any harm in keeping rats on the balcony??

[Grant vg]

i just have to many! so im keeping them outside in big rubbermaid tubs....anything i have to watch out for...like them picking up parasites or something?

I am on the 7th floor of my building...


Thanks,

G

[Joe]

the only thing i would worry about is the sun heating up the inside of the rubbermaid
Joe & Melissa

[Dom]

Also make sure that birds can't get them!


I did that last year with my rats and never had a problem // I found it very convinient ..

[Grant vg]

Thanks guys....i got them in the shade, so overheating shouldn't be a problem....

And its my cats, not the birds that i have to worry about....lol

G

[Linds]

Also, even if they are in the shade the ambient shade temps get sky high in the summer. And very humid, too. May still be too hot for them further into the summer (it's best to keep them under 80, think they stop breeding at 90? though - or so I have been told - havent actually put that theory to the test). My a/c broke jsut recently so my room has been up aorund 86 or so, my rats are in the basemnt so they dont get the higher temps, but I have one pet rat in my room (and even my egyptian spiny mice) are sprawled out on their backs and sides from that level of heat. I keep thinking the rat is dead when I look over at him :( So really they are not very tolerant of excessive heat IMO.

[Quervo]

86?? .. Linds you must be melting:( . My place never gets over 72 even in the middle of summer.

Ahh the joys of a basement.

[Linds]

Yeah, hopefully I will have a new a/c unit next week (both it and the furnace went at the same time- so hopefully we dont get a cold spell!)... I don't do well with temperature extremes either! LOL... anything under 79 I have goosebumps, over 83 I start to boil!

[Grant vg]

yeah, today is burnin up outside!

I think ill play it day by day and keep em out when the temperatures allow...

Thanks for the tip!