I am REALLY missing the warmer winters of Texas right about now!! i just moved to Tenn and it was 20-something degrees last night! but there are other people who live in warmer weather!

I thought starting a thread of ideas that could help keep our babies warm.

here are some of mine:
Cage covers
fleece blankets
small heaters near the cage

if you have some ideas please post your reply for all of us to read! lets keep our babies warm this winter!!

I cover the windows with Fleece in the glider room HTH.

Great idea! I have a question. I know you should keep your suggies pretty much at temps YOU are comfy at. But we live in a 2 story townhouse, and it gets pretty cool at night in the glider room/office as there are 2 windows in here and it is downstairs. I can't keep it warm enough down here at night without cooking us in our beds. Darn wackos who installed the thermostat even put it at the TOP of a stairwell. DUH, heat rises. LOL Anyway...

They have a cover on all sides of the cage except for the front, and the pouches are all double layered fleece, but I am very soon switching to a pouch protector pouch. Pretty thin and one layered, and no blankies allowed. At what temperature should I be thinking about getting a heater for the glider room?????

really the glider room shouldnt get lower than 68F and even that is pushin it. gliders get really lethargic when they get cold from what i have seen. and just like humans they shiver a little. so since the room they are in stays cold get a heater for them and have it near their cages. even with the cage cover it still gets cold. just have it near so they will come out and play at night.

if you are cold, then they usually are too

I keep my glider room at 75-78deg at all times.

Thanks Jessi! Will do!

anyone else have any ideas! we got a great list going so far!

I would add emergency supplies in case of power failure or getting snowed in such as flashlight, food, (jars of baby food chicken, fruits & veggies) pouches, fleece, dried fruits & mealies. Anybody else?

I live in upstate NY, literally the North Pole <g> so it gets VERY cold here. Our cage is on wheels so during the day when they are sleeping I roll them into my office with me, it's quiet and comfortable. I keep our thermastat at 68-70. At night when we turn in I turn the upstairs thermastat to 68 because they are very active and and I know if I was running on a wheel all night I wouldn't want to be too hot <g>
We have two generators here because the power does go out a lot when we have ice and snow storms. I have a small fridge upstairs that the generator powers just right to keep their food cold/fresh. This is our 3rd winter here, I would love to move somewhere warmer myself!!

Just an FYI... I got the PERFECT lil fan blown electric heater for my office/glider room today for 12 bucks!!! I tested it out while I had the suggies out to clean thier cage. Turned the thing up full blast and set it about 3 feet from the bars. It got the room nice and toasty in no time but didn't even come close to making the bars hot! Now I KNOW it will be safe from 5 feet away and set not nearly so hot. Had to make sure we wouldn't have any roasted suggie tootsies ya know!

Hmm where'd you get it?

I got mine last year..... or the year before? at Target for like $12 or $14. It's about a foot tall and looks like a little spaceship. My husband is HOT all the time. ie. When there's snow on the ground for days! So of course our heater is no where close to being on here yet. Anyway, I've had that little heater in my daughter's room where the sugar monkeys are for a month maybe. Their cage is covered but is near a window and we had babies recently so I didn't want any furry popscicles! I don't know how accurate the thermostat is on the heater but I keep it between 75-80 and it kicks of and on and oscillates (sp) and of course we keep the door shut.

Something I used just while feeding my joeys and I needed a warm spot to sit them down for a minute was one of those hot/cold packs. You know, you can freeze it or nuke it or boil it. If your power went out and you had a gas stove you could boil it to keep under a plastic incubator. Or wrap it in fleece and put it in a zip lock so they couldn't get too hot on it. It doesn't stay warm for real long though....... I actually plopped the oven door open a few times I was feeding them and set it just on warm and laid a towel on the door and fed them there. We were all nice and warm!

I use a radiator heater, they shut or kick down when they get to a certain temperature and are very safe to leave on. I have had mine on in the glider room when it first started to get cold.It is on 24 x7. I have a joey and wanted to make sure the room was warm for her. I put it between the cages have two and then put a heavy quilt over them so everything is covered. The front of the cages are covered at the bottom with fleece. At night I cover completely and in the morning I uncover somewhat so they have the daylight. Here is the site for the heater I would be careful with the others I have had them overheat and the cord has gotten very hot, could cause a fire. they are not made to leave on all the time. The radiator heaters are not that expensive and safer. http://www.amazon.com/DeLonghi-EW7707CM-...5688&sr=1-3

I got mine at Walmart and it is a tiny lil square thing. It also has an auto shut off when the temp gets to a certain level.

this may explain why they arent very active, i guess i need to get my heater going.

right now theyre in a double layer pouch and have a fleece blanket over the top of the cage.

Has anyone ever used those heat lamps? I need something to clip to the cage. I have a reptarium and the suggies are set up in my VERY open living room. We keep the heat at 65 in the winter and at 70 in the summer. I have a heater in the room but it is so big I do not think it is makeing much difference! The kids are always out and about in the mormings and I hear the wheels turning at night, so I know that they are still active, but I am a little worried since I have a joey due OOP in the next few weeks and the temp here tonight is 26! I am comfy at 65, but I have noticed a time or two that there little feet seem a bit cold to the touch. Someone please give me some feed back or PM me. I can't really afford to keep the house at 75 all winter. I have think I need to make a cover, but I know that is not going to hold in but so much heat. I do not have a room that I could put them in either. I only have a two bedroom house and they are both occupied. The den is much cooler than the living room as well. Thanks for any suggestions!

mine are doing the same. i am gonna go to walmart tomorrow and get one. i hope they have one in stock.

we have baseboard heaters, and soon enough central heating, i just have to clean them out first.

I have a few AVI tech heaters for my parrots, the only one that seems to need it is the Cockatoo, he is a wimp. With two extras I can give one to the gliders if I need to. They are radiant heat and are great, I even have thermostats they can plug into so they will turn on if it gets below a certain temperature.

Living up here in the Frozen Tundra I am the only one not ready for winter, the birds, guinea pig, gliders and horses are ready, I am not. Every year it gets worse with the arthritic joints.

But for the record, I couldn't live where the bugs didn't die at least for a little while.

Megan

I have actually spoken with a breeder who uses/used heat lamps on his cages. The clamp-on ones. I've used one with an iguana and the actual bulbs get VERY HOT so you'd have to really make sure the arm bends out away from the cage and then just faces the cage. I don't remember how long the arm was EXACTLY but you'd really have to make sure nobody could reach out and get burnt. And it may even be suggested that you DON'T use them with gliders - I don't know. It seems like the bulbs were like $14 a piece and I always kept a spare. If you do find it's safe to use one (me personally) I would choose the night glow one so it's not bright during their dark time. And yours!

Kimberley

What's an AVI tech heater?

lol it doesn't get cold enough down here to kill ANYTHING but my flowers!!!!!!!

I run a heater constantly through the cold months in the glider/rat/chick/my room lol I get cold easily, so they stay toasty with me.
I dont know if this is useable for gliders, but for the rats I make little bean-bags full of uncooked rice for them to sleep on, I stick it in the microwave for a few seconds and it stays warm for quite a while, maybe you could make one to fit inside of a pouch, or a cube? or maybe make a pouch with an outside pocket with a Velcro closure that you could stick a hand warmer in so it is away from them, but they still feel the effects(for emergency power outage or whatever)

Other things I have on hand are. Bottled water, baby food, lots of double layer pouches and blankies, hand warmers, all of the usual emergency kit items, heating pads heavy fleece and velor blankets for covering cages..I don't remember what else right now.

Its a good idea to start this thread, get people prepared!!

I would really think that the uncooked rice and hand warmers would be a really BAD idea! Just because gliders are so darn curious, and they could eat the rice and other stuff. Just my opinion...

I think that I may look into the heat lamp...I will just attach it to the floor lamp that I Have next to the cages. No they can not reach out and touch it, they are in Reptariums, but I know what you mean about them getting hot. I just want to do something for them, I hate being cold!!!!