# Emergency: Cooling a cage



## Free2Dream (Aug 10, 2009)

Ugh. So I'm in a bit of a tough spot. I thought my roommate was moving out next weekend. Instead, she randomly decided to move out RIGHT NOW, and she's taking the AC unit with her. I live on the top floor of my building and it is sweltering even with the AC on. Somehow i've managed to keep the cages around 80 degrees, but I'm worried that with the lack of AC, they'll rise, and the hedgies will be in trouble. I'm so concerned, I'm practically frantic. I'm contemplating going out to buy a cheap fan, but that will just circulate hot air, right? I am getting my own AC unit, but not until Friday. Until then, I need to find a viable solution to keeping my hedgies cool. Any suggestions?? Please help, I'm so worried.


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## jinglesharks (Jun 15, 2010)

I've heard as a last resort you can put ice (I assume in a towel or something) on top of their cage or igloo. But that's really a last resort as far as I know. Someone more experienced and from a hotter climate would really be better to advise you, but I didn't want you to panic till you got any type of advice. I know I've seen threads on this before, you could try and do a search. I know you want to be really careful when cooling hedgies down.


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## jinglesharks (Jun 15, 2010)

Here's one thing I found right off: viewtopic.php?f=8&t=6248&p=51086&hilit=too+hot#p51086

I think it's still cool enough that a ceramic tile would help. That's what I'd try first.


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## Free2Dream (Aug 10, 2009)

jinglesharks said:


> Here's one thing I found right off: viewtopic.php?f=8&t=6248&p=51086&hilit=too+hot#p51086
> 
> I think it's still cool enough that a ceramic tile would help. That's what I'd try first.


Where could I find ceramic tiles? Home Depot? Lol


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## jinglesharks (Jun 15, 2010)

Free2Dream said:


> jinglesharks said:
> 
> 
> > Here's one thing I found right off: viewtopic.php?f=8&t=6248&p=51086&hilit=too+hot#p51086
> ...


Yep, that's probably where I'd look.


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## HedgeMom (Nov 7, 2008)

Breathe. In and out and relax. It's really not an emergency. Hedgehogs are not that heat sensitive. It may cause them to splat on something cool but it would take a bit more than your temps to cause problems. 

Tonight when the sun goes down open up as many windows as you can. Put a fan blowing in on the window on the coolest side of the room and a fan blowing out on the hottest side of the room. 

Run these fans all night until about dawn, when it starts to warm up. Turn the fans off, shut the house up and cover the windows with heavy blankets. Taping aluminum foil to the window, shiney side out, will also help deflect heat.

This uses cooler night air to cool the room and blocks warmer day air. It's how the old people did it before a/c.


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## hogmother (Nov 16, 2008)

I realize I'm posting too late to help this specific owner, but I thought I'd share what I did last summer anyway.

I live in Vancouver and one week last year the temps were hitting 38 degrees with very little respite at night. The first couple of days were okay but by the third day we started to notice Priscilla wasn't loving the heat, so we did a few things:

1) Put a fan on her cage, blowing into her sleeping tube. If it bothered her, she moved into her blankets, but most of the time she seemed to appreciate it.

2) Provided a cold wet cloth which we re-wet and chilled throughout the day. We draped it over her tube so the air going in got cooler. 

3) Took her out a few times daily and let her walk on a cold, wet towel. It probably wouldn't do anything to reduce her core temperature but like paddling in the sea feels nice for people on a hot day it seemed to be a nice thing for her too!


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