-foot one for the same reason as you -- any larger and it wouldn't have fitted into the limited space we have. We have two sows. Their sleeping area is quite small but it does just fit two shoe-boxes, touching, side by side (upside-down without their lids), with a little space left over for the sows to access them. We cut an archway into the long side of both boxes, so that each could be accessed from the other, as well as an archway at the front of the boxes. This way they had a hidey each but could get out through another entrance (and would indeed run through from one box to the other). What we found is that one would often be on the piles of hay placed *ontop* of the boxes, and the other would either be inside a box or in the living-area. I believe, however, that they slept in a box each at night (poop-detective work!). The shoe-boxes worked really well whilst they were little, but at almost a year-old now, it is a bit of a squeeze. My next project is to make two wooden boxes which will be just like these modified shoe-boxes but a little taller. The shoe-box hideys found another purpose as the archways were gradually widened by gnawing teeth! If you look at my avatar with them pictured coming out from the purple sleeping area, you can just glimpse of one of the shoe-boxes within.
 
Sally Newbie said:
Hello again, @Piggies&buns with regard to the hideys - do all the hideys need to have 2 exits or just one hidey? They are quite expensive the ones with 2 exits and quite large for their hutch. I was thinking of getting a few hideys and if I got one bigger one with 2 exits, if a pig was being bullied it would know to go in that one so that it could get away? Or I could get a few of the log tunnels instead?
And in the sleep area can i put 2 hideys with only 1 entrance so they can sleep in each?
Click to expand...

I have log tunnels and they work perfectly.
You can’t assume a piggy would know to go into the one hidey if couldn’t get trapped in.
I do have a couple of enclosed hideys now but my two have been together for two years and are in a stable bond. That doesn’t mean to say trouble won’t ever occur, but I can be fairly confident that enclosed hideys don’t cause problems between them now. I wouldn’t risk it with young/teen piggies at all though.
In the bedroom area, because the area itself is enclosed (ie there is only one exit) and can in itself sometimes be an issue, I use fleece tunnels in the bedroom so that they move freely through them within the whole area.
 
Simpler than making them wooden boxes would be just to find bigger cardboard boxes and modify them as necessary ...
 
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