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Preparing For Autumn & Winter | Guinea Pigs & Rabbits Though it seems quite a way off the cold season, it will be here before you know it! Housing guinea pigs and rabbits outdoors all year is definitely an option (and a great one too!), however there are things to be aware of in advance to prepare for the cooler temperatures. Tip 1 - Straw Despite its bad reputation, straw is a great insulator, therefore helps to keep them warm during the cold season. There is nothing wrong with using straw, providing the straw is soft - I recommend barley straw as this is a soft type of straw. Tip 2 - Dried Forage Drying forage is great because it means you can provide a selection of nutritious plants all year round! Now is the time to get drying because soon there will not be many plants available to choose from. Dried plants lose vitamins & minerals during the heating process, however they are still a healthy addition to their diet. Herbs have a high calcium content, which is not an issue when given fresh (due to the high water content). Despite fresh herbs not being a problem. dried herbs do not have the water content to flush out the excess calcium, so can not be fed in as large quantities but they are still a great Winter feed. Tip 3 - Organisation Yes, I am the least organised person everrrrr, so if I can do it, you all can too haha! Organising your supplies is a great thing to do in advance to the cold season as when the weather gets cold you don't want to be wasting time trying to find things (or having to step over all the mess). Throw out old supplies (old scraps of lino etc) you don't need and this will save you so much space - items still in good condition like old cages can be donated to an animal rescue. Also, make better use of height space if possible. Tip 4 - Seed mix It is quite controversial wether or not seeds are a healthy addition to a guinea pigs & rabbits diet. I am very confident that seeds are an excellent supplement in their diet if given in small quantities, and the composition is suitable. Oil seeds such as fennel seed, linseed, poppy seed, sesame seed are a great source of Omega 3 & Omega 6! They provide essential fatty acids which can help prevent deficiencies. Also, oil seeds are a great source of Vitamin E, which is an important nutrient. Flour seeds, such as buckwheat, millet & quinoa are very nutritious too. Please note: seed mixes are essentially 'energy feed' so you should be careful with the amount you are feeding. As stated in the video, I do not recommend feeding a seed mix along with pellets as that is not necessary. Also, you should be very careful feeding overweight animals seed mixes as they can be fattening. Any questions regarding the seed mix, please contact me! Also, here is the link to the recipe I used: http://petspalacetv.wixsite.com/petcareguide/feeding I recommend the following sites for bunny & piggie nutrition: (they are all German but you can use a translator) http://www.diebrain.de http://www.kaninchenwiese.de (I based my mix using the information on this website) http://sweetrabbits.de http://www.meerschweinchen-ratgeber.de If you watch my second channel, you will know that I just bought some piggie & bunny commercial pet food (Nature's Touch) for when it gets cold. The food is one of the best I have come across but after doing some research, I decided that no pellets is still best. Would you like to learn more about feeding a pelletless (not sure if that is a word..) diet in Winter? I have been researching these last few weeks about Winter nutrition & it is definitely possible to feed a no pellets diet throughout the cold season too. I could either do a video or blog post? --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ✿ Social Media ✿ Instagram: erinspets Snapchat: petspalacetv Pinterest: https://uk.pinterest.com/petspalacetv/ Pet Care Guide: http://petspalacetv.wix.com/petcareguide ✿ Filming/Editing ✿ Camera: Lumix FZ45 Editor: iMovie (for mac) & Wondershare Filmora Music: http://www.epidemicsound.com