diff --git a/sdk/index.ts b/sdk/index.ts
index 17669ed..3b4c1b7 100644
--- a/sdk/index.ts
+++ b/sdk/index.ts
@@ -30,7 +30,7 @@ export class Flagsmith {
     environmentKey?: string;
     apiUrl: string = DEFAULT_API_URL;
     customHeaders?: { [key: string]: any };
-    requestTimeoutSeconds?: number;
+    requestTimeoutSeconds?: number = 10;
     agent: RequestInit['agent'];
     requestTimeoutMs?: number;
     enableLocalEvaluation?: boolean = false;
diff --git a/sdk/utils.ts b/sdk/utils.ts
index 1b1fbf7..3964b21 100644
--- a/sdk/utils.ts
+++ b/sdk/utils.ts
@@ -19,8 +19,8 @@ export const delay = (ms: number) =>
 export const retryFetch = (
     url: string,
     fetchOptions: RequestInit,
-    retries = 3,
-    timeout?: number // set an overall timeout for this function
+    retries: number = 3,
+    timeout: number = 10// set an overall timeout for this function
 ): Promise<Response> => {
     return new Promise((resolve, reject) => {
         const retryWrapper = (n: number) => {