# Safe way to reduce temperature?



## SnufflePuff (Apr 16, 2009)

I was just curious if there's a safe way to go about reducing the temperature in your hedgehogs' cage?

I've had my temperature at a constant 79F for the past month or so because when my hedgehogs were all really sick with URI's, they needed more heat than usual. Now I'm kind of starting to feel like it's a bit a too warm. I do have Reptitemp's set up, but with the weather starting to get a little warmer around here, sometimes the cages get up to 80 or 81F (the CHE's are off when the temp hits above 79, and I keep the blinds closed at all times - I have a 14 hour light on instead - but it still gets warmer than 79 somedays just from natural heat seeping in I guess?). 

I do open the window when it gets too warm (none of the cages get any sort of draft from this) but it's too chilly to leave the window open all the time, so I was thinking maybe if the cages weren't heated up as much by the CHE's to begin with, then they wouldn't reach this high of a temp when the natural heat seeps in. 

I'm just worried that decreasing the temp now, by even a degree or two could cause hibernation attempts. My hedgies haven't attempted hibernation before, with the exception of Chloe, who's belly got a little cold once when she was a baby because she was sleeping under her liner but it wasn't a full blown attempt - and since then no hibernation attempts.

Can I slowly start to turn the reptitemp500R down? 

The darn things are a little finicky though, because the other day I turned Oakley's down just a tinsey tiny bit because his cage was getting too hot, and when I checked 30 mins later, his cage was down to 76F and the reptitemp was off. So it seems to be a hit and miss kind of thing which makes me even more worried about playing with the temp!

Any thoughts?


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## Nancy (Aug 22, 2008)

Yes, you can start turning the emitter down slowly. They can be really touchy so only turn down a very little bit. The emitter should not be coming on if the room is warm enough. When I've used the emitters/reptitemp, at this time of year when it was sunny and hot during the day the emitter would stay off and only come on at night when it got cooler. That is how it should work. 

The reptitemp will shut off completely so when you found the cage at 76, the reptitemp should have been just about ready to click back on. If you had turned it ever so slightly it probably would have clicked on and then kept it at the temp you wanted. 

This can be a difficult time of year to keep the temperature consistent. The past few days have been super hot here and the hedgie room really hot so we put the a/c in the window. Well last night it went down cool and at midnight I was in their room covering up the a/c with a comforter so there wasn't any coolness coming through it. sigh! This morning almost needs their heater back on.


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## Lilysmommy (Jan 7, 2009)

I've been having some issues with this as well, especially since my room is upstairs and can get very warm. I was going nuts yesterday trying to cool it down in there because the thermometers said it was 88 F. :shock: I finally noticed that the air conditioning vent was covered by a box, so I moved the box and that helped. I've been going up several times a day, though, to check the temperature...It's driving me crazy trying to keep it cool enough, but warm enough.

(All of this also makes me really appreciate my mom. I was gone from Sunday until Wednesday this week, and my mom went up a few times a day as well to keep an eye on the temperature and peek in at Lily to make sure she was okay.  She's a very good hedgie-grandma! :lol: )


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## SnufflePuff (Apr 16, 2009)

Thanks Nancy & Lilysmommy  

I agree, it's definitely a tricky time of year! I played around with my repti-temps (you're right Nancy, you barely have to tap the switch and it changes) and I seem to have them staying at a constant 78F now so I might just stick with that until it gets warmer (the weather here has now gone back to snow and rain  so I haven't had overheating problems the past few days). 

I agree though, Lilysmommy, worrying about too-hot, too-cold has been driving me crazy too lately!


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