Warmth for outdoor cage

[Dovechick]

How can I safely provide warmth in my outdoor cage? It needs to be safe, chew proof, water proof, and effective.

[Javarat]

I see you are in Georgia, with freezing nights ahead.
I am also in Georgia, but keep my winter-overs inside my sunroom, and heat that room.

I have previously tried placing an electric space heater with temperature control on top of a cage (I used a Vornado), set it to 60 (lowest setting I could get), covered it with a cardboard box with two flaps folded inward (to angle the air flow), and then covered the whole thing with plastic. I made sure it was a heater that did not get a hot case, that cord was not accessible to the squirrels, and the box kept the plastic from being sucked up against the heater. This kept the air in the top of the cage at 60, and the heater actually shut off a lot of the time.

Here... I drew a very tacky picture (in MS Paint) of how I had it set up:

[island rehabber]

I have never had to do this myself, but I want to caution everyone who is overwintering in an outdoor cage and wants to wrap or enclose it in some way for warmth: BE CAREFUL to allow enough ventilation! Someone I knew years and years ago decided to use the heavy moving blankets -- those dark grey quilted things -- as side panels on her release pens, to keep out wind and cold. Unfortunately, the lack of air moving through the pens caused condensation and a damp environment. Toxic mold grew inside the nest boxes and babies perished from some mycotoxins we never did identify. (5 of those babies were mine ) Dry cold is far better than wet warmth -- just saying!!

[TubeDriver]

I have an actual nest box installed inside my release cage. The release cage has a covered roof which keeps off water/rain. You can cover up one side of the cage if the wind tends to blow in mainly from one direction. The nest box with some fleece and leaves keeps squirrels warm. Portal always open in case someone needs shelter or a release needs somewhere to hunker down. Also, position the release cage so that day time sunlight can warm up the nest box and help keep it dry. This should be fine as long as they are 400g plus in weight.

How can I safely provide warmth in my outdoor cage? It needs to be safe, chew proof, water proof, and effective.

[SammysMom]

Although my release cage is open because they have been released, it is still used by many of my squirrels in the winter. I put fleece and polyfil in and I see that they have added leaves to the boxes. Be sure that you have good, solid boxes made of 1" thick wood. I know some use inexpensive bird boxes, but not for winter. They are way too thin. You might want to use moving blankets if you are expecting bad b.c weather. A tarp thrown over that will keep them dry in a rainy storm. As IR said, do not put bnb it on and leave it. For the most part, they are fine outdoors. They are made for it and will hunker down in their box. How many do you have in the release cage? How big is the cage? Is it out in the open or near your house or a building?