keeping rats cool in the summer months

[Brighteyed]

hello everyone,

its summer now in oregon and the days are getting warmer. i didnt get pets in my last apartment because were lived on the top floor and had huge west facing window. it boiled in the afternoon even if it wasnt that hot outside.

i moved into a new apartent which is on the bottom floor and we dont have the west facing window issue. it was alot cooler in this one so i thought it would be ok to have rats here. well now in july we are getting 90F degree weather and im worried about my rats overheating. (we dont have air conditioning) we keep a fan running in there directions and i put ice cubes in there cage for them to lick. nothing has happened yet, but im very worried. any suggestions on what else i should do to keep them from overheating?

[Craig Thatcher]

Generally, as a rule, if it is too hot for us, it is too hot for them, I would consider half filling a plastic bottle, freezing it, and leaving that in the cage, if they get too hot, they can go to it, make sure there is a layer of material around it, do a few so that you will always have fresh, chill some water slightly for their bottle, other than that, open windows to create air circulation, maybe if they don't mind water, give them a shallow container of water so they can have a paddle!

[Brighteyed]

yeah i have been putting a frozen water bottle wrapped in a wash cloth in there cage and they will cuddle against it. we dont keep a paddle pool in there cage because they always WITH OUT FAIL tip it over and make a mess of the entire cage. when we have them out we give them a pool to paddle in though.

[RodentzRule]

Put a (can be frozen) tile under where they sleep