Rats vs Heat

[reptilesalonica]

2 females and 1 male, adults died in one week. Here we have very hot days and the rats have problem. The mice are getting well but the rats have a serious problem. Day temps reach 32-33 Celsius. Any suggestion?
~Greg~

[Jeff_Favelle]

Cool them down.

[reptilesalonica]

Originally posted by Jeff_Favelle
Cool them down.
That's what i want to do. Any cheap solutions?
~Greg~

[mettle]

Stick them in your basement?

Or. Buy a fan from Wal Mart.

Or. Put an ice cube or two in their water bottles.

[mykee]

Open a window, hot air rises a basement room would be best; hot air up and out, cooler air remains, temps go down. Rats (as you've experienced) will expire in extreme heat, and will stop mating above 75-80 degrees. Too hot ain't good for anyone.

[annieb_mice]

There are a few ways you can help them to cool down..
Soak a towel in ice cold water, ring it so it isn't dripping wet and drape it over the cages with a fan blowing on it. This will lower the temp at least a few degrees, usually as much as 5 and sometimes even more.
Frozen peas, carrots, or other veggies.
frozen water in bottles placed in their cages.
Ice cubes placed in their cages.

These are just a few ideas... it's been getting pretty hot here as well, and it's still early summer! :P I'm NOT looking forward to August!
Good luck...
Annie B. <:3 )~~

[reptilesalonica]

Too bad i live in appartment and the heat from the syrounding walls and the near buildings, makes the room with the feeders like a huge ova :(
All the time they lie upside down and pant.
annieb i can't do the towel trick cause i don't have just one or two cages. There are close to 15 cages with rats and 10 cages with mice.
~Greg~

[Linds]

My only suggestion for your situation is to get an a/c unit installed.

[reptilesalonica]

Correct but, then the total cost for feeders will climb to the limits. Maybe 2 ceiling fans will do the job.
~Greg~

[justinO]

what about filling their water bottles 1/2up with water, freezing it, then fill the rest up with cold tap water? that should be good for a few hours

[CHRISANDBOIDS14]

FANS FANS AND MORE FANS! LOL. Try using all combined tecnniques. I'm sure you can get some pretty cheap fans at walmart/zellers.

C.

EDIT: Sorry, just noticed you are in greece! So the stores listid would not apply! LOL.

[Linds]

Originally posted by reptilesalonica
Correct but, then the total cost for feeders will climb to the limits. Maybe 2 ceiling fans will do the job.
~Greg~

True still, but point is rats cannot tolerate excessive temps, and if they are hot enough to kill the rats right now, even fans will not cool them down enough for them to be an actively breeding colony. I keep my feeders at 55-68 depending on the time of year. As Mykee said, they cease reproduction at mid-to-high 70's. If you do not wish to invest in a cooling unit, my only other suggestion is to purchase your feeders.

[annieb_mice]

Greg....
put ice cubes or frozen vegetables or frozen treats for them in their cages. A pop bottle filled about halfway with water works good, or a pop can. One of my friends said to put a tray of ice right in front of a fan so the air that is blown on them is cool/cold. I haven't tried it myself though, so I can't tell you how well it would work.
Good luck for cooling your rats down. As Linds said... if you are having problems keeping them cool, then you might want to just buy your feeders.
Good luck...
Annie B <:3 )~~

[reptilesalonica]

...f@$*in heat! :(... on the other hand it is not good too to discard 15 rat colonies just for 2 hot months. Here, one cannot find that easy Irc rats (or any type of feeder rats ayway).
Hard decision to make and the time is running out. Hopefully the pups tolerate that heat and i have close to 100-in case all adults die.

How about those portable a/c devices? What do you know about them? Do they produce enough cold for a medium sized room?
~Greg~

[Batdad]

Greg

A small window A/C, about $150 CDN, (don't know what it would cost there) would be the ideal solution, the portables aren't much cheaper here. We bought one for our bedroom and it's like a meat locker in there, nice and cool. In fact the kids all sleep on the floor in there on hot days, makes it interesting trying to go to work in the morning. :)

Hope this helps,
Bruce

[reptilesalonica]

LOL Batdad! I enjoyed the "bedroom-kids-morning" comment :D
Btw, can you be more specific about the "small window A/C"? I never saw one.
~Greg~

[Linds]

Window units are just portable a/c units that sit in a window and suck in the outside air and convert it to cold air.

[reptilesalonica]

Oh, ic. So far it is maybe the best solution

[Lisa]

I find our window units don't bring in fresh air from the out side, rather it just recirculates the inside air.

here is a link to one of the cheaper ones sold @ canadian tire

http://www.canadiantire.ca/assortments/product_detail.jsp?PRODUCT%3C%3Eprd_id=84552444327 5677&FOLDER%3C%3EbrowsePath=2534374302200077&FOLDER%3C%3EbrowsePath=2534374303514158&FOLDER%3C%3EbrowsePath=2534374303514162&FOLDER%3C%3EbrowsePath=2534374303514163&FOLDER%3C%3Efolder_id=2534374303514163&ASSORTMENT%3C%3East_id=1408474395348027&bmUID=1089425341415

if it asks you for a postal code put in k0k 3m0

[reptilesalonica]

Thanks all, thanks Lisa

[capsicum]

I know this is a bit late, but for my rats and mice (even rabbits and cavies), I freeze margarine tubs of water, then give the blocks of ice to them. If they are really hot, they right over them to cool themselves off.
If you worry about wasting bedding, just toss some newspaper on top, then put the ice down.
Cheap and practical for us here (where in the a/c'd room it is 30C).

TK

[reptilesalonica]

Originally posted by capsicum
I know this is a bit late
n/p
, but for my rats and mice (even rabbits and cavies), I freeze margarine tubs of water, then give the blocks of ice to them. If they are really hot, they right over them to cool themselves off.
If you worry about wasting bedding, just toss some newspaper on top, then put the ice down.
Cheap and practical for us here (where in the a/c'd room it is 30C).

TK
They don't get ice-burns that way?
~Greg~

[capsicum]

No, they don't get ice burns, the heat acts on the ice quickly, melting it just enough that they don't get burned by it at all. I have used this method for years and never a problem :)

TK

[annieb_mice]

I use this method myself, especially with the recent heat wave, and it works great! The rodents and rabbits love to chew on it and push it around and stuff. The only downfall is the big mess after the ice melts... LOL! Oh well... at least the rats and rabbits are happy... :)
Take care
Annie B. <:3 )~~

[justinO]

holy crap, what a good idea! now if only i hadn't used all my tubs for hide spots...... ha ha ha ha

Jessy

[annieb_mice]

I use the 1lb margarine tubs and fill them half full of water then freeze them. Oh, and throw in some veggies like peas or carrots about halfway through freezing and the rats LOVE it... or cooked meat or egg... they love trying to figure out how to get to the goodie. :)
Take care
Annie B. <:3 )~~

[reptilesalonica]

To avoid mess up of cage(s) why not putting the ice in a metalic bowl ;)

[marisa]

I just stop production in the summer months.

I have no AC in my house, and my reptile/feeder room gets VERY warm. So normally I make sure to breed enough mice/rats in the winter to carry me through the summer months. I just remove the males into their own cages during the hottest months to stop pregnancies.

As for ice and all that, I use water bottles frozen over night for my rats, mice and ferret. They all utilize them when its hot and since it's a capped water bottle, no mess. I just wash off the outside and refreeze that night.

Marisa

[capsicum]

Our rats chew through so much, we go through about 2 batter bottles (for them alone) per month, and have to buy new ones all the time.

TK

PS Pic is a female dumbo hairless (double velveteen, will loose all fur wthin 2 weeks) rat pup, I breed these for the pet industry :)

[reptilesalonica]

Originally posted by marisa
I just stop production in the summer months.

I have no AC in my house, and my reptile/feeder room gets VERY warm. So normally I make sure to breed enough mice/rats in the winter to carry me through the summer months. I just remove the males into their own cages during the hottest months to stop pregnancies.

As for ice and all that, I use water bottles frozen over night for my rats, mice and ferret. They all utilize them when its hot and since it's a capped water bottle, no mess. I just wash off the outside and refreeze that night.

Marisa
Even if the temps in rodents room are very high, they do breed:rolleyes: (is that strange or not):confused:
The mice producing much less but my rats are producing litters normaly.:confused:
~Greg~