Shed set-up for guinea pigs

[Jo.Phill]

Hi there, we are new to guinea pigs and new to this forum. We are planning to get two pet guinea pigs quite soon. We have a garden shed that we think we could use for the guinea pigs. But I have a couple of questions, we are thinking about putting a hutch in the shed for better warmth in colder weather so that the guinea pigs can snuggle up more easily and be better sheltered (there is no power supply to the shed, so not possible to heat it). But my daughter is very keen on having a C&C type set up where she can see them and play with them more easily. I was therefore wondering about whether we could set up both and use the hutch for overnight then transfer them to the C&C cage for the daytime or when the kids are playing with them. Does anyone else do this? do you have any advice on how to manage guinea pigs in a shed, whilst trying to balance warmth and shelter but wanting kids to have easy access to them too?
Thank you in advance! Jo and family.

 

[Piggies&buns]

Welcome to the forum

I keep my piggies in a shed.
Like yours, my shed cannot be heated but I have made sure it is fully insulated.
I have external stable doors.
It also has internal mesh (stable) doors so I can open the external doors and still have the shed secure with the internal mesh doors.

Yes you absolutely can.
Definitely put a hutch in there!
I had* a 6ft hutch and then had c&c grids coming off the front so I could just open the hutch door and allow them to come out to play in a sectioned off area of the shed floor. They then had free day time access between the hutch and the play area as they wished. They were locked in the hutch at night.
There was the odd exceptionally cold winter day when they had to stay in the hutch all day and not have access out to the shed but those weren’t often.
It worked very well as they were protected but still had the extra space and freedom out of their hutch

Hutch had thermal covers as well as old blankets over it to help hold warmth in.
Snugglesafe heatpads are essential in the hutch.
Lots of hay everywhere in the hutch and wooden hides stuffed with more hay.

Do keep summer heat in mind when going with a shed. I find keeping them cool in summer considerably harder than keeping them warm in winter. I have never had to bring them into the house for being too cold but I have had to bring them into the house in summer (pretty much every year) as the shed can get dangerous quickly.

(* I say ‘had’ as the two boys I have left are unfortunately now in a c&c cage in the shed without the hutch. I don’t like it one bit (hard to keep the warm in a c&c without the protection of the hutch) but the two boys I have left can’t live together (they fought as babies and their bond broke) so live as neighbours. Hutches don’t work easily at all with piggies who have to live as neighbours)

This is our shed gallery, which may find helpful.

Member Gallery: Sheds