Guinea pig sitting while you're away: visits, heat and greens

None of the welfare bodies we checked gives a number of hours for guinea pigs. What they do say makes daily care unavoidable. The RSPCA says guinea pigs cannot make vitamin C and can store it only for a short time, and that the vitamin C in pellets breaks down once the food is exposed to air. A bowl filled on Friday is a poorer source of vitamin C by Sunday, and vegetables wilt and spoil in an Indian kitchen within a day.

The second reason is appetite. The RSPCA asks owners to call the vet immediately if a guinea pig eats less or passes fewer droppings, and PDSA explains that a guinea pig that stops eating is at risk of gut stasis, where the digestive system slows or stops. Nobody can see that happening in a locked flat.

For going away, the RSPCA's advice is to arrange a responsible person to care for guinea pigs in their home. Petym's planning guide follows from that: one visit a day for a healthy group on a single day in mild weather, two visits a day for anything longer or in heat, and a sitter staying in the home for a week or more.

Home is usually better. The RSPCA says small animals that are not used to travel should not be taken on holiday, and that someone staying in your home to care for your pet usually works best. Guinea pigs startle easily, and a car journey across an Indian city in summer adds heat to the stress.

If they must go to a boarder, the RSPCA says to keep groups together and take familiar items, and suggests some used, unsoiled nesting material so the new place smells right. Petym's advice is to send their own hay, pellets, bowls, bottles and hides too, so the food and smells stay the same while the room changes. A sitter who hosts guinea pigs should keep them in a room away from any cat or dog, because boarders must keep predator and prey species apart.

PDSA says anything above 24 °C can make guinea pigs uncomfortable and above 27 °C can lead to heatstroke; the RSPCA puts the line at 26 °C. The India Meteorological Department says heat waves come mainly between March and June, and in the plains a heat wave is declared when the maximum reaches 40 °C. A shut flat in May, with nobody home and the power off, can pass the guinea pig limit before lunch.

So before you leave, move the enclosure to the coolest room, away from sunny windows and the kitchen, with the curtains closed. PDSA suggests a frozen water bottle placed just outside the cage so the guinea pigs can lie near it without touching the ice, ceramic or stone tiles kept out of the sun as cool spots, and wooden hides instead of plastic ones, which heat up. Leave a few labelled bottles in the freezer for the sitter to swap at each visit.

The Animal Welfare Board of India's 2026 heat circular asks owners to give animals shade through the day and fresh water, refilled often, and reminds them that the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, 1960 makes the person in charge responsible for an animal's well-being. While you travel, that person is the sitter, so tell them how the cooling works.

• Show the sitter the inverter or UPS and which fan or cooler it runs, so the room stays cool in a power cut (Petym's advice).
• Ask for visits in the cooler hours, early morning and evening, and for the water to be changed at both.
• Ask the sitter to check the room temperature on a cheap thermometer and send it with the daily photo update.
• If a heat wave is forecast for your trip, book a sitter who stays rather than visits.

Monsoon humidity keeps bedding damp and hay can turn mouldy. Petym's advice is for the sitter to remove wet bedding at every visit, keep hay dry and in a closed bag, and keep any balcony enclosure indoors, out of driving rain. PDSA's advice to check bottoms daily for dirt that attracts flies applies through the wet months.

In a North Indian winter, cold is the risk. The RSPCA says to move outdoor hutches indoors when temperatures fall below 15 °C, and warns of chilling below that. Leave extra hay for burrowing and keep the enclosure out of draughts and away from the direct blast of a heater.

For fireworks, the RSPCA advises bringing small pets indoors, giving extra bedding to burrow in and covering any outside cages with blankets. At Diwali that means an inner room before dusk, curtains shut and an extra hide for each guinea pig. A frightened guinea pig may stop eating, so the sitter checks appetite and droppings first thing the next morning.

Before the first booking there is a free meet and greet at your home, so the sitter meets the group, learns who is who and sees the cooling set-up. You book and pay through Petym, and the sitter is paid after the booking.

During the stay the sitter follows your plan as you wrote it, logs each feed, weigh-in and medicine, and sends a photo update every day. If a guinea pig stops eating or something else is wrong, the sitter calls you and takes it to the nearest 24-hour vet on the city's list. Every Petym sitter has an identity check with PAN and pet first-aid training before the first booking, and a named 24-hour vet within reach. Sitters who host pets also have a video walk-through of the home by Petym, the housing society's permission and a pet limit.

Petym is not taking bookings yet; it opens city by city once sitters have passed its checks. Its services are built first around dogs and cats. A sitter's visits or stay can cover guinea pigs too: at the meet and greet, check that the sitter is comfortable picking up a guinea pig low to the ground and knows the warning signs on this page.