Australia Keeping guinea pigs outside?

[Georgibeans]

Hi there,
I'm new to this website and new to the world of guinea pigs! I live in NZ in Auckland and have been considering getting a couple of pigs, but I am unsure about where to keep them. I was considering building a run and having them in the garden, but bringing them in at night and on particularly cold/wet days (it never gets that cold in Auckland anyway), but everywhere I have read they suggest keeping them inside. If I kept them inside, they wouldn't have as much space as outside, and they wouldn't be able to graze on grass all the time. So what should I do? I feel that guinea pigs would prefer to be outside most of the time as it is more natural, but I'm no expert! Advice would be much appreciated!
Thanks.

 

[PiggieGuinea]

Guinea pigs overheat so outside is not a good place, they also get illnesses easily and can get diseases from insects, cats, dogs, etc and attacked.

The reason you use hay is to give them something to graze on and keep their digestive track moving, as if it stops, they get very ill and may die.

I would say keep them inside if you have enough room, if you dont have enough room, rearrange furniture, and if you still dont, I wouldnt get piggies.

 

[Georgibeans]

Okay thanks for this, I regards to the overheating though, what sort of temperatures would short-haired guinea pigs be most comfortable? I thought as they come from South America, they would be more tolerant to higher temperatures? (Please correct me if I'm wrong!) and besides, where I live in the summer the temperatures never get too high anyway. (23 degrees Celsius/73 degrees Fahrenheit) our property is fully fenced too and we have a dog of our own, so cat and dog attacks are highly unlikely. Also, there aren't really any other predators in NZ-we're a pretty safe country!
I will have another look at the indoors situation, they would get plenty of room inside, but outside I could give them 6x4metres of room plus. How big an area do you recommend for two guinea pigs?

 

[bpatters]

Check the Main page of this forum for recommended cage sizes for the number of pigs you have. Remember that those are minimums, and larger is always better, especially if you're dealing with boars.

If your pigs are outside, you won't have nearly as much interaction with them. It's like having a dog for a pet that's always kept in the yard and never allowed in with the family. What's the point? But the interaction with the pigs is very important. They're prey animals, and as such they hide illnesses and pain very well. Unless you're around them daily for more than just a few minutes, you'll easily miss the subtle changes that can tell you that a pig is sick and needs a vet. They go downhill very quickly when they're ill, so missing symptoms for more than a few hours can mean life or death for your pig.

As far as temperature is concerned, pigs can have heat stroke at eighty-five degrees fahrenheit or above. You're right that they came from South America originally, but from the Andes mountains, so they do much better in cooler temperatures than they do in hot ones.

 

[Georgibeans]

Okay thanks for this! Yes I totally agree with the interaction-my dog is an inside dog and is a huge part of the family, and this would be the same with guinea pigs-they would only be outside on good days, and they would come in at night. I would obviously also spend a lot of time with them and interact with them both inside and outside, but is there anything wrong with their main enclosure being outdoors? Thanks again!

 

[oldnewie]

Welcome. This is a great forum & you get lots of great advice.
Outdoors is the old traditional way of keeping guinea pigs & rabbits, & lots of people still do. My dream was to have them happily trotting & lazing about in a fully fenced in, covered yard with lovely fresh grass growing around the sides, a few rocky caves & a lovely big hay-filled sleep house, yadayada, still a dream!
Humans have to be included as predators, there have been horror stories lately, & piggies do get stolen from backyards. A lady used to keep her rabbits in a huge run at the back of her house, also fully fenced. They died from poisoning after the neighbour sprayed his section - he didn't know the rabbits were there, but it shows how vulnerable these animals are. A neighbour's outside guinea pigs were killed by a dog who managed to get in over the fence.
We're experiencing really bad weather (I'm in Whangarei) so you would have to keep your piggies indoors all the time anyway. Of course indoor piggies are higher maintenance, & you would have to go pick grass for them at least every 2 days which is what I have to do, a bit of a pain but good exercise for me!; they need lots of hay, daily poo pickup, more regular cleanups & bedding changes, but that goes with the commitment. Not as easy as just moving them onto a fresh patch of lawn & changing out the sleeping box!
You could put your piggies outside on a fine day for a few hours, should be supervised.
@RodentCuddles runs Auckland Cavy Rescue (I think it's called); you could contact her for advice & information, & also get your piggies from there. Suggest more research, ask lots of questions etc. then make your decision. Enjoy the journey!

 

[Georgibeans]

Thank you very much, really helpful guys! I've been doing quite a bit of research, but still lots to do! Really happy I found this forum!

 

[PiggieWigglies]

Welcome. This is a great forum & you get lots of great advice.
Outdoors is the old traditional way of keeping guinea pigs & rabbits, & lots of people still do. My dream was to have them happily trotting & lazing about in a fully fenced in, covered yard with lovely fresh grass growing around the sides, a few rocky caves & a lovely big hay-filled sleep house, yadayada, still a dream!
Humans have to be included as predators, there have been horror stories lately, & piggies do get stolen from backyards. A lady used to keep her rabbits in a huge run at the back of her house, also fully fenced. They died from poisoning after the neighbour sprayed his section - he didn't know the rabbits were there, but it shows how vulnerable these animals are. A neighbour's outside guinea pigs were killed by a dog who managed to get in over the fence.
We're experiencing really bad weather (I'm in Whangarei) so you would have to keep your piggies indoors all the time anyway. Of course indoor piggies are higher maintenance, & you would have to go pick grass for them at least every 2 days which is what I have to do, a bit of a pain but good exercise for me!; they need lots of hay, daily poo pickup, more regular cleanups & bedding changes, but that goes with the commitment. Not as easy as just moving them onto a fresh patch of lawn & changing out the sleeping box!
You could put your piggies outside on a fine day for a few hours, should be supervised.
@RodentCuddles runs Auckland Cavy Rescue (I think it's called); you could contact her for advice & information, & also get your piggies from there. Suggest more research, ask lots of questions etc. then make your decision. Enjoy the journey!

I was just about to suggest her rescue. lol You beat me to it.
Georgibeans let us know when you get your pigs! Id like to see them.

 

[RodentCuddles]

Welcome to the forum!

I do run ACCR - Auckland Cavy Care (Rescue), we've got a facebook page - https://www.facebook.com/CavyCareRescue
And a website (which I'll hopefully be adding to over these past couple of weeks, it's just me so takes me a while to add stuff!)
Page with the guineas which we currently have up for adoption - (broken link removed)

If you do end up going down the piggy path, please adopt (either from the SPCA or me)..we're currently at max and am having to send about 5 guineas away each month because we don't currently the space to take more in, sadly I don't know what happens to these guineas.

 

[Artista]

Welcome to the forum!

I do run ACCR - Auckland Cavy Care (Rescue), we've got a facebook page - https://www.facebook.com/CavyCareRescue
And a website (which I'll hopefully be adding to over these past couple of weeks, it's just me so takes me a while to add stuff!)
Page with the guineas which we currently have up for adoption - (broken link removed)

If you do end up going down the piggy path, please adopt (either from the SPCA or me)..we're currently at max and am having to send about 5 guineas away each month because we don't currently the space to take more in, sadly I don't know what happens to these guineas.

Nice pages! I saw Dominic on the not available yet. Is he continuing to progress well? I went and liked your fb page.

 

[RodentCuddles]

Nice pages! I saw Dominic on the not available yet. Is he continuing to progress well? I went and liked your fb page.

Dominic is doing very well RE Mites, his white hair is growing back..but from far away it looks as if it's dandruff not white hair! His bumblefoot/infection on one toe is the next thing we'll be taking him to the vets for..at first he had one toe nail (yes the nail!) that was unusually red..now I think it's an infection for that toe is slowing swelling up and going red, after that will be his other leg x-rayed and depending on what the x-ray shows a possible operation.
Poor guy has a while to go.

 

[Bodhi]

There are going to be more life-threatening risks if you put your pigs outdoors. Each region has different climate and predators. There are too many risks for many cavy owners.

 

[animalmadlover]

Welcome to the forum!

we're currently at max and am having to send about 5 guineas away each month because we don't currently the space to take more in, sadly I don't know what happens to these guineas.

How do you "send them away"

 

[RodentCuddles]

How do you "send them away"

I reply to the owner, let them know that we are currently un-able to help them/take in their guinea pig and give them info on how to re-home them their-self or tell them that the SPCA will be able to take their guineas in.

 

[animalmadlover]

Ohhh! I'm so sorry, I thought that you meant you had to send some of your current rescue pigs away. My bad.

 

[Artista]

Dominic is doing very well RE Mites, his white hair is growing back..but from far away it looks as if it's dandruff not white hair! His bumblefoot/infection on one toe is the next thing we'll be taking him to the vets for..at first he had one toe nail (yes the nail!) that was unusually red..now I think it's an infection for that toe is slowing swelling up and going red, after that will be his other leg x-rayed and depending on what the x-ray shows a possible operation.
Poor guy has a while to go.

Wow. But at least he's in a great place with love and care. Thanks for helping him. This just breaks my heart, and makes me want to break that lady who created this mess!

 

[Georgibeans]

@RodentCuddles I really like the idea of adopting! We do have a cat and a dog though. I don't feel our dog would be a problem as we have had other small animals in the past with her and she hasn't bothered them, but we haven't had any small animals with our cat. How are your rescue guinea pigs with cats and dogs? Are they used to them? What would you recommend I do to introduce the guinea pigs to my pets in the least stressful way? Thanks.

 

[RodentCuddles]

We have 7 cats (5 were feral/strays we took in and got de-sexed...3 are tame-ish now) so all the guineas are completely used to cats, and most don't bother when my boy Panther (2 year old ex-feral cat) hops into their cage to sleep in a cozy or under a fleece forest.
We don't have dogs, but back onto an off leash dog park so the guineas are all more than used to dogs barking, but none apart from two little girls (Zig & Zag) have meet dogs.

Zig & Zag's foster mum was a vet, and on some days she took them into the clinic with her so the two little 3 month girls are used to dogs sniffing them out.

Here is a picture of the girls...the picture was from when they were around 3 weeks old..since then Zig's hair has grown alot longer because she has turned out to be long haired!

 

[mattfemia]

We have 7 cats (5 were feral/strays we took in and got de-sexed...3 are tame-ish now) so all the guineas are completely used to cats, and most don't bother when my boy Panther (2 year old ex-feral cat) hops into their cage to sleep in a cozy or under a fleece forest.
We don't have dogs, but back onto an off leash dog park so the guineas are all more than used to dogs barking, but none apart from two little girls (Zig & Zag) have meet dogs.

Zig & Zag's foster mum was a vet, and on some days she took them into the clinic with her so the two little 3 month girls are used to dogs sniffing them out.

Here is a picture of the girls...the picture was from when they were around 3 weeks old..since then Zig's hair has grown alot longer because she has turned out to be long haired!

It's great to hear that they can co-exist.

Was there any sort of training that you had to do with the cats to ensure that the piggies wouldn't be dinner for them?

 

[RodentCuddles]

We've been really lucky with our cats, and none attack the guineas. Each cat is different, we fostered a sick cat for the SPCA over christmas and sadly he got out of his room, went into the room my guineas were in and killed my girl Angel.

I'm sure there is someone else on here who can be alot more helpful with getting cats and guineas to co-exist. But maybe a lid on the cage will be helpful for a little while to be on the safe side.