Animals and the heat!

[Peter]

I thought in light of the 42plus c degree heat with have had the last couple of days in Perth, I'd start a post where we can suggest ways of keeping animals cool in the heat. We have lost animals due to heat in the past.

One thing I do, is make my animals frozen chew foods. For the parrots I freeze a weak coridal mix with chuncks of fruit in it, and for the dogs I freeze a beef stock and meat chuncks. They love it!





All our animals have fresh water every morning, and ice is added where possible.

We turn our bore on in the heat of the day to wet down yards and aviaries. I know this is hard for those with restriction on mains, but squirting with a hose could help.

Our guinea pigs all get dunked into a bucket of water, and have a frozen bottle of water in with them. They love them, and litterally lay ontop of them to keep cool.





Bring animals inside in the air con/ cool is also a good idea where possible



Remember the heat can really knock animals around and can even kill them. So keep up the water and try to make things as wet, cool and shady as possible. Birds love a good shower

[Mark]

Peter ill take 2 of each of the fruit and pee cordials thanks and ill have them to go !!!! lol

[LittleBudgie2005]

Great idea's Peter... But I am worry as to why u have so many shoter cups... LoL

[Peter]

They arent shooter cups! i wouldnt waste them on that! they are normal plastic cups

[Silvercloud]

Fantastic ideas Peter.

[Mark]

Great idea Peter i might try it out with my birds when i have the time !!!

[Natenla]

They are good ideas, I used the frozen water bottles for my cavy in summer, they work well. Love the frozen chews idea!! Hmmm I wonder if the animals would get a brain freeze if they eat them too fast like we do? LMAO!!

[Silvercloud]

My cousin made up buckets with food in the ice for his dogs.

[Jen]

When I lived in kalgoorlie I used to leave the hose on for a while in a sandy shady spot before I went to work so the dogs had somewhere cool to lay. As it dried out they would just dig a bit down to the wet sand. A un-used kids sandpit is good for this as not everyone would appreciate dogs digging in the garden. Those plastic sandpit shells are good as you can put wet sand in one and fill the other with water. The dogs will get in it if they get hot enough or if they simply love water.
We used to shoot feral goats for dog meat also and freeze it in meal size portions. In summer I never bothered defrosting it, just threw a chunk out on the lawn for each of them and they would chew away on those with great pleasure in the late afternoon.

Now For myself an old claw-foot bathtub in the backyard used to get filled with cool water and it was bliss sitting under a tree in that with a cold beer. When you'd had enough you just pulled the plug out and the water would drain straight onto the lawn and water that too. Really handy for giving the dogs a bath in too but you need to scrub it well each time if your going to use it for both purposes of course ;D

Also keep some of those spray bottles filled with water near the indoor birds and give them a spray whenever you go past. Charlotte absolutely loves it and makes a huge racket when you stop. It also makes their feathers look beautiful and encourages them to groom. And of course ice-blocks in their drinking dishes keeps the water nice.