How to keep outdoor pets warm

It’s vital that your outdoor pets have friends of their own species.

Apart from companionship being essential from a behavioural point of view, it’s also the best way for them to keep warm. Huddling together in their sleeping compartment is the natural way for rabbits, guinea pigs and other sociable pets to keep warm.

Your pets are also more likely to move around if they have friends, and exercise helps them to generate body heat.

Site the hutch and run in a sheltered area, protected from oncoming wind, rain and snow. If your garden isn’t well sheltered, you could hammer in some windbreaks or short fencing panels around the hutch to provide some protection. 

Your pets will need their home to be waterproof and draught free, so check that the roof is properly covered and that all the doors close and fasten snugly. Ensure any hutch maintenance is carried out before the bad weather arrives.

Adding extra layers to the outside of the hutch can help to reduce draughts.

A tarpaulin with eyelets around the edges can be fastened snugly to the hutch using cable ties. It’s even better if you can find some old blankets or duvets and sandwich these between the hutch and tarp, to add more insulation. Tarpaulins can also help to protect your pets from the weather when they’re in their run.

You might like to fix some sheets of clear, corrugated plastic to the top and one or two sides of the run so your pets can still benefit from daylight while being kept dry. You won’t need to put clear plastic around all sides of the run, as it could make the run feel too warm on a sunny day, but you could put clear plastic sheets over some of the hutch windows to protect the interior during wet weather.

You can insulate the sleeping compartment in various ways. Placing a cardboard box inside it and packing the space between the box and the floors, walls and ceiling of the compartment with newspaper is an easy way to keep your pets warm, and you can replace the box when it gets damp. Fill the inner box with soft, dust-extracted bedding, straw or hay. Your pets will probably spend more time than usual inside their sleeping compartment during cold weather, so you’ll need to clean it out more often than you do in the summer. 

Another way to insulate the sleeping chamber is to make a plywood inner wall and ceiling for it and to pack the space between the inner and outer bedroom walls with roof insulation. It’s important that your pets can’t get access to the insulation, so keep an eye on the inner lining to make sure it’s not being chewed.

When it’s really cold, you could place a pet-safe heat pad underneath the bedding in the sleeping compartment.

There are risks attached to using anything with an electrical cable, because pets may chew them, with disastrous consequences. Safer alternatives, such as Snugglesafe heat pads and similar, are a better choice.

When using heat pads, watch out for your pets getting so warm in their bedroom that they start sleeping out in the open. Sleeping in the open is not the best thing for them! If you think they’re too warm in their bedroom, simply remove the heat pad and reserve it for extreme weather only.

If your pets’ hutch is well insulated, their water may not freeze but, even if the hutch is under cover in a shed, very low temperatures will cause the water to freeze or the little ball in the spout of the drinking bottle to stop moving. 

You could rotate water bottles, replacing a cold or frozen one with a new one you’ve kept in your home, two or three times a day. Insulate the bottle using bubble wrap or something warm and protective that will trap a layer of air. Use your hand to warm the drinking spout and ensure the little metal ball can still move freely, allowing your pets to drink.

If your pets drink from a bowl, you could place a heat pad underneath it, or at least sit the bowl on several layers of newspaper or cardboard.

A garden shed, garage (provided it doesn't have a boiler flue and isn't used for vehicles, as car exhaust fumes could be fatal to your pets), or other outbuilding can make great winter accommodation for outdoor pets. You’ll also stay dry while feeding and cleaning them out. You can put your pets’ hutch and run inside the shed. You may want to put a low barrier across the door so you can step in and out without your pets following, your pets can use the whole space as a run. 

You’ll need to ensure the shed is secure enough to keep your pets inside and any wildlife outside. A shed can also be insulated and you might be able to attach your pets’ run to it, to allow even more room to exercise safely. 

Some people bring their outdoor pets into their home for the winter and let them out again once the weather warms up. This can work well, provided you do it gradually and if you’re careful to help your pets to adjust to the sights and sounds of indoor life. 

Begin acclimatising your pets to living indoors before the weather gets too cold. When you first bring them in, place them in an unheated room or conservatory, so the temperature change is more gradual. Allow them plenty of time to get used to artificial lights, people coming and going and possibly other pets. If you provide plenty of hiding places and bring in familiar objects and furniture from their outdoor run, your pets will begin to find their new surroundings easier to cope with.

Once you start keeping your pets in a heated environment, you’ll need to look after them like this until the weather warms up again in spring – they won’t be able to adapt to the outdoor weather again during the winter months.

Living indoors overnight and having a daytime outdoor set-up is fine if your pets are healthy, live in an unheated part of your home or a shed at night and if the weather isn’t particularly cold or wet. The more consistent their environment, the closer it will be to the way rabbits and guinea pigs would live in the wild, using their burrows. So, if you can set up the hutch and run in a shed or unused garage, your pets should be better for it.