Bron

The setup list, for when the time comes: weatherproof insulated hutch raised off the ground, sheltered from wind and driving rain and direct sun, deep bedding and plenty of hay to burrow into, genuinely predator-proof mesh and locks because foxes and rats both try, a large attached run, shade in summer.

And two pigs minimum, which you have. They huddle for warmth, so a single pig outside is a different and worse proposition.

Roughly 18 to 24C is the usual recommended band, and they overheat as easily as they chill.

One addition from the rescue side: weigh before and after if you are bathing a pig for a reason. A pig that was already slightly unwell and gets bathed is the combination that tips over, and the weight is the only early warning you get.

If the coat is soiled because the pig has stopped grooming itself, the bath is treating a symptom. That one is a vet visit with a bath afterwards, not instead.

Dry to the skin rather than dry on top is the line I would underline. A long-haired pig can feel perfectly dry while the undercoat is still wet, and that is exactly how a bath in January turns into a respiratory problem in February.

So plan for it taking hours rather than minutes, and do not start one in the evening when you want to go to bed. If you are not prepared to sit with a damp pig in a warm room for most of an afternoon, do not run the bath.

Both, in that order of urgency. Weigh him now and look at his droppings. Fewer, smaller or misshapen with a dropped appetite is a ring-the-vet morning, not a watch-and-see one. Bring them in regardless, the shed is not helping either of them.

Neither, and this is the one species question where the answer is blunt. Guinea pigs do not slow down for winter. They do not hibernate and the gut only works while food is moving through it, so eating less is not a season, it is a symptom.

Cold-kept pigs often eat MORE hay, because chewing and digesting it is how they make heat. So a pig in an unheated shed leaving hay in a cold snap is going the wrong way, and ignoring a favourite vegetable on top of that is the bit I would act on today.