Hi! I have a Syrian hamster in a large wire cage with about 5 inches of bedding, in my living room away from windows/doors. My mobile home tends to fluctuate in temperature, however. If I don’t run the A/C/heat, it can get up to about 83 during the day and around 60 at the lowest at night. Usually I try to turn on the air when it gets to 78 or 65, but occasionally it can get to those if I’m not home to swap the air to heat or vice versa. But since I got my hamster, I’ve been running my air constantly to keep everything around 70. I guess my question is, would these hot afternoon temps or cold night temps risk harm to my hammie? Or could day/night fluctuations be alright as long as there was relief from each end of the spectrum in the morning/evening? I’m more worried about the heat than the cold I think, as I’ve seen her cuddle up into a nest of bedding some mornings. TYIA!
Temperature fluctuations in home
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Hello & welcome to the forum.
It is quite important to keep the temperature as stable as you can, 65-70F is about the best range, if gets too hot that can have adverse effects & is probably more of a problem than the cold as long as the cold isn’t too extreme, generally I would say if the temperature isn’t comfortable for you, to hot or too cold then it probably isn’t good for your ham either.
It is quite important to keep the temperature as stable as you can, 65-70F is about the best range, if gets too hot that can have adverse effects & is probably more of a problem than the cold as long as the cold isn’t too extreme, generally I would say if the temperature isn’t comfortable for you, to hot or too cold then it probably isn’t good for your ham either.
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Hello and welcome. I'm just trying to work out the centigrade equivalents ha ha. I can only think in centigrade these days. So 70 degrees is equivalent to about 21 degrees c which is a good average temperature to keep the environment to. 60 degrees is equivalent to about 15.5c which should be ok but it doesn't want to go any lower than that really. I usually reckon about 16 degrees c minimum. 83 degrees is about 28 degrees c which is quite warm. I'd think of that as hot summer weather in the Uk! In hot summer weather we usually have a cool area for a hamster to sit - if they're too hot in their nest they often leave the nest and go and sit in something like a ceramic hide out, to cool off a bit. Or have a fan going in the room (not too close to the hamster's cage). I wouldn't worry too much if the hamster hasn't left the nest, but it would be a good idea to have a cool place for them in the cage - a terracotta plant pot or ceramic hide eg.
It sounds like you live in a hot country!
It sounds like you live in a hot country!
Thank you, that makes sense! Looks like I will definitely try to keep it around the average
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That sounds like the Lake District during an English summerThank you so much! I think I will just try to keep my air/heat running more often so I don’t have to worry about it, and definitely add one of my terracotta pots just incase. We’re in the southeastern US so we get summer and winter all in one day
. Reputedly you can get blazing heat, snow and heavy rain all in one day! It sounds difficult to adjust for. From what you've described, and with the hamster in a barred cage, and somewhere cool to go, it shouldn't be an issue unless there was an extended period of hot weather. That can really affect them. Then it might need a fan or a bag of frozen peas on top of the cage.