What temps to keep rodents at?

[daniel1983]

What are good temperatures to keep rodents at? I was thinking about moving my mice into the closet w/ my snakes but the closet stays at about 82 deg. constantly. Is that too high for the mice? I know that they can easily get heat stroke but I was not sure how much was too much. Thanks.

EDIT: oh by the way....the babies have arrived...ha....about 35 by my count so far(one female left to give birth)....luckily one of the females was not preg. after all so that lowers the extra I will have around... If anyone in north louisiana is looking for some mice....let me know...ha ha

[TekWarren]

Dan, I keep my rodents in the same room as my reps on opposite sides of the room. I have temp readouts on both sides and they are near the exact same. The room stays above 80 on average rarely dropping below and the rodent factory thrives...to much sometimes to where i have seperate my breeding stock! I'm not sure what the heat threashold is anymore but to hot will cause issues for rodents.

[daniel1983]

ya....I was trying to figure out what is 'too hot'....they are in a good spot now....I was just thinking of ways to make more room..

[TekWarren]

we both know that's a never ending problem!

[Shrap]

70 to 75 would be ideal, but 80 is not a problem. Rats are really no different than dogs when it comes to acceptable heat levels. 85 and above and they are going to start getting really uncomfortable.

I guess that could apply to humans as well, lol.

[Ginevive]

I would just be sure that there's enough ventilation. I keep most of my rats in 20g tanks, but I had some in a 45-high tank for awhile and the tank just was not getting any ventilation. It felt 85 degrees or more in that tank, even with a screened lid. Shallow containers really make things cooler in there. I noticed that my rats are inactive during the day anyway, and when it cools off into the mid 70s at night, they are running everywhere.