Acclimating chins to a higher temperature

[Sandi]

I'm not sure if this was discussed but have you thought of closing some of the vents in the house except for the room that the chins are in? That way the chins room gets cooler faster to reach the desired temp and letting the ac click off for a bit.

 

[Brittney]

I'm not sure if this was discussed but have you thought of closing some of the vents in the house except for the room that the chins are in? That way the chins room gets cooler faster to reach the desired temp and letting the ac click off for a bit.

I haven't thought of that, No, but when I went and looked around, our vents aren't designed to close, and they are 19 feet off the ground on the celing. I kept the house at 69-70 today and they did fine. Slept all day and their ears weren't pink and they were cool to the touch. Their cage is right under my vent, so I think that helps a little. They seen to be fine and were normal during playtime. I went out and bought a little portable A/C unit just in case it gets hotter in Phoenix, probably a good thing to have on hand anyways.

 

[LemonSqueezi]

Was just gonna say why not buy a small window ac for $100 and keep it in their room. Would save you a lot of money.

 

[AZChins]

It's very cold in her house, another couple of degrees won't hurt those chins at all. They can slowly be acclimated to a higher temperature. I remember saying to Brittney, "Why do you keep it this cold?" My chins are acclimated to about 75 right now, the room stays between about 72 and 75 at all times. I certainly would never have someone take a chin that is used to being at 65 degrees and subject it to temps in the mid-70s...that would be very uncomfortable for the chin.

In Phoenix it can be really hard to keep a house under 70 degrees even if you keep the A/C going on all day and all night. Today it was 111°F...it was just awful.

I've met people that acclimated their chins to 84 or 85 degrees, the chins' coats really seem to suffer at those high temperatures. I would never, ever let anyone adopt one of my chins and keep them that warm.

In Britteny's case, I wouldn't worry. It's super dry and I KNOW she will take it very slow with getting the chins used to a little higher temperatures. Honestly, I don't know how everyone in her house can deal with it being that freezing cold all the time! (And, her chins are spoiled and loved and very well cared for. There's NOTHING to worry about with her because Brittney takes excellent care of those little boys! Trust me, I know how to tell.)

 

[Cinder and Me]

My girl is just over 6 years old and has never been in temps. cooler than 70 (except on winter nights when the living room gets really cold). I have central air, close of the vents to areas that aren't needed and keep her area around 70-ish. She is healthy, happy and bouncy. I don't think you'll have any trouble with keeping her in the low 70s. I know of a rancher out here that keeps the chin barn at 75-78 in the summer, and has 100's of chins. Is that common practice...maybe not. But he's been doing this for decades and literally laughed when I asked if was ok to have my chin in 70-73 degrees instead of the 60s. :hmm:

 

[AZChins]

Definitely...I have customers that keep their houses at around 78 and the chins do fine. Low humidity and good air circulation makes all the difference. I didn't know that ranchers kept it that warm though.

 

[TillyChinchilla]

Mine never get above 72-73 and that is usually in the morning when I turn off the central air and let air on the house by opening the back door and some windows. They are sleeping during that point. 69-71 is the usual temp. on my air. It has slipped to 77 when I turned it from off to heat, instead of cool by accident. Obviously the heat doesn't kick on, but it stays the same. That was quickly corrected because I hate hot weather and could feel that it wasn't near right.

The humidity sucks here, but I never see red ears (except for cuddling) and I never see anybody look uncomfortable. In fact they are downright crazy at night (jumping and being general lunatics) with it being 71.

 

[moon]

There is a HUGE difference in how high the temperature can be when you factor in humidity. The lower the humidity, the higher the temp can be without being uncomfortable for the chinnies. That being said, my chin room sometimes gets up to 75 in the middle of summer - but I wouldn't be comfortable with it being any higher, even with the dehumidifier running full time.

 

[Cuddlebug]

We keep the house between 70 and 75 degrees here. The chins do fine with it. I wouldn't go any higher, though. When the AC didn't keep it below 75, my husband decided that it was time to get it replaced. I must admit, the new unit is actually saving us money. It cut the electric bill in half. My chins don't care about that part, but they do like the temp we keep it at.

 

[CerLynn]

2 chinchillas died at a recorded temperature of 22C in the UK - I posted that in order to illustrate the fact that relatively low heat can and does kill chinchillas - some people in the UK at present have been discussing acclimatising chinchillas to higher temps than that. It was written in the context of current discussions in the UK (which I made very clear in my first post) around acclimatising chinchillas to heat. Nothing more, nothing less.

Claire, just out of curiosity, are you aware of any other factors in these deaths? I'm certainly not questioning your report, but I'm just surprised a temperature of 72F alone would kill chins unless there were other environmental or physiological factors.

We keep our chins at 68-70F with ~35% humidity, and we've seen no ill effects whatsoever, even after a good playtime, so I think gradual acclimatizing to 70 should be fine.

 

[Claire D]

Claire, just out of curiosity, are you aware of any other factors in these deaths? I'm certainly not questioning your report, but I'm just surprised a temperature of 72F alone would kill chins unless there were other environmental or physiological factors.

I don't mind you questioning it at all I must admit I was a bit surprised.
I do not know all the circumstances around the case but reportedly the vet stated heat stroke was the cause of death for both chins. I do not know of any other factors involved but it is possible that there were some - high humidity, cage position (direct sunlight maybe?) or something else (age of the chins, underlying respiratory/cardiac disease etc). I don't think we'll ever truly know but I found it interesting that a vet would attribute cause of death to heat. Again, it is always possible that the outside temp was 22C and the indoor temp was far higher ..................... *shrugs*




As an aside, I use a Min/Max thermometer in my chin room so that I know exactly what the highest temp in any 24 hours has been - I think it might have been beneficial in the case above to know whether it was actually 22C or whether it had been higher - sadly though for the 2 chins concerned, whatever the case, the temperature was obviously too much for their little bodies to cope with - RIP little ones.