A Step into my World

A little different from the things I usually post, but I thought this might be helpful to some pet owners out there.

A few of these tips might seem pretty obvious, but I wanted to cover all the bases for those who might not have dealt with hot weather and small pets before.

Make a wading & vegetable fishing pool! Get a pan and fill it with water. Toss in a handful of frozen veggies. The rats can fish out the veggies, drink the water, and go wading. It’s always a huge hit with my rats on a hot day. If it’s really hot you can even add ice cubes, but my rats tend to fish out the ice cubes and try to stash them in a litter box which creates a huge mess. Frozen veggies are a lot less messy.

There’s also a product called a “Chin-Chiller” which is basically just a smooth granite floor tile you can stick in the cage. It’s not the strongest cooling source, but it does stay cool to the touch and my rats will sometimes go chill on it. There’s a little corner of it visible in the pic above on the left side. You can also stick these in the freezer and they’ll stay cool for a fairly long time.

I also found that even with hard plastic ice packs, some rats will try to chew on those and could chew through, so it’s a good idea to keep an eye on your rats if they’ll have direct contact with those. Putting a thin towel on top of the cage, then piling on a ton of hard ice packs, then putting a heavier towel or blanket on top of the ice packs for insulation, can make a really good air conditioner for the top levels of the cage. On really hot days, I put a pile of like 10 big ice packs on top of the cage with towels on top for insulation, and it keeps the upper level nicely cool and my guys all go sleep in the hammocks up there. At night when it gets cooler can refreeze all the ice packs, then put them back on top of the cage the next morning.

Finally, putting water in a tupperware then freezing it, then wrapping the tupperware in a towel and putting it in the cage, can make a nice cool spot for rats to sit. Called them “rat cooling pedestals”. They don’t always work, I’ve found older and more chill rats tend to love these but younger rats tend to want to unwrap them and investigate the tupperware. At least if it’s just tupperware and water, it won’t matter if any rats chew through.

Chick-fil-A in June: how do you do fellow gays? We love the gays. Spend your money here!! 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍🌈