Keeping guinea pigs in a shed

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Louisep1973

Louisep1973

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Hi there (apologies if this is in the wrong place or is answered elsewhere - I did look)

We are about to adopt or buy 3 piggies, and we plan to keep them in a shed. They will have a large hutch, some hideouts, and 24 hour access to a large secure indoor run area within the shed itself.

My question is, will they be warm enough in the winter? The shed is very sturdy and weatherproof, but not insulated. There is thick lino covering the entire floor, and the hutch is raised a couple of inches off the floor with a bit of a ramp to help them in and out. There is no heating in the shed. Will I need to bring them indoors when the temperature falls below a certain point?

Any advice would be much appreciated, thank you.
 
Welcome to the forum, I have moved your thread to an area of the forum where it will get more replies
 
I know alot of people who keep their pigs in a shed, have the whole shed insulated and just use the shed as a hutch instead of having a hutch inside the shed, however i can imagine if you are using a hutch that adds an extra layer of protection, however i would reccomend making sure you still cover the hutch with thick blankets or a hutch cover to protect them from drafts and just add another layer of insulation :)
Hopefully someone in a similar situation can give better advice, my piggies live indoors all year round haha.
 
We have always kept our guinea pigs outdoors, in the winter we moved the hutch into a shed. I think if you make sure they have lots and lots of hay, possibly a couple of fleece blankets or igloos. Theres lots of sites now that sell cosys made out of fleece, they will snuggle and keep each other warm, its surprising how warm the bedding is when you pick them out. I keep a thermometer in our bunny shed, it shows how hot its been and how cold its been. The danger of bringing them in in the winter (and it will be tempting) is that they will have acclimatised to the outside temp, so suddenly bringing them into a hot house could be worse than leaving them outside, and then if they went back out again they would feel the cold. x
 
I kept guinea pigs in my shed for years. The temperature in there did occasionally go below freezing and the biggest problem was keeping water liquid. The pigs coped quite well, as said above, they had a lot of hay which they would snuggle into. I also got a Snugglesafe pet warmer which was very good.
I had a hutch/run combo and would wrap the hutch up well. I'd pile straw under it, at the back, sides and on top. Then I got an old horse rug and put that over the top of it all.
However, three winters ago we had such a bitter winter and it went on so long (FEET of snow and it lay for weeks) that nothing I did seemed to help. My pigs were losing weight, so I brought them indoors. That was extreme though.
I expect most young and healthy pigs would cope, but the ones I had then were old. They did very well once they came inside, and now I can't bear to think of my pigs living out in the shed! I am getting soft maybe, or maybe it's just the fun I have with them being inside.
 
Mine are all kept in a brick out building. In the winter I cover their hutches at night with blankets, carpet etc. They also have plenty of hay and snugglesafe pads :)

Are you planning to rehome a trio of girls? I personally wouldn't recommend boars as its hard to find successful trios. I have been very lucky to have had two lots of trios but this is usually quite rare and boars need far more space!
 
Thank you everyone for your replies, I really appreciate it. I'm rehoming three girls. My niece rescued them a year ago, but has so many rescue pets she doesn't feel she has time to give them all the attention they deserve. Apparently they are all besotted with each other, so I'm happy to be able to give them a home all together. The eldest girl was overbred from, and lost a lot of hair. My 7 year old daughter and I are looking forward to giving them lots of tlc.

The shed will be partially insulated, ie we have bought mdf to create a double wall within the shed, to protect against draughts. I'm also considering microwave heat pads (snugglesafe?) for inside their hutch at night.

They will have a fairly large free range area inside the shed (about 1.5m x2m) and I've bought a big run for outside too. Can't wait to get them settled - beginning of September, ready for my daughter's birthday. Will post photos of the set up when it's ready. Thanks again for all the advice, it's very helpful :)
 
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