Summer is coming! New outside hutch

[sammy_kaye]

I have recently purchased an outdoor hutch which is 2 levels both being 1m square. The lower level is directly on the ground (which means grass) with no wire. It is made of wood but I am going to line the floor with a coroplast tray so that the urine doesn't sink in and to make cleaning easier. I am really looking forward to putting the Guinea Pigs out there for the first time.

My question is should I put the hutch in the sun or shade? My choices are full shade all day or full sun for part of the day.

[VoodooJoint]

There is already a thread about this. Here it is Summer is coming. Should you house your GP outside?

[sammy_kaye]

Thank you VJ. I forgot to state that this will be a daytime supervised arrangement. I should have said that in my post. I have an inside C&C cage that I have spent a lot of time on which will not be sitting unused as my piggies obviously love being in their cage. I had read that thread already and it seemed to be more about 100% outdoors and no supervision for most of that.

Just a side note in New Zealand there are no snakes, no foxes, in fact no wild dogs, 2 poisonous spiders neither of which I have ever seen, and prey birds are only seen in the country and they are small hawks. (Still pose a risk hence the covered in cage)

I brought the hutch as we have a lot of cats in the area. One that is particually quick and I wanted a secure play area that there is no chance of a cat getting in (grids to me are not safe enough and an open top cage will not deter a cat even if I am sitting right next to it. I wanted the safest environment I could buy.

What I really wanted to know is the sun factor. It can be quite cool in the shade here even in summer so I wanted to know if full shade all day or sun for part of the day would be better for extended outdoor time. We spend most of the day outside in summer as it is cooler (no air con here). The hotest it gets here is about 26'C and that is probably a bit on the high side.

[Percy's Mom]

First of all, if the pen is covered and you put a coroplast tray in it, it's really not much different than being indoors. I know you are trying to make the wood easier to clean, but unless there are some sort of chemicals in your grass, I would let them walk and nibble the grass.

To answer your real question though, I think I would put the pen where they would get some sun during the day. You might want to put a tent or hidey in so there is an option of shade as well though.

Even if there are relatively few risks in your immediate area, please only have your pigs outdoors if you are there monitoring them. No matter what type of cage or pen they are in, a predator will get to them if they want to. Human supervision is vital during outdoor play time.

[sammy_kaye]

Thank you that was very helpful.

The hutch is 2 levels. The upper level is a fully enclosed wooden raised hutch with a ramp leading down to a lower level which has no bottom so will be directly on the grass. My boys love their ramp in the C&C cage so I am hoping that they will catch onto this one quickly.

As I said they will be supervised/monitored. Inside is like outside minus the grass in the summer here as we open up all the doors and windows when we are home which is why they are in an enclosed cage inside too. But in spite of this it is still cooler to be outside. The hutch will shade them to a certain extent but I will also have hideys on the grass for them to hide in. To provide shade and a feeling of security. Any hideys I have will be outside hideys. Do you think the plastic of pigloos will deteriorate in the sun?