How do peoples hamsters cope in extreme heat?
I live in England and we get heatwaves every year that are slowly getting worse and worse, and we have no air con in my flat. We’ve already had a bad heatwave this year that had me and my partner star-fishing naked in front of a fan because it was just too warm to do anything else. Apparently we’re due to get another one this summer, it doesn’t help that our flat really traps the heat, it gets so hot that sometimes it’s cooler so go outside.
A few months after summer we obviously expect to get a standard winter, which can get very cold here in the UK. Me and my partner try to save money by bundling up as much as possible and using the heating very sparingly, but a lot of mornings it is so cold that it’s difficult to get out of bed, and I’m shivering just getting dressed for work. And of course in the winter the flat traps absolutely no heat (we have a draft under our back door but hopefully will get that fixed before the winter anyway)!
I read online that temps below 15C and above 24C are unsafe for hamsters, but our home definitely goes above and below those safe temps throughout the year! Even with a ceramic hide or a heating pad I am worried that a hamster would not be okay..
Can anyone else in the UK or with semi-extreme temperatures say what their experiences have been during heatwaves or winters?
TLDR: The summers get very hot and the winters get very cold. Im worried a hamster wouldn’t survive without heating or air con. Thoughts?