# rat sleeping on side/back and can only be woken when shook



## annebp2001 (Mar 30, 2016)

days. First time I freeked out bc I thought she died so I tried talking to her and then I made some loud noises but I couldnt wake her. So I shook her. I know it wasent very nice of me but I had to see if she was ok. Its been quite hot lately so she might be too hot (she is chubby) but Im not sure. Should I be scared? Or is this normal? Or because of the heat? What can I do to keep my girls cool in summer?


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## Shadow <3 (Jan 25, 2017)

Lol, one of my girls often sleeps like that, no matter the temperature. 

However, if you're keeping your rats in 80 Fahrenheit (27 Celsius) or higher temperatures, it may be related to heat. Rats can't sweat, so when they get too hot, they flip over to expose their paws (I presume these naked areas cool faster than the rest of their bodies). 

Now if it is temperature and you don't have AC, you can provide her and her cage mates with a stone slab (chinchilla slabs work nicely) that they can lie on when hot. You can also place a plastic lid on top of your cage, then place a bag of ice on that, and lastly place a bowl or igloo on it. This will cool the area directly below the lid, so putting a hammock under this make-shift AC works nicely. Otherwise, you can also feed frozen peas (rats love these!) and place ice in a bowl for the rats to chew on. You can also freeze their lab blocks (some rats actually seem to prefer frozen lab blocks!) before refilling the food bowl.

But honestly, if your comfortable with the temperature in your house, your rats are also most likely comfortable. I doubt she's scared, as a scared rat will freeze, not flip over and expose vital regions. So it may just be a funny sleeping quirk of hers. I mean, look at my Shadow! In my case, Shadow also doesn't wake unless I touch her, upon which she springs up like "what just happened?!?" XD


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## Coffeebean (Jan 6, 2017)

If it's very hot you can even put the slabs in the fridge and swap them throughout the day to double their effectiveness. 

All these pictures are super cute btw!


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## annebp2001 (Mar 30, 2016)

I have tried the Slabs but they seem to avoid them. In the picture above you can see the slabs and my rat lucy sleeping right next to them. Ive put some in their houses but they just dont sleep in the houses anymore. Ive got a small air cooler which you can plug in. After 24 hours of usage the room was no cooler. If I directed its air flow directly onto their cage they might feel the breeze. Ive done it for 1-2 minutes and they seemed to really enjoy it but someone said not to direct it directly at the cage or they will get a cold from the wind. What should I do? The air flow is not strong.I have my room right under the roof and my rats live in my room. My room is facing south so it heats up really bad. So it is very hot and even I find it difficult. So, like I did in the last years, I move to the basement for 1 month where it is cool. But I can't bring my rats cage to the basement with me because I decided to go BIG and my mom wont have it in the basement. So I was wondering how I could either keep my rats cool in my room upstairs or if it is okay for thry rat girls to stay for a month in a cage the size: 67 cm length 37 cm width and 33 cm height. Thats my travel cage for weekends. Otherwise I found a larger cage with L 100 x W 54 x H 45 cm. But it is 60€ and I need to convince my mom that I need it. (you guys got arguments?) or do you know of a better cage? Thanks!


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## charlypie (May 15, 2017)

One of my boys is a really heavy sleeper too, regardless of the weather.. it can be scary! I punched those numbers for your travel cage into a rat cage calculator, and it says its barely enough for one rat, its fine for travel but i don't think it would be a good idea to keep them in that for a month, could you possibly block off an area for them in the basement (or maybe let them use a small room like a bathroom) to live free rang for awhile and use the travel cage as a home base for their food and water and such until your room cools down? If you room cools down at night you could just do that for the day time and move them back to their regular cage at night. Otherwise frozen water bottles wrapped in a towel are good for keeping cool, I've heard you can put an ice pack on top of an igloo and it should make the inside cool, a kind of smaller scale version of what shadow described. Make sure not to use any ice pack that has that gell inside in case they chew it, i wouldn't use anything other than frozen water bottles or bags of ice to be safe.


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## annebp2001 (Mar 30, 2016)

No, an open place is not good as these escapeartists chewed through to play pens and the cardboard stopper. My mom wont have them roam free sadly.... guys, any ideas for a cage about 1 m length , 50 cm wide and 50cm high? Weve got a table in our (low) basement and my mon said I could put a gage on there and nowhere else. The table is 100x50 cm and the cieling is quite low. Any ideas? My mon says 60€ is to pricey and no, im not going to build one myself as I cant even mow the lawn without mowing the lawnmowercables XD


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## annebp2001 (Mar 30, 2016)

Sorry for all the typos...


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## Shadow <3 (Jan 25, 2017)

How hot exactly is the room the rats are kept in? If none of your rat's cage mates are adversely affected, it may just be a funny quirk one of your rats has.


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## annebp2001 (Mar 30, 2016)

Well, they kinda sleep all day, more than usually. They dont move as much


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## WelshRat (May 3, 2017)

If the room is too hot for you then it's probably too hot for the rats too. If one is chubbier than the rest then that's probably the reason she's affected more than the others. If you can get a cage into the basement with you until it's cool enough for you to return to your room I think that would be the safest thing you can do for them as everything you've described are possible symptoms of heatstroke which could be fatal.


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## annebp2001 (Mar 30, 2016)

Yes, Heatstroke. That is definetly the best argument to convince my mother to put the rats in the basement. (She is a doctor) im going to telle her right now


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## annebp2001 (Mar 30, 2016)

Jep. Im allowed to put my big rat cage in the basement during the two week holidays now. That is the hottest period. Thanks for all your help guys!


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