what should i do for my chinchilla if in the summer my house usually gets to 80

[axeharrison]

well im going to get a chin but since i heard that chin's can get hot easily im not sure what to do because my house gets up to 80 every summer and i dont have a separate room for him so please help!

 

[tunes]

Either get an air conditioner where the chin will be kept, or don't get a chin. It's really that simple. Fans won't help. Chins don't sweat so blowing a fan on them is just blowing hot air around. Chinchillers are temporary at best.

If you are going to have a chin, and your temperature gets above 70 degrees, you must have an air conditioner.

 

[Sandi]

I agree with Tunes. Another thing you have to think about in case anyone says, "oh 80 degrees is not that hot" is that it probably will get hotter and higher than 80 degrees in your house and add the humidity levels to that temperature, and you will have a chin going through heat stroke in no time.

 

[Jenn]

Ditto to what was said above. A chinchilla is a great pet, but not if you're going to subject it to temps that could kill it. So before you bring home a chinchilla, you must have an a/c unit in the room where the chin will be kept, to keep temps lower than 70 degrees. Fans don't do anything but circulate warm air, so that can't be a substitution. Look for sales on a/c units, or check c/l. We got a good deal on an a/c unit off of craigslist.

 

[chinsNdobermans]

Air conditioner. Period.

Our house is very old and well built - it rarely gets very warm in here. But the area where our chinchillas are kept is air conditioned, although the rest of our house is not. It's not worth taking any chances.

 

[addictedtochins]

Do you wear Carrhart overall's and a heavy winter coat all Summer? The chins do. You will need a air conditioner and a back up plan in case (when) the A/C fails. My chins are in a corner of the living room out of direct sunlight, The window A/C unit is 4ft away and cools that corner of the room really well.

 

[ticklechin]

Chinchillas can die of heat stroke at that temp, the blood will clot and turn into sludge and send clots through the blood stream and they will die a very bad death that could have been prevented with cooler temps. A/C is not a option, its a must.

 

[axeharrison]

well i have an airconditioner so i could use that all the time in the summer and good idea addictedtochins because my airconditioner is in the living room.

 

[AZChins]

I'd definitely use the A/C. It's great that you have one. The chins just get so uncomfortable when the temperature gets up into the upper 70s.

Can you keep the chin in the living room near the A/C? If so, that would be the best thing.

 

[starleomach]

I agree A/C is an absolute Must

 

[Jenn]

if you can have a thermometer near the chin's cage, that will give you a better idea of how warm that room is, and when the a/c is needed.

 

[addictedtochins]

In my case it needs to run all day because the room is a large open space of living rm, dining rm, kitchen and hallway. It helps keep the whole area about 76 but by the chins corner in the living room stays about 68

 

[greychins]

We have central air - it runs constantly in the summer. Our first floor stays about 70-73, but the basement (where we have the chins) never gets above 68, even on the hottest days. The cost of running the air all day is just a part of what comes with owning chins.

 

[ChinnyMom]

if you can have a thermometer near the chin's cage, that will give you a better idea of how warm that room is, and when the a/c is needed.

this is exactly what i have done. i yoinked a spare glass thermometer from my fish tank supply bin, lol, and taped it to the wall just above and outside Rhino's cage. i can glance at it quickly and know if i need to turn the a/c on or not. the a/c comes on if Rhino's room gets to 70. best thing about the fish tank thermometer is that it reads in Fahrenheit, the a/c is set to Fahrenheit and not Celsius (even though i'm Canadian, lol), and i'm acclimated to read Fahrenheit due to having the fish tanks and belonging to American aquarium forums, lol!

 

[Chin_Parent]

We got an air conditioning unit a couple weeks ago for the bedroom (though we have a studio so it's all the same "room" technically) and this past week there was a heat wave for 3 days with temperatures of over 90 degrees. In our room it never went over 72, and was hovering at or below 70 most of the time. It's really a lifesaver to have, and it turns out I'm a lot less crabby in temperatures under 75 degrees too!

 

[Godofgods]

Either get an air conditioner where the chin will be kept, or don't get a chin. It's really that simple. Fans won't help. Chins don't sweat so blowing a fan on them is just blowing hot air around. Chinchillers are temporary at best.

If you are going to have a chin, and your temperature gets above 70 degrees, you must have an air conditioner.

Actuly, some days my chins seem to love having a fna slightly on them. Place even with their cage so only part is hitting them and theyll charge the edge to try and get close to it lol.

But as for op, yea, u have to have an ac and the ability/money to use it.

 

[GorillaJTA]

Actuly, some days my chins seem to love having a fna slightly on them. Place even with their cage so only part is hitting them and theyll charge the edge to try and get close to it lol.

But as for op, yea, u have to have an ac and the ability/money to use it.

Actually, the fan is not cooling them. They might like the feeling on the wind on their face- like a dog with his face out a car window, but it is not doing much to cool him. I don't stream fans into the cage because I thought that was a great way to pull some cooler air into the cage and the chin came down with a URI a couple days later. I blame the draft from the fan.

 

[AZChins]

Forced convection dissipates heat much quicker than natural convection. That's how the condenser coils on the bottom of a refrigerator work so well. If a chin is in the faster moving air coming from the fan, it is cooling them down much better than just sitting out in the still air because the heat (I should say thermal energy) is being removed from the chin at a much higher rate. The thing about the fan is that it does not change the temperature at all. It just speeds up the air and increases circulation and convection.

I definitely agree that you should not put a fan blowing directly into a cage and create a little wind tunnel in there. That's not going to be good because it will increase the stress on the animals and have that forced convection all the time - that would actually chill (why it would be called a "draft") the animal at normal room temperatures (68 to 75°) and could result in a respiratory infection or another issue. I wouldn't want to live in a house where a fan is directly on me all the time. Not just because it would get cold but I imagine that it would be irritating to my eyes and just bother me.

Having a ceiling fan in a room or a fan that increases circulation is a good idea. It is no replacement for air conditioning because it does nothing for reducing the temperature. Circulation will give a more consistent temperature in the room and allow for air to not get as stale.

Just don't aim fans right at the chins. It would be better to aim the fan straight up above the cage, or maybe below it. I imagine that having an oscillating fan moving the air above the cage would be the best option. (I will spare detailed explanation of that.)

 

[SarahKay]

It's also great to supplement AC with chinchillers (I simply bought marble tiles at a hardware store, it was quite inexpensive) and frozen water bottles (but cover them in fleece to protect your chin from hurting his feet or getting damp). However, these are to supplement air conditioning and can not be used in place of it if it is an 80 degree room.

 

[FabiannRamona]

Whats the biggest sign of my chinchilla over heating and how do i tell how hot the room is? i live upstairs and also i know when chins get hot there ears turn red, but does the whole ear turn red or just a small par of it