Ways to keep them warm

[RitzieAnn]

I live in northern Washington (USA) and it's getting pretty cold. My roomate and I wear sweatshirts and slippers so we can keep the heating bill down. It's not even on yet! But I was wondering of ways that would be low energy costs, and would help keep them warm. Right now my biggest concern is my split cage. There is a boy on each side, but they don't have each other to keep warm, and both refuse to bulid a nest. They just spred it all around and sleep on their faces! My other gerbs I'm not too worried about, they make huges nests, and they have houses and lots of bedding, but my split cage boys... they're dummies!

[AndreaS15]

I put towels around the outsides of mine.
Do you have a heating pad? you could try that out on low, wrapped in a towel.
Tons and Tons of papertowel, tissue and stuff too.

[paws]

A lot of timothy hay (like three inches) covering the bedding will probably help, my gerbs just sleep inside the hay, but not in a very "nesty" way.

[sandy]

Lots and lots of bedding and a jar in the tank should be a big help, they will build a burrow. Keep the food up too as they eat more in the cold and metabolize it for extra heat. More fatty/protein foods help also, like sunflower seeds and my old stand by, dry cat food.

[cinnycinnamon]

I always give my gerbils extra tissues and hay to help keep their "house" warm. And before I go to bed at night, I cover their tanks with a blanket. But not tightly-just so the top of the tanks are covered. A few of the windows in my house do need caulking so it can be kinda chilly inside (well, in the 60's). Better to be safe than sorry.

[RitzieAnn too lazy to sign in]

Hum... We ended up turning on the heat finally, so I'm nervous of our powerbill... Um... the blanket over it, great idea, but no. I have cage toppers on them, and they grab anything through the bars!n And I tried jars, they just litter in them!

[cinnycinnamon]

I know what you mean about them grabbing through the bars and chewing. Billy and Bobby tore apart the sheet that I had pinned to the patio door when they were living down here in the computer room. I would take the sheet and lift it up onto their tank so that they could look out the patio door. That one day, I had the sheet to the side of the tank and they got a hold of it.



This is how the set up was-



But I now have these kinds of lids for their tanks-



What about like an empty tissue box? Mine love those.

[thumpity]

My downstairs gets pretty cold too. During the night I have a cloth covered heating pad set at very low in between two tanks..short sides and I have it pulled out a little so that it doesn't cover the whole side of the tank, just a corner area. This gives my gerbs a warm corner of the tank, but allows them to get away from it very easily if they want to. So far, all tanks have moved/kept their nests next to the corner areas. During the day I have it off.
Have a great day!
-Kaye

[RitzieAnn]

Um, the heat is on, everybody seems to be doing well.

[RyanF]

I usually keep a small heater in my room at night, since my room is the coldest. I just turn it on low, and since it has a thermostat, it turns on and off automatically.

[kimsgerbils]

Mine do fine in the cooler room... For older ones and pups, I have a reptile heating pad that gets to about 90* and I put that in between 2 tanks on my shelf... They have enough room to be away from the heating pad, but most elderlies like to snuggle up against it... Keeping a sandbath in there also helps as well... Sand holds in the heat... Extra tp and shreddables work too!!

[saartje]

I have my gerbils also in a cool room. All the rooms upstairs don't have heating.

I would like to put a heating in their room but i don't think it's very safe because the electricity in that room isn't optimal and i don't want something to happen. There is nothing with electricity in that room except the lights.

Are there any other things I could do so they have enough 'heat' in the winter?
I allready gave some extra bedding but it doesn't seem to help enough. Today I had a gerbil who was very weak and cold. I've taken a plastic bag with warm water and a towel en put him on that.
After 45 minutes he started to move and finally eat and drink.
My boyfriend thought he would die, i'm very glad he survived.
I don't know what the tempeture is in that room. It's not very warm, but I thought with extra bedding they would do fine.

(Excuse me for my english writting. I talk better english, than writting english. I'm from Belgium, so normally I speak dutch)

[meganb52]

The warm ater bags seem to help a lot. You can also try covering their cages with towels, and I have friends who will tape plastic wrap (yes the kind you cover food with) or plastic tarps around window frames to cut down on drafts. Could you run an extension cord into the gerbil room? Then you could use a small portable heater to keep that room warm without relying on electricity from that room. Just some suggestions. Hope one of them helps

-Megan

[saartje]

I have placed al the gerbils in my bedroom. It's warmer than in the gerbilroom. I also changed their food a little bit.

[AndreaS15]

cinnycinnamon said:

I know what you mean about them grabbing through the bars and chewing. Billy and Bobby tore apart the sheet that I had pinned to the patio door when they were living down here in the computer room. I would take the sheet and lift it up onto their tank so that they could look out the patio door. That one day, I had the sheet to the side of the tank and they got a hold of it.

I had my original pair get ahold of my favorite skirt