rats are not very tolerant of heat...but you can make it better for them
travel with an esky that holds plastic bottles of frozen water (fill up the bottles and freeze them before your journey)
put a frozen bottle in their cage to cool it, but be careful it cant roll on them...you could wrap the bottle in an old towel...my rats lie on the bottles on hot days
put a thick terracotta tile on the bottom of their cage...they are very cool to touch and my rats like to spread out on their tummies on the tiles
take along some packets of frozen peas/ blueberries to feed them along the way...they like ice treats
also take grapes...they are high energy and full of juice so the rats wont get dehydrated
make sure they have access to plenty of water
you could also take a water mister and mist into their cage every now and again to cool the air
another great tip is to wet a towel and squeeze out the water and drape it over the cage...the temp inside the cage (and towel) should be a lot lower than outside the cage
stop regularly to check on them and offer them water
good luck :%26gt;How tolerant are rats to heat exposure? Any tips to keeping them cool?
Rats are not very heat tolerant at all. This is why they live underground and venture out only at night. They do not sweat or pant so the only way they can dispel excess heat is through the skin of their ears. The veins bring the heated blood closer to the bare surface where some of the heat can be released. Rats were not built for heat. Since you mentioned that your car doesn't have AC, I can only assume your road trip is planned for the summer time. My suggestion would be to fill up several gallon-sized zip-lock bags with water and freeze them solid, then place one or two inside the cage as you travel. Along the way, as the frozen water melts, you could stop at a convenience store and fill the zip-lock bag up with ice, then continue on. The only problem with doing that is the ice will melt quicker than a gallon-sized frozen zip-lock bag will. If your cage will fit, you can even place it into the cooler with a couple of zip-lock ice bags packed around it on the outside of the cage. Obviously, you wouldn't want to shut the lid. But the cooler would not only make the ice-bags last longer, it would also keep the melted water from getting your car seats wet. Rats can tolerate cold just fine, but too much heat will kill them.
Rats are rather sensitive to heat, so yes this is a very reasonable concern.
When i was in 4-H the rodent barn would get very hot in the summer. One thing that we did to help them stay cool was to put frozen water bottles in their cages. This is good because they can use it to keep cool, but is better than a fan because they have the option of moving away from it if they get too cold.
Obliged, i have never done this with rats; but it works well with guinea pigs and rabbits, so i would assume it would be safe for rats as well.
I would bring
Drinking water
Spray bottle so you can wet them
Frozen peas
Frozen plastic bottle (I don't trust glass lol)
It might be too bumpy for this, but maybe a large container of water so they can go in it, with just enough water to get their feet (and maybe legs) wet.
Good luck!
as long as they have room to spread out and you do not leave the car in the sun should be OK. Provide cool water possibly with some frozen peas in it and have the fan on----good for you good for rattie
Maybe fill a plastic container with ice cubes and keep it in their cage. Replace when the ice melts. You could just stop at a gas station to get more ice whenever you need.
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