how to keep rats cool during warm weather?

[_ratowner]

Up until a few days ago I have had to put the space heater on in the morning to keep the room warm because it has gotten into the 60s (Fahrenheit) throughout the night. Today, I woke up to the room being 77 degrees Fahrenheit. I usually only let the room get to 75 degrees even though memebera have said that even that is too hot but I is honestly still cold to me.

To attempt to cool down the room that the rats are in, I currently have two fans going (neither are blowing towards the cage) and the blinds somewhat closed but still open so that the room is lit up. The room is just getting hotter somehow (79 degrees), I did have the door open (I am using a new fan so it is somewhat smelly and also to get air flow) and window open (air flow and fresh air) at one point but it is really hot outside and in the rest of the house so I closed both. I don’t know what else I can do to cool it down more. If anyone has any tips, it would be very much appreciated. Thank you.

 

[SQ]

Please see the links in the Reference Thread https://www.ratshackforum.com/threads/reference-thread-read-only.35894/

there are links under the title "Ideas for how to help your ratties deal with the HEAT"
Hopefully people will look at these links and maybe even continue to add ideas so this site does not delete them

If you look at the link re Vital Statistics for Rats (Physiologic Data, Environmental Requirements, Blood, etc), you will find a lot of information, including temperature range, 75 degrees is fine ….. and the range is actually up to 79 degrees
but it is very stressful for rats if the temperature changes more then 5 degrees in 24 hours

I hope this info helps​

 

[_ratowner]

Thank you, I looked at the link you have provided and saw a few good suggestions.

I really do try to keep the temperature around 75 degrees and really worry if it gets any higher than that because if it is hot for me it must be really hot for them and their isn’t much to do about the heat to make it cooler whereas when it is cold you can give them more blankets and turn on the space heater and such.

Right now I only have access to the two fans which seem to not really be working too much to be cooling the room down. I was away for a few hours and was fearing that if I left the fans on it would get too cold and I would have to do damage control by warming the boys back up with cuddles or such but it turned out to be 77 degrees and while visiting the links you provided, it has went up to 78 degrees. I am most likely just going to keep both fans going throughout the night but not pointing towards the cage. I honestly don’t know why it is so hot in here. It is hot even for me yet both of my boys are under the blankets

Thank you again for your help.

EDIT:
I just looked at the temperature outside and my room is literally hotter than it is outside by quite a bit. Also, before someone suggests for me to open the window, I can’t, it is raining

 

[SQ]

I use a window fan to blow hot air out. When the air outside is cooler then inside, I use the window fan to blow the cooler air inside - I do this when raining too unless the rain is coming into the window.
I would highly recommend a window fan.

I also use insulated curtains over the windows when the sun is shining against them - this keeps the cold out in the winter and the heat out in the summer

I found that this helps a lot.
But I know that during to summer I am doing good if I can keep the temperature down to 80 degrees because it gets so hot ……. as long as the ratties have opportunities to cool off (cold tiles, fishing for peas etc) and the temperature does not change a lot, they seem to do ok
I also use several of the suggestions found on the links in the Reference Thread

 

[_ratowner]

Since it has become hotter here within the past few days, I am trying new ways to keep my boys cool during the hot weather. I reread some of the content listed within the links above and saw that there was a few things listed that I have already prepared to try out.

I do not have air conditioning but I do have a fan that has been on constantly to attempt to cool down the room and to also create air flow. The temperature has sadly stayed the same at a steady 78 degrees Fahrenheit. The fan is not facing the cage.

One of the methods listed in the link said to fill a bottle half way full with water and freeze it then cover it with a sock and put it in the cage for the rats to have a “chilled cuddle buddy”. I filled an empty water bottle full with water and put it in the freezer. I am planning to go out and buy some new socks soon to use as I don’t want my boys to be cuddling with ‘dirty’ old socks. I also kind of made a diy chilled tile type thing where I froze a flat bag of water for my boys to lay on that I will cover with some sort of cloth.


I have also been giving my boys some frozen treats to try to cool them down such as frozen peas, frozen corn, and frozen watermelon chunks.

I thought that I would just post a little update and share some of the methods that I found don’t take too much to do.