Hello everyone!

I’m trying to figure out the best cooling methods for my 3 month bun this summer for my particular situation. I live in a location that gets very, very hot and is very, very dry. I keep the bun bun in my room, which faces the sun, since I can’t trust my roommates cat and I only let her run around and play in the house when I lock the cat in a room temporarily. I’m also in very northern Alaska, so the sun is almost always up during the summer. Summertime is also fire season, so there can be a lot of smoke if the fires are as bad as they were last summer (one of the worst air qualities in the world). Since I live in a sort of “Alaskan bowl” within the interior, the smoke from the fires all across the state will settle here, even if the fires aren’t here. 

Since I’ll be at work 8 hours of the day, I need to find ways to cool down the bun bun the best. I’ve though of things such as putting ice cubes in her water, giving her frozen vegetables, wetting her ears, etc. But the problem with all that is that it’s short-term (1-2 hours worth) cooling and doesn’t work when i’m gone at work. I’ve thought of the technique of putting up wet cloth over her cage and putting a fan on it, but since it’s so dry it’ll probably dry up while i’m away too. Keeping the window all the way open only works so much, since it’s hot both outside and inside, and is not really an option if the forest fires are enough to smoke up the environment. 

The best option I’ve come up with is to use frozen water bottles and granite slabs. I’ve removed most bedding from her cage so she can lay on the plastic (she pushed the bedding away anyways to lay on plastic). Her cage has a little den, so I figured I could just throw in a granite slab in the den and a frozen water bottle, so it’ll be a cool den and she can lay on the slab, as well as keep a fan running in the room not aimed towards her cage. I’m not sure if this is enough, or maybe I should institute other methods as well. I don’t know if it’ll be suitable cooling for the entire 8 hours i’m at work. Any information would be appreciated. 

Here is an example of her den (not my bun, but same cage):