ventilation question

[chinniecrew]

I know that poor ventilation in a room can negatively affect fur color. What do people do when its hot and you need to have the air conditioner on with the door closed or when its too cold to open windows?

 

[tunes]

I don't think it has ever been too cold to have the window open at least a crack. I have a window open all winter long, and most people I know do too.

As far as with it being hot/humid, I still leave a window open with a fan in it, blowing the air outward from across the room. It keeps the air circulating. It wastes some of the AC, I'm sure, but not enough that it shows appreciably on my electric bill.

You can disperse humidity by aiming a fan at the floor to circulate air and that helps as well.

 

[Riven]

Not to brag but I'm going to have to say that I live in one of the worst areas for chins to live. In the summer it's usually past 100 in the day with tons of humidity to boot. In the winter it's so **** cold that if I left a window open all of my water lines and bottles will freeze.

I have an exhaust fan that in the summer I turn on at night, I actually put it on a timer and it will turn on for about 20 minutes every two hours. In the winter I do it during the day. When it's awesome 55 degree chin weather like we've had the last week I leave it on. No building is 100% air tight, no need to open a door or window with an exhaust fan it will pull in fresh air on it's own.

Opening a door or window really is not ideal unless you have a fan moving the air out. The air will move eventually, but for better fresh air circulation you really need to move that air out, whether it's a fan by an open window or door, or an exhaust system.

 

[Spoof]

I know that poor ventilation in a room can negatively affect fur color.

Interesting, I've never heard this. I imagine if it was dusty or dirty it could temporarily.

I can not vent out 9 months of the year. Some days are limited to one trip into the room to help the humidity stay below 70%. I have not noticed a difference in fur color but I do notice a difference in lack of smell. The room is 12 x 11 and houses between 15-25 chins, a dehumidifier, 2'x2' industrial hepa filter, two a/c's, and all feed/bedding for the chins and horses that are here. You can't even smell the horse sweet feed after it's been in there 24 hours.

Of course it would take going to a show to see any changes, but the things that alter fur color are genetics, diet and housing conditions. They aren't sitting in anything and there isn't a lot of dust floating around, so I'm not sure lack of ventilation would have an effect on the color there.

Expanding on what Riven said, in a larger barn you'll need to have a fan pushing the air out to get decent cross ventilation with an opening on the opposite side of the area. In a small room like mine with such an extreme difference in humidity and air temp, opening the door twice makes a huge "whoosh" - cold air rushes out and hot/humid rushes in. I can raise the temp 4-5 degrees and humidity ~10% in just one trip.

 

[Riven]

Seriously? Any old time rancher will tell you this, it causes oxidation of the fur altering the color causing it to be more red than blue. This is often a cause of red tips on animals. Ebonies are especially susceptible to it.

No opening is needed nor recommended, at all, for any size barn.

 

[Spoof]

it causes oxidation of the fur altering the color causing it to be more red than blue

Ok, I get that, but what is "it" ? There has to be some chemical reaction within the shaft of the fur to oxidize.

Maybe if they let ammonia build up enough? I imagine that would cause a lot URI's before things started oxidizing...

 

[TBFchins]

Yes, it is the ammonia that causes the off color. If you can smell the ammonia, then you do not have enough ventilation. It also can cause health problems, mainly respiratory in chinchillas. In our barn, we have two different ventilations systems.
One is on a 4 inch ducted exhaust fan on an adjustable timer. We adjust it depending on the season, but run it at least a few hours a day, no matter what. We get temperatures over 100 degrees and as low as -35 degrees. In the winter it is not unusual for us not to get above single digits for well over a month.
The other one is a 12 inch fan, mounted into the wall and is on a thermostat. So whenever it gets above the set temperature, it turns on.

 

[arf2184]

I use a window for ventilation. In the summer, its cool enough here for me to just turn off the a/c and open the window at night. There's only 2-7 nights a year where I have to run the a/c at night. Even then though, I'll open the window for an hour or two after dark with the ceiling fan going and let it air out.

In the winter, the window is open during the day. If its above 20 degrees outside, I'll leave it cracked at night.

Weathers been a bit quirky this year. We've already been down to the mid-20s here at night, but its still in the high 80s, low 90s during the day.