A litte worried about room temp girls are in

[September555]

Any advice about how chilly rats can tolerate?

I have a problem that has recently came up the last month or so. I live in a basement house. It is always colder down there....I mean it stays around 65-72 no matter how high I set the heat and I live in KC Missouri and right now it is snow and -5 windchill and 8 degrees out and has been this cold the last week or so. I have my two girls (not hairless) in my bedroom. I work at night and when I leave since getting my kitten Milo in July, I shut my bedroom door because Milo likes to play tarzan and jump up and hang off girls cage...which is whatever for the most part...the girls hiss at him, he does it a few times and stops...but he does it several times a day (we are working on breakin this childish behavior lol). I am worried he will pull the cage off or over and it will come open or undone and they will get out and he will kill them or something. SO....when I leave for work at night I shut my bedroom door since no one is there. With that door shut, even though I have two heat vents in my room...it gets pretty chilly in there at night...quite a bit chilly actually.

I have a superpet cage that is 30x18x30. It is setting on a 2-3 foot tall bookshelf as wide as it is). The girls have a fleece hammock that has a piece of fleece over the top of it to make a small dome hammock hanging from roof. A fleece cube from wonderrodent with three holes in it (so a bit drafty) on second shelf and a cuddle cup and igloo on bottom shelf. So they have warm sleeping places and they often sleep together, except the baby plays all night so older one sleeps alone. I have always had clear see through (well its kinda frosty) plastic over the top and down the back of the cage and on each side, from the bottom almost half way up to keep drafts out of the bottom of the cage.

I am soooo worried they are getting cold at night. How tolerable are they to chilliness? I mean....I just dont know what else I can do. Last night I laid a towel over one side of the cage and the girls got a little upset so I took it off...dont want them afraid to be in their cage or not be able to see out of it. :sad3:

Im just really worried about them getting cold at night. Opinions? anic:

I have a space heater on on the afternoons when temp drops, but dont want to leave that running all night with no one there...too dangerous.

here is what cage looks like

the plastic I have on there runs across the entire top and down the entire back and then on each side I have the plastic going up from bottom to just about 3 inches above that bottom shelf on the left, so pretty much half way up

 

[jorats]

Is 65 the lowest it gets? Can you cover part of the cage with a blanket and perhaps put in a heated water bottle in the cage? That should be good enough for the girls.
Ya, best to keep Milo out when unsupervised. Have you tried the squirt bottle trick on him? worked for my little crazy kittens.

 

[lilratsy43]

My room at home was very cold as well. I just always provided extra blankies (especially hammocks) for the ratties and they did fine, plus they all love to cuddle together, so they pretty much keep each other warm.

 

[September555]

Thanks Guys for the response.

Jo...I would say around 65 yes at night when its cold cold out. :worry: Do you mean like a heated water bottle they drink out of? Like give them warm water? As for a blanket....I tried last night before I left to put a thick towel over one side of the cage and Bailey the olderst freaked out started running all over and just got really upset. I didnt want to leave her upset so I took it off. I do have some extra plastic like I have on the cage already I could clip a few extra pieced on there on the upper sides when I leave or at least put the towel on there a few times here and there when I am home to get Bailey used to it. I dont want her stressed out.

LOL As for the water bottle with Milo...well...lets put it this way...the cat gets INSIDE the shower with me when I shower....he LOVES water...so we did try that at first...squirt him when we caught him....he would stop look at me like...YAYAYAYAY! HEY DO IT AGAIN...lick where I squirted him and just sit there and go after cage again. :gaah: I really dont want to do the whack a newspaper thing, not only will it POSSIBLY scare Milo..it would scare my ratties to death and I dont want that. Nothing really seems to phase Milo. He is a do what I want kinda kitten....he has serious Cattatude!

P.

 

[smilez_n_hugs]

I think what Jorats meant by a hot water bottle was one of those rubber bag type things with a stopper that you put boiled water into and it holds the heat so it would warm the cage.

 

[jorats]

Ya, that's what I meant a heated water bottle to put inside the cage.

That's too funny about Milo wanting to be squirted. :giggle:

 

[Godmother]

When we lost power for twelve hours recently I put a few extra Dollarama blankets in the cages for them to burrow under. Everybody seemed OK, even though it was getting really cold.

If you are concerned about them biting through a hot water bottle, you might try to find a SnuggleSafe microwavable heating disc that holds the heat for about twelve hours.

 

[Fidget]

Drafts are worse than cold I think. If you have a well-insulated hidey-house for them to cuddle up in and keep each other warm might be the best thing.
If you cover the cage with a blanket make sure it's not a good one cause they will drag it in and chew it! I babysat some ratties recently that caught a corner of the cherished couch blanket my mom crocheted 25 years ago and used the corner to drag a bunch of it in the cage and shred it :gaah: :cry3:

 

[September555]

Hello All....

Yes that was my first thought was they would chew through the water bottle. I may try and find one of those snugglesafe heating disc.

Fidget, I have forsted plastic over the top and back of the cage and halfway up both sides already, I leave that on there at all times because I worry about drafts too...so that stays on there. Its that flexible stuff like....carpet runner stuff...you can see through it pretty much....it keeps the drafts out well...especially where they sleep at the botom.

I have a thick old towel I started putting up there a hour or so at a time to get Bailey used to it...she seems a bit more calmer now...so maybe that is working. Lets hope it helps....it at least covers the two sides that are exposed between the plastic. I leave the front open tho so they can see out and not feel traped.

Good ideas thanks everyone