Low Overnight Temperature - Reptile Heat Mat?

by Akrasia Wed 13 Feb 2019, 6:45 am

I'm concerned that the overnight temperature in the room where we keep our mice gets too low for them, especially in the winter, but it isn't something we can easily control using our central heating. We might be able to move them to a different spot if need be, but there are good reasons why they are where they are.

I'm wondering whether an Exo Terra Heat Mat covering a third of the tank might be the answer. Does anyone use a reptile heat mat to keep their mouse tanks warm? If so, any advice on setup?

by MouseLover Wed 13 Feb 2019, 11:57 am

Do you know roughly how low the temperatures get?

I don't know where in the world you live, or whether you get lots of snow and extreme temperatures. But in the UK it's pretty common for mouse breeders to keep their mice in large sheds or summerhouses outside. Now if the temperatures fall below freezing, they might put a heater in there for a while, but for most of the winter they just get given extra bedding. I'm not saying that this is the nicest or best way to live, but I know that it is common among UK breeders. So if your mice are being kept indoors, in a house that has some form of heating on at points in the day, I'd imagine they'd be just fine as long as they have enough bedding (and girls will also have cage mates to cuddle with).

When it gets cold here, I just make sure they have plenty of bedding to keep warm. Torn up tissues, shredded paper, of even strips of fleece if you want to be fancy. More bedding is safer than attempting to heat the tank/cage, as mice can over-heat. Typically mice have more problems coping with too-hot than too-cold. So unless you live somewhere where the weather is extreme, or you have a sick or underweight mouse, I would just pile on the bedding if it's a little bit cold.

by Akrasia Wed 13 Feb 2019, 4:37 pm

Thanks, that's encouraging. We're in the UK, so nothing too extreme. Perhaps below 10C on colder nights, but nothing like a freezing shed.

Maybe I've just been misled by the idea that the ideal temperature is 18C-24C, which is what Google seems to throw up.

by MouseLover Thu 14 Feb 2019, 5:36 am

I dunno where Google got that number from, but perhaps there's a difference between what the ideal temperature is and what they can easily cope with. I mean I'd say my ideal temperature for myself is above 18°c but if I have a jumper on I can go below 10°c easily without it being a threat to my safety, if you see what I mean.

I used to be a student living in a really old house and we were too cheap to put the heating on very much at all lol. I just made sure that my mice had LOADS of soft, warm bedding to make nests with, and I made sure there weren't any drafts near their cage (you can get draft excluders or thermal curtains and things like that if necessary). Also make sure your mice always have PLENTY to eat because maintaining body temperature burns calories. But if it doesn't get much below 10°c I'd think they'd be fine with that. I've heard much more stories about mice over-heating so personally I'd always be wary of directly heating a cage/tank, unless you're dealing with a mouse with health problems or an underweight mouse or something.

by Akrasia Thu 14 Feb 2019, 5:57 am

MouseLover wrote:I dunno where Google got that number from, but perhaps there's a difference between what the ideal temperature is and what they can easily cope with. I mean I'd say my ideal temperature for myself is above 18°c but if I have a jumper on I can go below 10°c easily without it being a threat to my safety, if you see what I mean.

I used to be a student living in a really old house and we were too cheap to put the heating on very much at all lol. I just made sure that my mice had LOADS of soft, warm bedding to make nests with, and I made sure there weren't any drafts near their cage (you can get draft excluders or thermal curtains and things like that if necessary). Also make sure your mice always have PLENTY to eat because maintaining body temperature burns calories. But if it doesn't get much below 10°c I'd think they'd be fine with that. I've heard much more stories about mice over-heating so personally I'd always be wary of directly heating a cage/tank, unless you're dealing with a mouse with health problems or an underweight mouse or something.

Google seems to get the figure from the Humane Society of the United States (the American version of the RSPCA?), but what you say makes sense.

After a couple of illnesses, I'm trying to work out what we might be doing wrong, and temperature seemed like a possibility. But perhaps it isn't that.

by MouseLover Thu 14 Feb 2019, 9:05 am

Akrasia wrote:After a couple of illnesses, I'm trying to work out what we might be doing wrong, and temperature seemed like a possibility. But perhaps it isn't that.

Oh that sucks. What kinds of health issues have you been having? What kinds of symptoms? There's so many factors with mouse health, such as their diet, what bedding you use, etc but genetics also play a massive role and sometimes you can do everything right and just get unlucky. Temperatures like that shouldn't cause health issues, if they have bedding to make nests with and they're not near a drafty window or something. Mice that are already sick or very old might benefit from warmer temperatures, but the temperature shouldn't be extreme enough to cause problems in healthy mice if that makes sense.

by Akrasia Thu 14 Feb 2019, 12:02 pm

MouseLover wrote:
Akrasia wrote:After a couple of illnesses, I'm trying to work out what we might be doing wrong, and temperature seemed like a possibility. But perhaps it isn't that.

Oh that sucks. What kinds of health issues have you been having? What kinds of symptoms? There's so many factors with mouse health, such as their diet, what bedding you use, etc but genetics also play a massive role and sometimes you can do everything right and just get unlucky. Temperatures like that shouldn't cause health issues, if they have bedding to make nests with and they're not near a drafty window or something. Mice that are already sick or very old might benefit from warmer temperatures, but the temperature shouldn't be extreme enough to cause problems in healthy mice if that makes sense.

Before I could reply here, I sent you a PM with some detail that you may not have seen yet.

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