# Florida heating requirements?



## strawberryfields (Oct 3, 2009)

I live in Florida, and right now the temperature outside is a steady 88-93 Fahrenheit. With the air conditioner on low, our apartment stays at a pretty consistent 76 degrees in every room. Even during winter it doesn't run up the electric bill at all to keep the apartment at this temperature. 

Is it alright, if my whole apartment is 76 degrees, if I don't have an individual heater for my hedgie's cage? I just feel like somehow I'm doing something wrong, because everyone else seems very concerned with temperature and keeping the hedgehog's cage warm enough, where for me it seems pretty effortless to do so. I'm afraid I might be missing something. 

I worry a lot, haha. :roll:


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## Immortalia (Jan 24, 2009)

I don't have an actual heater dedicated to my hedgie either. At my apartment, it's a smaller place, and it's easy to always keep the temperature at a steady 75(77-78 in the summer with the a/c, as a/c air is colder, even if the thermometer reads the same).

When I'm at my mom's, during the winter, I've always had a space heater in my room anyways because I always get cold. So my entire room is at a steady 75. 

It all works out great for me, because I LIKE the warmth anyways, and I would naturally have my room/apartment temperature at around 75 as it is. Though I do have a snugglesafe disc on hand, and if there are days when the weather seems bad, or just an extra cold night, I'll stick that in his cage with him, in case the power ever went out. 

You're just lucky you live in a warmer climate, unlike some of us who get to deal with snow and cold weather ^_^


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## hedgielover (Oct 30, 2008)

No it doesn't sound like you are doing anything wrong. I keep my whole apartment at 75 in the winter. Hotter in the summer because we don't have a/c. When it is extra chilly or we are traveling I fill a plastic water bottle with hot water and wrap it in fleece.

I think most people on this forum live in colder climates so it is harder to keep the cage/room at a consistent temperature. I found it really hard recently. This was our first fall with a hedgehog and for a while the temperature would be fine during the day (almost too hot sometimes) but really cold at night. I had to remember to close the windows and put the heat on.


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## zoologist (Sep 2, 2008)

i lived in fla too for a while and even though we kept our apartment at 76, i still had a seperate heating unit for Cloud... just in case. plus in the winter when it got cool i would like to open my window to air out the stinky hedgehog smells. with the heating unit for cloud i was able to stay chilly and he was able to stay warm. look into getting a ceramic heat emitter that screws into a lamp  they work awesomely


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## Zalea (Sep 12, 2008)

Keep in mind that you should keep the cage from drafty areas. For example, if you have the AC on in a room, keep the cage away from the AC. 
Heating the whole house like that is fine. A lot of people don't like to do so because of running up a heating bill for a big house--for an apartment there shouldn't be much problem.
Remember, though, if your cage is near the floor: the floor is always the coldest area. If the top of the room is in the 70s, sometimes the floor can be in the 60s (mainly in houses, not apartments, however). So if you're heating that way, you need to monitor the temperature in the cage, not the temperature of the room.


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