HOT!!

[mindy]

it is super hot here today. i have ice packs in the cage with the ferrets and i just put them in the bath tub to soak them down. ginny is still sleeping under her fleece blankets and i am worried about it. fred is laying under the blankets but he has his head out on the ice pack. if they are hot they will get cool right? they will go on the ice packs right? i am planning on wetting them down often. i can't put an air conditioner in here because the stupid window is a crank out one and in the living room there is a sliding glass door.

anyone have any more ideas to keep them cool?

[purpleferret]

ice cubes in a small tub? Would be funny to see if they roll around in them. It is sticky here but not so hot. Plus my kids are in the basement which is cool. When the humidity climbs I just up the fan to move air around...seems to work ok for us.

[mindy]

i put ice cubes in their water dish. i took them out to play in the tub again and they had a lot of fun. only problem is fred keeps running away with the plug! ginny was fooling around and getting to the deeper water, i only put enough in so the back of the tub was still dry, and she was so silly when she realized she was in water! her little legs were going everywhere

i got shawn to put the air conditioner in the door of the sliding glass doors. it looks horrible now with a piece of wood over the air conditioner sitting on the floor but the wood will keep lots of the sun out too so it should get cooler pretty quick. i know that iorek is REALLY enjoying it so far, he hasn't moved from the spot in front of the air conditioner since it was put in there about 1/2 hour ago.

[purpleferret]

I bet! Poor puppy and there's no summer clip for him is there?

[mindy]

no, if i clipped him he would look horrible and there is no guaranteeing that it would grow back!

it is a nice, comfortable 20 degrees in here now, thank goodness.

[Tressie]

Mindy,

I had posted this link earlier - might be worth re-reading, LOTS of good tips for what to do in hot weather:

www.smallanimalchannel.com/ferrets/ferret-health/avoid-heatstroke-in-ferrets.aspx

Before I got an air conditioner I did:
- the frozen water bottles in the cages, make sure to wrap them in cloth or the ferrets can get ice burns.
-Put ceramic tiles on the cage floor, which remain cool.
-Spritz them thoroughly with a fine spray mister several times a day.
-Putting them into lukewarm bath water (should not be cold water). Or wetting their paw pads will cool them off.
-Replace the thicker blankets with pillow cases or some lighter fabric.

My portable A/C in the ferret rooms runs non-stop (24/7) from April 1st until November 1st to keep the humidity and temp down to a comfortable level i.e. 60-65F.

Glad they got through this heat spell for the next one - see above.

Tressie

[mindy]

hi Tressie,

thank you for the tips. i was wetting them down and letting them play in lukewarm water in the tub. i also had ice packs (i don't have any bottles at the moment to freeze) wrapped in dish towels in the cage for them to cool off on. what was really concerning me was the fact that they were still sleeping in their blankets and didn't really seem to be affected by the heat. i will switch out their blankets for lighter ones if it gets hot again but it shouldn't now that i have the air conditioner in the door. we are moving into the house in about a week and then they will have their own room and we are putting the air conditioner in there with them.

thank you again

[Tressie]

Lethargy is one of the signs of overheating - hence sleeping more.

[mindy]

they were not lethargic at all. not that i could tell anyway. every time i went to the cage to wet them down or take them out for some play in the bath tub they were up and bouncing around and ready to play. i hope that they were not too hot - they didn't seem to be, but i tried to keep them wet/in the tub.

i am glad that i don't have to worry about this any more