The Snuggle Safe

[SQ]

The snuggle safe is an excellent product.
It is heated in the microwave, and will hold its heat for hours.
It is placed (wrapped in a fleece blanket, etc) into a cage so that animals may keep warm by moving closer or further away from it.
This is great to use with small conscious animals after they have had surgery.

The snuggle safe comes with instructions containing a warning NOT to use with an unconscious animal.
This warning is also imprinted onto the surface of the snuggle safe by the manufactor.
An unconscious animal can not move away from a covered snuggle safe if it is too hot and therefore may be seriously burned.

Make sure that when you take a rat in to a vet for surgery that the vet will not use a snuggle safe with your unconscious rat during surgery.
The vet that operated on Nicole used a snuggle safe covered by a towel with Nicole during surgery.
Nicole died.
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[Rachael]

I have been using it for about 3 years now, we first bought it for our dog when he was a puppy and then started using it for rats. Just be really careful with it though, one of my boys Toby moved himself onto it and within a few minutes was far too hot on it.

 

[jorats]

Thanks for this SQ, I'll move it over to the review section, very helpful.

 

[Petunia]

it's also a good idea not to try to slip one of these under a sleeping cat. (which would probably only be possible to do with an older cat anyway, most cats will wake up if you move them at all)
Cats don't register temp changes as quickly as other animals do, which is the reason why they sometimes freeze to death if they can't find a warm enough spot and the temp drops while they are sleeping (outside cats I mean,of course)

turns out this works in reverse too, cats need a big temperature difference to notice when they are too hot, as well

The tips of their whiskers are very sensitive, but the rest of the cat is not. :shock:

I was very surprised to learn this!

our vet uses a bed with circulating hot water in it for animals during and after surgery. It is temperature controlled the entire time (she's very proud of this particular pc of equipment so I hear about it every time I take a cat in for a dental etc lol)