My animals are kept in my upstairs bonusroom (all except the dogs). It doesn't run on the same cooling/heating system of the house, but instead uses a window cooler. Yesterday I came home from work and did what I always do: went up to check on the animals.
I still can't believe it. The air conditioning unit failed and with all of my heating lamps and heating pads from the snakes and lizard, the room was SMOULDERING.
Two of my snakes and 4 of my rats were dead. One of the rats was due to give birh any day. She was so huge that her litter would have probably been enormous. I've been crying all night.
I read the thermometers in my reptile cages and the air temperature reached 104. This is significantly lower than what the cage itself must have been because most of the cages are sitting on heating pads or heating cord, and the surface is much hotter than the air.
My wire rat cage was recently destroyed (somebody fell into it), so the rats were in a temporary home: a 3x2x2 plastic tote with a wire grid on top. It never seemed to have any ventillation issues before, but it must have been like an oven in that heat.
Because I don't want this to be just bad news, I'll ask a question as well...
How hot would it have had to have gotten for this to happen?
I mean, rats are hardy, and snakes enjoy heat (in moderation).
I've moved all the survivors downstairs. They seem to be okay now, but yesterday everybody looked awful.
A testament to the motherly love of rats: when I found them, the surviving girl (Lilac) was in awful shape, but she was still nursing her baby.
