guinea pigs- do they feel the cold?

[staphjermz]

Hi everyone, i was just wondering, do guinea pigs feel the cold?i have noticed clothes for rabbits and dogs but no clothes for guinea pigs. My guinea pigs make a lot of sqealing sounds even aftre i have fed them veges, give them new hay, pellets and fresh water. But they still make a lot of noise like a baby crying. I do not know what they want i did put fleece on top of the cage to hopefully make it warmer but they still squeal. Any suggestions what i should do?

 

[evilnumberlady]

Do you keep them outside? If you keep them indoors, what's the temperature in the house?

 

[aqh88]

Pigs do fine down to around 60F so long as there isn't a wind and it isn't damp. Inside conditions at 60F are fine although most people feel too cold at that point and turn up the heat. At lower than that or in outside conditions with breezes, rain, and just dampness in the air from the ground being wet can cause illnesses. Most guinea pigs though suffer heatstroke much more easily. As a kid I accidentally let a guinea pig get loose under the deck and it lived through a snowstorm. Also as a kid I left some guinea pigs outside unattended in around 80F with shade and water and came back to find them all suffering heatstroke. I ended up doing this mad scramble to save them with damp washclothes and syringes full of water. We lost 3 unborn babies that would have come out in another 2-3days because of that. While I'm definitely not condoning risking your pigs life by leaving it in cold weather they survive cold better than they do heat.

The noises are probably what's referred to as wheeking and pretty normal for a pig. There must be something you gave them once that they really really liked and now they are asking for it. Sometimes when you get a new pig you can spend months trying to find what it is they are wheeking for. They all have a different favorite food or treat. They will also start wheeking within a few minutes of finishing their veggies to ask for more. The more often you feed them actually the more often they wheek cause they know you might give them more. Guinea pigs are never full.

 

[staphjermz]

All my guinea pigs live indoors but sometimes my boyfriend's mother likes to open windows for fresh air. seriously, i get so cold and close the windows and she opens it again. I thought i feel the cold, maybe the piggies do to.

hmm temperature wise, im not too sure. maybe around 5-10 degrees. It is winter in australia at the moment. brrr.. very cold

 

[aqh88]

5-10C is 41-50F and too cold. Nowhere near as cold as it gets here. I'd be pretty darn happy to have a winter where it only got that cold outside. lol But that's too cold for pigs. 60F which I said is their minimum comfortable temperature is 15.5C.

 

[staphjermz]

what shall i do then? to make them warmer

 

[Trivman2000]

In their favorite sleeping spots, put old T-shirts and fleece (if you have scraps from using fleece as bedding), towels,, or pretty much any cloth.

 

[Alusdra]

Can you give a piggie a heat lamp like for a reptile? I would imagine a heat pad would be a bad idea all around (might melt the chloroplast or get eaten)- but a heat lamp? I use one for my parrot in addition to her fuzzy bed and cage cover (I like it quite cold, too).