Travelling with hamsters

[EleshaO]

Hello everyone,

I came across this group in the midst of doing some research in the hope that I may be able to get some help/advice.

In just over a month's time I will be travelling back to uni with my trusty companion Otto for my final year. The journey back down south usually takes just short of 3.5 hours. Otto has travelled this distance before when he came home with me for the summer break. .

Coming home I was accompanied by my parents and so there was always one person constantly keeping a check on him. However, this will be a solo trip whereby I will be driving and so full concentration will have to be on the road.

My concerns lie with increasing heat that the Uk is currently experiencing plus, the time of year that we will be going back is known for quite warm temperatures

I am looking for advice that anyone could give on the best possible ways to make this journey safe, easy and as stress-free for Otto as possible. I own a small travel container in which he travelled fine in for our journey home. However, I fear this may not be good for our returning journey with the heat that we our currently experiencing. I am also worried that if he is kept in his regular cage that he may injure himself as he is quite inquisitive, particularly with the sounds and motion of the car.

I apologise for such a long post.

Any advice will be greatly appreciated

[mikatelyn]

Living in Phoenix, Arizona where the temps hits over 100F for something like half the year, I've given some thought on how to keep my hamster cool. Some ideas that come to mind
1. The biggest problem to temperature control will be when you stop the car and shut off the AC. I don't know what your driving style is, but maybe you could take short breaks where you keep the vehicle, and thus AC, running
2. Other threads have said to provide a cucumber for water and food
3. Depending on what your travel cage looks like, perhaps you could strap a water bottle filled with cold water to the outside of the cage with the nozzle inside the cage. Or of you can't do that, maybe you could zip tie it inside the cage. You don't want it loose to potentially fall on the hamster. Potential problems: it could drip, or if your hamster is a chewer could chew through the zip ties. Maybe bring extra bedding to change out if it drips
4. There are reusable ice packs that you freeze and put in in coolers. Maybe you could get a couple of those and strap one either on the top or side of the outside of the cage to provide an area that's cooler. Then provide a lot of bedding so he can burrow away from it if it's too cold.
5. I have a Syrian male. When summer hit (we started breaking 80sF back in March or April) I started noticing that his testicles get really huge looking when he's warm. It's like a built in thermometer. He's never exhibited behaviors of hyperthermia that I've read about, like looking listless or flattening himself out along a cool surface, and he has lots of different cooling materials in his cage (marble slab, rocks) that he does not seek out to cool down, but it makes me feel better to put him in a play pen with a tile surface to cool him down when I see his testicles looking larger than normal. If you have a syrian male maybe you could use that as a gauge if he's starting to be too warm.
6. Complicated option: You could put the whole travel cage into a cooler, leave the top off for air flow. You could have a couple of the ice packs that you put in to the fridge rather than the freezer so it's not too cold, put them on the outsides of the cage, in the cooler. Bring back up ice packs in a separate cooler (with lid on). Have a thermometer where the sensors are at the tip of a wire, have that in the hamster cooler, stick the readout of the thermometer on your dashboard. Now you have a monitored environment.
Quick online search of thermometers with wire sensors for a few examples: https://www.acurite.com/digital-ther...ed-sensor.html
Note: I haven't had any need to travel with my hamster so I haven't actually tried any of these out, so hopefully there's at least one idea here that you find useful.

[Ria P]

This may be a stupid suggestion but since you are driving, couldn't you simply travel on a wet or cool day? Also, 3.5 hrs isn't a long journey and can be done in one stretch unless Otto needs attention. UK isn't prone to extended heatwaves.
I had an uncle called Otto. Fab name for a hamster.

[Fluffagrams]

I remember travelling home from a show one year where it was particularly hot and I had three of my show team with me, in their show pens.

The way I managed it was to put the hamsters in the middle back seat of the car (fastening the show pen carrier in) so that they were out of the sunlight as much as possible but you could also use those sunshade things that they sell for babies to help to keep the sun off of your hamster. If you've not got air conditioning in your car then opening the windows will at least help to circulate the air whilst the car is moving.

As water bottles won't be suitable when the car is moving, you'll need some moisture rich vegetables such as cucumber for your hamster. If you soak the chunks in water the night before, this can help boost their moisture levels. I also noticed that when it was hot my hamsters would actually sit on the cucumber chunks to help them to stay cool so now if I know we're travelling a long way on a day when it is likely to be warm, I'll give them a couple of vegetable chunks so that they can use them to help stay cool. If it's a long drive, then I'll bring spare chunks.

If you wanted to stop for a break, I would advise parking in the shade if you can and take your hamster with you into the service station building rather than leave them in the car. This is one reason why I'll always use carriers rather than cages for the journey. You can take a bottle of water to offer to them whilst you're sat still having coffee/tea/lunch or whatever if you want but mine have always been happy with the cucumber chunks.

[EleshaO]

Thank you all for your responses and advice. Some really helpful tips that I can use for some peace of mind