It was very hot yesterday at the Midnight Madness show in Leesport, PA. I brought four carriers full of pigs, all to deliver to folks who had previously purchased or reserved them. Plus I was picking up pigs for myself and others to bring home. I literally had no room for any show pigs. And I am glad. Pigs and rabbits were dying in that heat.
Heat is very hard on Cavies. They originally evolved in the Andes Mountains of South America where they graze on the grasses on the high mountain plateaus. This close to the Equator there is little difference between summer and winter. My dearest friend grew up in Colombia. She tells me temperature range is always very pleasant in the mountatins all year round, unlike in the jungles in the Amazon River basin. The humidity is also very low. Basically it is similar in some resepcts to the area of Northern New Mexico where I did archaeological field work. And I remember that no matter how warm it was during the day, I always needed a jacket in the evening.
To quote from David Hardesty
Ten of thousands of years of evolution have never placed a premium on the ability of the cavy to tolerate very hot temperatures, because they never had to deal with excessive heat. There was no environmental "advantage" for cavies would could endure high heat. There was, though, an evolutionary advantage for those cavy ancestors which evolved a compact, cobby body which could absorb heat readily and retain body heat when the temperatures in this semi-arid environment would get colder at night. Short, stubby limbs were simple to tuck the limbs under the body when laying down, to conserve body heat. Also these short limbs would have a greatly reduced surface area from which heat might radiate and be lost: The cavy has evolved with little ability to endure high temperatures, and a much greater ability to endure the cold by virtue of a short, cobby body which will retain body heat.
This in mind, what can we do to keep our cavies happy and healthy in the summer? Keep them cool! I brought a big tub of chilled watermelon pieces to the show. These worked great. Not only did they provide something cool for the pigs to eat, but they also provided moisture and sugar. I also took each one out of the carrier and made sure it drank some water at the show. During the ride to the show, we kept the AC on high. I had to wear a sweater in the car on the hottest day of the year so far, but our pigs stayed comfortable. As an added precaution I put a board on top of the carriers in the back to make sure that the sun didn't shine on them through the windows. We had a new mom with a litter of two day old babies that we brought down. They all did fine.
At home we put bricks under the water bottles. These stay cool and give the pigs a cool place to rest. I also have put a lot of big rocks into our largest pens to give the pigs something to lean against. Being herd animals, cavies tend to bunch together when stressed, which is very counter-productive at keeping things cool. So I like to give them other things to huddle against rather than each other.
