Keeping guinea pigs warm - hot water bottles?

[pocoyo]

Hi everyone, i was wondering whether anyone puts small hot water bottles in their piggie's homes to keep them warm? It's just it's getting so cold and i would like to put something in that they can snuggle up to.

If anyone does use them, do you know where to get mini ones from?

Thankyou

Pocoyo :0)

[Cavy Carnage]

NEVER use hot water bottles, they can easily chew threw the plastic and theboiling water will burn them. I use these

Pet Shop Online Pet Store - SnuggleSafe

They are completely safe, cant be bitten or chewed and as there is no hot water they cant be scalded.

[Sabriel]

Snuggle safe discs also stay warmer longer then hot water bottles. They are well worth the cost. Mine came with a free cover.

[pocoyo]

Thank you very much i will purchase one of those :0)

[Sabriel]

One thing you could do in the mean time is fill a cloth pouch or sock/mitten with rice and sew the end shut really well. Then throw the rice bag in the microwave for a few minutes till warm, wrap in a small cloth or face cloth and put that in the cage.

It's not a great long term solution since they get icky pretty quick but that what we did for Lina last winter before we found a good deal on a Snuggle Safe.

[fairysari]

I want a Snuggle Safe but I find that the shipping is ridiculous, and I can;t find one locally. Sabriel, where did you get yours?

Anyway, I bought one of these: Petstages Puppy Cuddle Pal

It's made for puppies. I've only used it once, it didn't seem to stay warm very long. But Tanuki did seem to like it. There is a really sturdy velcro closure on the bottom, with a packet of buckwheat inside, which is I guess what stays warm. My boys don't chew on fabric-y things, but even if they did, it would be *very* difficult to get all the way through the outside to the filling - it is intended for a chewy puppy after all.

[Cavy Carnage]

Im not sure how much youare willing to pay but you can buy them at amazon for $27.84 inc p&p. Hope this helps. (Its about 21 for the pad then 7 for the postage)

[Amber23]

I haven't been around much so maybe I missed this but are your pigs indoors or outdoors?

[pocoyo]

My piggies are indoors.

Thanks for all these ideas everyone

[Amber23]

Do you have a C&C cage? You could put a blanket around the outside to keep drafts out.

You could also make cozies out of old sweatpants, towels, fleece, winter hats, etc.

Mine really like towels just put in there to hide and snuggle under.

[piggy-lover]

You could buy cuddle cups or those cat beds, they're really soft and that'll give them some warmth.

[fairysari]

I wish amazon would ship one to Canada! I would buy one there in a second. Otherwise I have to spend $60 for one.

[fourbwabbys]

I make my pigs rice socks in the winter. They work great.

[jdomans]

I use beds and pigloos with fleece baby blankets in them. for the small single size pigloos, I toss end pieces of fleece I have from sewing. When I lift up the pigloo to clean I can feel the heat inside!

[Sabriel]

I loathe to say this, but I bought mine at Petsmart. It's the only place in the GTA that I could find one that I didn't have to sell my soul to buy.

I think I paid $40 for it last year. But it came with a "bonus" slip cover. But you can sew well so I don't think making one would be an issue for you. The cover is handy though as Lina hates sitting on hard objects.

[zippysmom]

Do your guinea pigs live outside? If not, you probably shouldn't because if it is normal temperature for you, it should be for them, too.

[standuprookie]

Pocoyo has already said they are living indoors, on post #9.

Originally Posted by pocoyo

My piggies are indoors.

[zippysmom]

Originally Posted by standuprookie

Pocoyo has already said they are living indoors, on post #9.

Now I feel stupid. I didn't read the comments.


I don't think you should heat up your guinea pigs. They are indoors, so they are just fine.

[pocoyo]

Hi thanks for all the replies everyone :0)

I dknow they are fine during the day but it gets very cold in the house during the night. I live in York (in England) and now the winter is setting in it's very icy. Even my lil doggy crawls into our bed to get some warm hehe :0)

[fairysari]

Zippysmom, there are lots of reasons why we might want to provide extra warmth for our pigs. Like pocoyo said, it can get cool at night. Also, many of us have hairless pigs, so they do not have fur to keep them warm. If I need to wear a sweater or something inside to keep warm, then my naked piggies are going to feel cold. Older or ill pigs might benefit from the extra warmth as well.

Sabriel, I'll keep looking before I go to Petsmart. It's kind of far and hard to get to. I've been asking at pet supply shops if they carry them - thats how I got the petstages warmer I have now. The lady at the store ordered them I think because I showed interest.

Oh, and my pigs each have a cuddle cup, which I put in a corner of the cage. Then I take a piece of fleece, maybe two feet square, and tie two corners to the top of the grids above the cuddle cup. So the fleece hangs down, and they can snuggle into their cuddle cup and have a nice warm blankie on top.