cold toes, warm heart

[wishforabird]

Julian has a sleep cage in the most interior room of the house, where the vent is closed to A/C. so it is the warmest too.. but these past few days as it gets colder, (but not cold enough to turn on the heat lest we sweat to death! it remains in the low-mid 70s in the house) .. I noticed his little tosies are COLD in the morning.. I have a balck twill cover on his cage, and I added a baby towel (those hooded ones) to the front so less light from the computer monitor will bother him at bedtime (the lamp in the room is out).
 I don't want to suffocate him, but can I add a blanket to the top? underneath? (so it will insulate like carpet?) he sleeps in a snuggly tent inside his sleep cage, but his feet are still cold when I take him out in the morning (I know he has been out of his tent for like 15 minutes or so waiting on the door perch by the time I get him, could he have gotten cool feet so fast? )   the thought of him shivering in his bed gives me a mom guilt trip so bad I can't swallow..

 

[steptoe91(tozie)]

they use their feet to regulate their body temps... according to my reading. so those cold feet dont necessarily mean HE'S cold. how cool is the air temp in the room?  marley sleeps in his cozy hut, too and he sometimes has hot feet and sometimes cold feet. putting a blanket over his cage doesnt really 'warm' him other than to stop any breeze that would be created by an a/c vent. he is so small, and the blanket is so far away from him it wont warm him like a blanket would warm us. its our body heat being held in by the blanket that actually warms us...unless you're talking about an electric blanket.  he's so small that his body heat couldnt warm the air in the cage enough for the blanket to make a diff. BUT he can warm the air in the cozy hut with his body heat and it will insulate that heat.  does this make sense to anyone but me?   

duh, i re-read your post, i see that the house temp doesnt get below 70. julian should be fine in his little cozy hut. i doubt he's uncomfortable. those cozy huts can do wonders to keep 'em toasty warm. 

[Ditty]

I too doubt at 70 he is uncomfy.  As toz said cool feet does not mean HE is cold.  Have you thought of a thermo perch?  Yoshi LOVES his.  he sleeps in the hut and when he comes out he goes on the thermo perch for a bit.  I often find him there preening in the afternoons too. 

I switch out perches and such every few weeks so I never let him see the whole thing with the wires and such, I added it when he was out and about and strung the wire out the back and he saw it as just another perch I guess.  However when he is OUT of his cage and sees the wires and such he freaks, which is why it is where it is, back of the cage where he usually does not go.

[Sondra]

Find a small 25 watt lamp and put it underneath the pan, in a corner area, place a perch over the lamp area, pull the pan out about 2 inches (make sure the grate is locked in in the cage). He'll sleep on the perch over the lamp area if he's cold and move away when he's too warm.