Keeping Hamster Warm

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Teal & Little Bear

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Hi Everyone,
I would love to get anyone's opinion on keeping my Hamster, Little Bear warm.

I am thinking of getting a reptile heating mat that is temp adjustable or possibly a seed starter mat. Is this safe? Has anyone used one? If so any good brand recommendations?

Per research: I have a nite-angel enclosure with deep bedding on wheels. I would attach it to the underside of the enclosure allowing for ventilation. So its not in the enclosure and he can move up and away from it if he chooses.

Side Note,
Gets below 65 degrees F / 18.3 C
Right now I have a space heater. I add hot water bottles under his home (never touching the bottom). And drape a blanket over part of his enclosure. I have a thermometer so I can always check and adjust. He is 1 years old. Luckily he is very sweet and happy and in perfect health.

Thanks a ton,
Teal & Little Bear
 
Hello and welcome to the forum. Little bear is such a cute name!

Reptile heating mats are not safe for hamsters and would make the cage humid. It sounds like you are already doing a great job of helping to keep him warm.
 
I'd be wary of heat mats, they can be a fire hazard especially without a thermostat. They can develop faults and hot spots which can set light to the cage or furniture. A lot of people don't even use them for reptiles anymore.

In addition to what you're already doing, it wouldn't hurt to throw extra nesting material into the cage incase they want to use it, they can make their nest warmer if needed then :)
 
It's tricky isn't it? There are the snugglesafe microwave bottles - I have one of those - you can put it next to the cage or some people would raise the cage on books and put it underneath. To be honest though, they don't give of a lot of warmth and wouldn't make any difference if the room was really cold. The main thing is not let the room temperature get excessively cold. Some people have used heat lamps instead although you have to be careful with those as then things can get too hot.

18 degrees isn't too bad. We got down to 16 degrees recently which I thought was ok, but the hamsters were definitely getting affected by the cold.

During the day it's probably fine as you'd have some heating on presumably. Ideally they'd have a room temperature of 20 degrees all the time but you don't want to be leaving the heating on all night!

I have an oil filled radiator I leave on at night on a timer - it has a safety cut out. Just in the room the hamsters are in. It was really helpful when it got to very cold weather and freezing nights.

Some depends on the kind of place you live. Some modern places are quite well insulated and don't get that cold overnight if the heating has been on the evening. We live in a draughty old place that doesn't retain any heat so I needed something overnight.

So 18 degrees is ok. 16 degrees or less is probably too cold - except overnight if it's been warm all evening - as long as it's not 16 degrees all the time.

You could try a snugglesafe for now maybe and then only if it gets to freezing weather, think about an alternative heat source at night.

These are the snugglesafes

 
Hello and welcome Teal & Little Bear!

I think one of the most important things for a hamster is a big house, lots of paperbased substrate and extra nesting material.

They need to be able to build a big, cozy nest for themselves. One of my hamsters used to insulate the inside walls of his house with a thick layer of Kaytee clean and cozy.
I submerge about 3/4 of their house into the substrate and leave big heaps of torn into strips, plain white toilet paper outside ther houses so they can add to their nest.

You must be living in a very cold climate to need warmth near his cage already.
 
I'm in the North of England and it's cold here! Certainly in a draughty house. Although ok now we have heating on.
 
RainbowBrite said:
Hello and welcome to the forum. Little bear is such a cute name!

Reptile heating mats are not safe for hamsters and would make the cage humid. It sounds like you are already doing a great job of helping to keep him warm.
Click to expand...
Thanks :) I didn't realize they were unsafe. And you are right about the humidity! Appreciate the feedback!
 
Eriathwen said:
I'd be wary of heat mats, they can be a fire hazard especially without a thermostat. They can develop faults and hot spots which can set light to the cage or furniture. A lot of people don't even use them for reptiles anymore.

In addition to what you're already doing, it wouldn't hurt to throw extra nesting material into the cage incase they want to use it, they can make their nest warmer if needed then :)
Click to expand...
Wow, I didn't realize they were so unsafe. That must be really challenging for reptile owners. Appreciate the feedback! and I will add more bedding :)
 
Maz said:
It's tricky isn't it? There are the snugglesafe microwave bottles - I have one of those - you can put it next to the cage or some people would raise the cage on books and put it underneath. To be honest though, they don't give of a lot of warmth and wouldn't make any difference if the room was really cold. The main thing is not let the room temperature get excessively cold. Some people have used heat lamps instead although you have to be careful with those as then things can get too hot.

18 degrees isn't too bad. We got down to 16 degrees recently which I thought was ok, but the hamsters were definitely getting affected by the cold.

During the day it's probably fine as you'd have some heating on presumably. Ideally they'd have a room temperature of 20 degrees all the time but you don't want to be leaving the heating on all night!

I have an oil filled radiator I leave on at night on a timer - it has a safety cut out. Just in the room the hamsters are in. It was really helpful when it got to very cold weather and freezing nights.

Some depends on the kind of place you live. Some modern places are quite well insulated and don't get that cold overnight if the heating has been on the evening. We live in a draughty old place that doesn't retain any heat so I needed something overnight.

So 18 degrees is ok. 16 degrees or less is probably too cold - except overnight if it's been warm all evening - as long as it's not 16 degrees all the time.

You could try a snugglesafe for now maybe and then only if it gets to freezing weather, think about an alternative heat source at night.

These are the snugglesafes

Click to expand...
Thank you for the feedback! I will check out the snugglesafe. Yeah, its an old place so it gets cold.

I will keep making sure to check the temperature so it doesn't get to 16 degrees. Hopefully it won't get too much colder in my area. I will look into the oil filled radiator and see if thats an option.
 
Beryl said:
Hello and welcome Teal & Little Bear!

I think one of the most important things for a hamster is a big house, lots of paperbased substrate and extra nesting material.

They need to be able to build a big, cozy nest for themselves. One of my hamsters used to insulate the inside walls of his house with a thick layer of Kaytee clean and cozy.
I submerge about 3/4 of their house into the substrate and leave big heaps of torn into strips, plain white toilet paper outside ther houses so they can add to their nest.

You must be living in a very cold climate to need warmth near his cage already.
Click to expand...
Thank you for the feedback! I will add more bedding. Thats really cute your hamster would do that. I live in the States so its our Winter now. And the house is older.
 
I just realised the nite angel cage is a tank style cage on wheels so you have a gap under it. That’s where some people put the snugglesafe - in a gap under the cage. Maybe hot water bottles would have the same effect. It might be the only difference is one can be heated up in the microwave! Or even two underneath of it’s a big cage.

What room is Little Bear in? (I still love typing that name ha ha). If he’s in say a spare bedroom it might be cooler than, say, a main living room that’s used more. Reason I mention a spare bedroom is I have a heated clothes dryer that was in the spare room which uses a lot less electricity than the dragon oil filled heater. It just gives out a very low heat that takes the chill off. So I moved that into the living room where the two hamster cages are (not very glamorous!) and have that on a timer at night instead. It’s between the hamster cages. I only use unscented washing powder so if I dry any clothes on it as well it won’t affect the hamsters, otherwise I wouldn’t put it near them. It has a cover over it as well. Trying to be more frugal this year! But that’s really only when it’s particularly cold at night.

If Little Bear has loads of substrate, he can burrow down as well.

Looking forward to seeing a photo of him :-)
 
Maz said:
I just realised the nite angel cage is a tank style cage on wheels so you have a gap under it. That’s where some people put the snugglesafe - in a gap under the cage. Maybe hot water bottles would have the same effect. It might be the only difference is one can be heated up in the microwave! Or even two underneath of it’s a big cage.

What room is Little Bear in? (I still love typing that name ha ha). If he’s in say a spare bedroom it might be cooler than, say, a main living room that’s used more. Reason I mention a spare bedroom is I have a heated clothes dryer that was in the spare room which uses a lot less electricity than the dragon oil filled heater. It just gives out a very low heat that takes the chill off. So I moved that into the living room where the two hamster cages are (not very glamorous!) and have that on a timer at night instead. It’s between the hamster cages. I only use unscented washing powder so if I dry any clothes on it as well it won’t affect the hamsters, otherwise I wouldn’t put it near them. It has a cover over it as well. Trying to be more frugal this year! But that’s really only when it’s particularly cold at night.

If Little Bear has loads of substrate, he can burrow down as well.

Looking forward to seeing a photo of him :)
Click to expand...
That's awesome! We hung tablecloths to block the kitchen/living room and just the heat from cooking helped warm the room right up.

Its rare for us to get anywhere near freezing temperatures so we put off getting the central heat fixed. Depending on the cost we might get a wood or pellet stove instead which will help. But that might not happen till next year, thus the mat inquiry.

For now, he is in the warmest and quietest room. If its getting hard to keep it consistent, I will move him to the living room like you suggested. Its also the loudest room of course. I have a bin cage in case of fire evacuations ( cannot recommend that enough), so I can move him to that with his used bedding ect.

My partner is laughing at me because I was all set to rough out the cold, you know just wear 3 jackets, I'm fine lol. But man, as soon as we adopted little Bear...now I'm ralling everyone, you know we really should get the heat looked at...
He thinks we should have adopted him sooner :) lol

The space heater works good, its just expensive to run. And I feel bad that the heat isn't higher at night. I know they really prefer 70-75 degrees F / 22-23 c. I also know how important it is to keep it as consistent as possible. I honestly didn't really realize it was quite so cold till I got thermometers when adopting him. I was more worried about the summers and humidity. I talked to the adoption center and they have fosters (with heat) who can watch him for a few weeks if we get a freeze warning.

I will look into the snugglesafes. Is it safe to press against the plastic on the outside or is it better to keep underneath, not touching? I don't feel safe having the hot water bottles touch the enclosure.

ThanksLB1.jpgLB2.jpgLB3.jpgLB4.jpg
 
Oh my gosh, what a beautiful hamster! You should start a thread for him under the Syrian section. You can tell us all about him and include pictures.

Snugglesafes have a special cover you can buy so you could get one if you wanted to just to make you feel better about using one.
 
Ooh he's gorgeous! He's a sable. Snugglesafe's are fine with the cover on. They are very hard plastic too. They survive being in the microwave!

It's a bit like that here too - we were doing without heating as long as possible (due to the energy bills going up) and wearing extra clothes but our Syrian did show signs of it affecting him so that prompted me to start having a heater on. All electric heating is expensive. The oil filled radiators are supposed to be cheaper than a space heater though. Some come with a built in thermostat and timer as well (so it only comes on when the temperature gets below a certain level). If he's in the warmest room in the house then maybe no need to move him to the living room. Ours are there because there's nowhere else! A change of environment can throw them quite a bit but he should settle in a couple of weeks if you do move him. I guess the bonus to that is you only need the heater in the one room.
 
Have you seen the Christmas photo competition by the way?! No entries yet!
 
Welcome here Teal and Little Bear. He is just gorgeous
I have a snuggle safe and cover came with it. As already said, it retains the heat for hours after heating in the microwave.
I popped ours into the microwave a couple of hours ago for my H who was complaining of the cold. When he pulled it out saying he was warm and how good it was - I pinched it and it is under my top now as I type!
I did use it in the coldest weather to help overnight by placing it against the cage where it could not be reached.
But plenty of sheets toilet tissue torn into strips and Little Bear will do a lot of the work himself.
 
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