Hello, I’m Pippin, and I’m a guinea pig. Today I’m going to talk about Heatwaves, and how to keep us cool. And also about Holidays, and our experiences of travelling.

We’re helping out our Mummy, Jemima Pett, who is doing the A2Z this year by putting together all the posts we’ve done here on George’s Guinea Pig World, to make a book on Guinea Pig Care from A to Z. You can see her posts here: jemimapett.com/blog/. We’re filling in the gaps this month.

Heatwaves and hot weather

Mummy says most of us will be experiencing more hot weather, and longer heatwaves in the coming years. So it’s almost more important to think about handling heatwaves than cold weather. Especially in the UK, we don’t know how to keep cool.

Mummy says she was lucky her parents lived in Africa, because she learned from them that on hot sunny days, you have the windows and as much as possible open if safe all night, then close everything in the morning to keep the cool in and the heat out. Closing everything includes the curtains, to keep the sun out of the room. If possible, have shutters or shades outside the windows, because then the sun doesn’t get inside the room at all.

So that’s a start for indoor pigs. Because, apart from having air conditioning (which is often noisy and usually expensive), the rest of keeping cool is about air circulation and evaporation.

• Put bowls of water near our cages so that the water evaporates and keeps the air near us cooler.
• Have a fan in the room to create a breeze. We have a blowing post, which changes direction, and wafts across us on a regular basis. You get used to the sound, and it’s not really noisy.
• Make sure we have water and that the water is cool, but not cold. Warm water is horrid. Do not make it icy.
• If possible, put some bottles of water, or cooling pads or ice pads in the fridge or freezer, and then wrap one in a towel or blanket to put in our cages. The blanket makes sure it doesn’t chill us, and stops us from investigating it with our teeth.

Additional thoughts for outdoor pigs.

I wouldnt want to be in our summerhouse when it’s hot. It looks shady, but the sun shines on the other side of it, and it heats up inside. Mummy says you could shade the other side of a shed, or paint it white, or make it reflective, which would help, but there’s still the roof to absorb heat. If you have a shady patch of grass, many pigs would keep cool enough lying on the grass in the shade, or hiding under shrubs if you can make their runs secure. Otherwise, use the same icing tricks as for indoor pigs, even in the run. Do not assume it is cool under a shade. It may be only a degree or two less than the outside temperature, which means it may still be too hot. If the run is on concrete it will be far too hot. Take your pigs indoors where it is cooler. Otherwise, provide as much water, icepacks and cool spots as you can, and keep them off hot surfaces.

More hot weather?

Short spells of hot weather are not such a problem as weeks of unbroken high temperatures. If the nights don’t cool down enough to ease the indoor temperatures, you will have to resort to technology to keep your pigs cool – fans and aircon being some of the few options. And don’t run a fridge or freezer in the same room as your guinea pigs. It exchanges heat for cold and vice versa. If your fridge is cold inside, the heat is coming out of the back or bottom of it.

One less common way of keeping a small space cool is to make a water fountain, and run water over stones or similar in a bowl or tub. You will need a submersible water pump like those for a pond, and a power supply the pigs can’t get to. Most people will not have room for anything substantial, but when it’s hot for a long period, even a bucket-sized one can be remarkably effective.

Holidays

If you have pigs, you can take them on holiday with you. Really… as long as you provide for their needs. What you must not do is give them a pile of hay and a bottle of water and leave them for a week or more. You either need to have someone to stay, or someone to look in on them daily and administer meds, change bedding, provide food, etc. Mummy says there are pet sitters these days, but she doesn’t know them at all.

Or you could board them at a guinea pig rescue or sanctuary. Many Rescues do this to help earn a little more money. Contact them as soon as you know your dates. They don’t have many spare places, usually. In extremis, you could see if your vet will board them. Mummy did this once, and she says, while she loved those vets, this did not work.

Mummy takes us with her on holiday. She identifies a cottage that has suitable floors and space for us to have our holiday cages (they are smaller than normal and fit on the back seat of the car). Everything she needs for us for a week or two (apart from fresh veg, usually) goes in the car, including our run panels. We go in our boxes which sit snugly in our holiday cage. We usually drive for not more than two hours. If it’s further than that, Mummy gives us a break, so we can rest from the noise and movement, and get some fresher air in our boxes. She gives us cucumber or celery as a nice watery snack. Then when we get there she sets up our cages, and a run on the floor with lots of paper underneath, and it’s just like normal, although Mummy often goes out a lot. And if the weather’s nice we get to go out on the grass, providing it’s not what she calls ‘dirty’. She usually checks with the owner whether it is safe for us to eat.

You can read more about our holidays in our blog posts and our Tales from the Norfolk Hutch (Five go to the Isle of Mull and Adventures in Devon).

We’re going on holiday in May, to the Isle of Wight. We go on a boat called a ferry! It’s so exciting. I can’t wait! I’ve been on holiday to Sussex. That was soon after Ronnie and Reggie came. I don’t remember going on holiday with Victor and Ludo and Locksley. I think Mummy wasn’t well enough then. But she’s better now, mostly.

Love

Pippin.