# Heat Warning!!!!



## Rat Daddy (Sep 25, 2011)

*​*It's summertime again and time to keep your rats cool. Please remember your rats can only tolerate temperatures over 82 degrees for a very short time. First your rats will become inactive. Then they will start to drool and go all flat and squishy, some will try to dig down in their litter. Then your rats will start dying.

Remember to leave the AC on when you go out, or move your rats to a cool basement. If you keep your rats on a high shelf, move them to the floor where it's cooler. If you take your rats outside keep them out of the sun and take a spray bottle of cool water along just in case and never leave your rats in a hot car. 

Every year countless pet rats die due to summer heat. Wild rats dig underground burrows where they can stay cool, pet rats can't do that. It's critically important that every rat owner stay aware of the temperature and realize that it's not just a matter of discomfort. High temperatures really do kill rats fast!


----------



## PaigeRose (Apr 12, 2013)

We live on the second floor and can't afford to run the AC 24/7 so I got a huge XL plastic dog dish at walmart for $2 and have been filling it with ice/water a few times a day. I've also been taking mason jars and filling them with ice and wrapping them in a wash cloth and putting them in their favorite hides. I was going to do frozen water bottles but I have a mega-chewer who would probably soak the whole cage. At least with the mason jars, they're glass and don't leak!


----------



## Kitterpuss (May 9, 2014)

Thank goodness I live in Scotland - don't need to worry about heat much of the time!  Thinking ahead to winter - What about cold weather?


----------



## Phantom (Apr 4, 2012)

I live in Florida. Summer is every year, all year over here. =P
Everyone who lives here always has their AC on no matter what. People here would not be able to live without it.


----------



## MaryLiz (Jun 15, 2014)

I actually was worried recently that we might be keeping the house too cold for the rats... it's been up over 82 here recently though and we have the AC almost constantly set at 70 during the day to keep it cool inside the house. I have noticed that they don't stay hidden a lot, they both kind of like to curl up and sleep outside their tunnels and hammocks and instead lay in the top pan of their cage where they can look out. So I guess if they were too cold they would go cuddle up somewhere warmer.


----------



## Marie5656 (Jun 1, 2014)

I also use my chin chiller, that I had from Trixie. It is a small piece of granite, that I keep in fridge when not in use. We are in a shady area, but I will at least keep the fan function of out AC going when we are gone.


----------



## Aeyna (Jun 16, 2014)

My rats are lucky, my boyfriend prefers to be freezing at all times, so our A/C is on constantly. At night, I cover the side of the rats' cage that faces the A/C to avoid drafts. 

We live in Minnesota, so we get hot summers, but also ridiculously cold winters. I have a space heater with a sensor so that I can set it at a temp and it auto kicks off. It also has the kill switch so that if you bump into it (not knock it over, just nudge it) it turns off. I plan on moving them from the living room into my room for the winter so that I can keep them warmer while my boyfriend enjoys the ice box that he creates in the rest of the house.


----------



## Hey-Fay (Jul 8, 2013)

We can't afford to keep the ac on 24/7 (but I would if I could, I don't do well in warm weather) but when it gets ungodly hot I turn it ac on. If it's still too warm but not enough to turn it on I take several frozen water bottles and will wrap them in socks and put them in hammocks and hidey holes. I harness the other ones to the outside of the cage and then wire a medium sized cardboard box to the inside of the cage with the open part of the box pinned to the side of the cage. Then I cut a opening in the closed section of the box and point a fan at the frozen bottles. The box keeps the cool air inside and makes a nice ac room where my six can lay.


----------



## relken0608 (Jul 11, 2013)

I filled a half-gallon milk jug with water and froze it. Put it in a hollowed tissue box and put it in his cage but he only rarely even licked condensation off it. Water bottles in a sock sounds much more reasonable haha I'll try that one next!

Sent from Petguide.com Free App


----------



## Marie5656 (Jun 1, 2014)

Not heat related, but I am sitting up with the girls right now. They are a bit rattled by a thunderstorm passing by. Luckily the noise and lightshow are past us.


----------



## Dovkan (May 13, 2014)

Good thing my room is in the coldest part of my basement and I run a fan every night, also, my house has 24/7 AC with amazing ventilation.


----------



## Rat Daddy (Sep 25, 2011)

Rats became more popular pets in the UK for a reason. Mostly it was the temperate climate they enjoy there. Brown rats only became popular pets elsewhere after the spread of AC. Rats don't sweat so don't benefit much from fans unless they are wet.

70 degrees is a great temp for rats, I mean they wear a fur coat year round and they can tolerate even colder as they can find cover and keep themselves warm. In nature, brown rats would dig deep dens where they would stay cool. Pet rats don't have this option. 

I understand the costs of AC and that some homes don't have basements, but if you are doing short term stop gap methods like cold bottles, be very careful and get a back up plan in place. If you are stuck at work, an the water bottle isn't cool anymore and your apartment is getting really hot... things are about to go very bad very fast. 

In winter you can toss a few woolly rags into the cage and your rats can snuggle to keep warm down to very low temps. They don't have this option in summer to avoid heat. I have AC, then I have a cool basement, that's my plan A and plan B. My basement can get warm but the floor stays cold. If your plan depends on you to do something every 4 hours it's not a great plan, if you aren't home every 4 hours...

Best luck and be careful.


----------



## Charlottesmom (Nov 27, 2013)

We're lucky we have AC and the cool basement too. Though I wouldn't want to lug a critter nation down our cellar steps!


----------



## Marie5656 (Jun 1, 2014)

Lost power on our street. Cool outside, but got muggy inside fast, so I am running around cracking open windows, an the front door (we never use I, but it is off the living room. Funny, because you would have swore the rats had never been in the dark before. They had bee roaming around the age, but when the lights went out they both froze. When the outside door was open they just sat at the edge of the cage and just stared out side. It is almost directly across the room from them.


----------



## thenightgoddess (Apr 2, 2014)

Ive only ever used a fan normally it has gotten much hotter then 82 probably close to the 100s in my room and ive never had a problem with my rats I actually think two out of my three rats that died did so during the winter. It is actually probably hotter then 82 in my room right now and I am not doing more then the fan on my big cage and a frozen water bottle on the small with my senior in it.


----------



## Rat Daddy (Sep 25, 2011)

I hit upon the 82 degree mark when traveling with our rats. Up to 82 degrees we never had a problem but at almost precisely 83-84 degrees our rats started drooling, then went all flat and squishy. In the sunshine dark rats went down first while mostly white rats could tolerate more heat.

There may be some debate about exactly what temperature is the kick over point but 82 degrees is safe and everything above is danger zone. That's not to say it happens immediately, but it does happen pretty quickly. 

And by the way, I've seen rats at 100 degrees and they are drooling and squishy in less than half an hour and that's if they are young and in very good condition. Roof rats can tolerate higher temps and live in tropical areas, but I've honestly never seen a brown rat that can remain active much over 82 degrees. I've screwed up a few times when we traveled without AC in the car and it's drooling, squishy and pit-stop to soak rat in gas station sink or roadside creek if need be. 

I have no doubt you are reporting your actual experience and I don't know what you are doing right to keep rats at 100 degrees... but for sure, I know mine can't take that temperature. I have my AC set at 82 and our rats aren't active until the temp is below 80 in the house at night, even at 82 they are lethargic and stay in their metal cabinet near the floor.


----------



## thenightgoddess (Apr 2, 2014)

I can't run the ac it uses way to much electricity and the apartment we live in now only has an ac unit in the living room anyway and they live in the bedroom. They are at whatever temp the room is at during the summer with just the fan and occasionally some ice cubes. I am trying to keep my sickly senior cooler this summer by using frozen water bottles and my chin-chiller.


----------



## Rat Daddy (Sep 25, 2011)

Folks, I encourage any kind of low budget approach that works... From ice bottles to swamp coolers. I'm just not a big fan of any method that requires human intervention every few hours to keep working. 

But whatever someone does is up to them. Just keep in mind some folks are better at maintaining the necessary discipline than others.


----------



## pookycb (Feb 14, 2014)

I like when the AC is at 70-72 no higher! My dad complains and puts it up to 73-75 and I always think it's so hot at 75 I worry about the rats but good to know they should tolerate 75 alright


----------



## Phantom (Apr 4, 2012)

My rats have actually been in 82-88 degrees before and were okay with it, but they were born in Florida and probably have a slightly different tolerance then other rats born further up north. The reason why it got so hot is because the air condition broke and we had to have someone fix it. I've taken Pastoolio and Lynn on multiple car trips (I never leave my animals unattended in the car.), and they always seem to do okay in the weather conditions that are here. However, the residents who live here know to stay indoors during certain times of the day when the temperature is at it's highest, usually noon to late afternoon.


----------

