Summer heat and a basement, lucky me...

[BPHERP]

I started breeding mice, rats etc in February, and ever since that time the colonies have been in my garage. The thing is, I live in So Cal, and I have been dreading the coming of the summer heat, and today, which was not even as hot as it will get, already started to take a toll on my colony.

Luckily, I live in a house that was built in 1914, which means I have a small basement, which is aways like 15 degrees cooler that everywhere else, so I moved the entire colony into the basement, and I think they will probably thrive there.

Does anyone else have similar experience?

BrandonsBalls

[JenH]

I have 3 groups of 1.3 mice and 4 groups of 1.2 rats in my basement and I have to clean every 5-7 days or the smell starts creaping into the rest of the house. no big deal....

[cobweb2000]

Poor ratties and mice. They can only sweat through their feet and tails, so its very easy for them to get over heated. Can you setup an evaporative swamp cooler in your basement to help them out? If they get too warm, they may survive, but production will drop off. Short-term if they get too hot you can give them some frozen vegetables to eat, keep some ceramic tiles in your freezer and put those in the cages once they are nice and cold and obviously make sure they have adequate water and air flow.

Hopefully you won't loose anymore, I have been hospitalized from heat stroke and can tell you it's not a fun way to spend you weekend.

[bobbi]

oh man i wish i had your probs! its soooo cold here still! im just praying for the heat!

Canada is a great place to live but the weather changes so frequently, just last week we were in shorts one day and snowsuits the next!

[mainbutter]

no kidding bobbi! It was in the 40s on sunday, and 2 days from now it'll hit 80.

It has even not been unknown for minnesota to go from 30 degrees some day in february to -40 the next.. not common but it happens.

[Jenn]

If your basement is very humid (most are) you will probably notice the smell factor much sooner and stronger. When I made a snake room and left the rodents in the incresed humidity the smell was so much worse.

Now everyone has their own room. Snakes like it warm and humid, and rodents like it cool and dry. Two rooms seemed like the no-brainer.

[littleindiangirl]

Getting a cooler or high velocity fan to run over the racks when it gets above 85 degrees will help. You will see a production slow if it maintains over those temps. Any higher, and you can lose rats like has already been mentioned.

Also, freezing pop bottles with water and placing them on the hardware cloth above a level will give them somewhere to go to cool off.