Lost power for 14 hours during a high-wind freeze!

[Godzilla78]

This is a dramatic story, but really happened last night!

I have electric heat for my house, I have electric heat tape for my rack, I have supplemental electric space heaters for my snake room and my bedroom. Yesterday a high wind storm came in causing trees to get blown down and temperatures to drop below freezing! At 6:30 pm, a tree fell on some power-lines somewhere on my neighborhood grid, and I lost electricity to my home! I didn't panic at first, thinking the power company would fix it soon. After several hours, no response from the power company, and the house temps were plummeting fast! The extreme wind combined with freezing outside temperatures was chilling my home temps rapidly. I started to panic when the temps got down to 65, and I knew they would keep dropping if the power company didn't get it fixed soon.

I decided to do whatever it takes to save my snakes. I quickly realized The only heat source in the entire house, was a large warm-blooded mammal...ME! The first thing I did was get my $$$ super-pastel-piebald stud hatchling who is only 3 months old or so, and I put him in a small cloth bag and held him close to my torso under the blankets to keep him warm. (remember it was getting down to 60F and falling and I was cold too, so I had clothes on and TWO blankets! He is by far the smallest snake, and would cool off the quickest, and be the most susceptible to hypothermia, not to mention the biggest investment loss.
After a couple more hours, I realized that the power company wasn't coming any time soon, as there were downed power lines all over the area due to high winds! I then grabbed the subadults and put them in a pillowcase, and put them in MY BED WITH ME!, next to my body (which is perfect temperature, as my skin measures around 90F with an infrared thermometer.) I went to get the adults and put them in a pillowcase too, but noticed that the adults were still warm to the touch. They are both quite large, and were wrapped together in the warmest shelf on the rack, as they have been mating. I realized that I couldn't possibly keep all 5 snakes next to me all night, so I left the large adults in the rack, packed paper towels and cloth around the tub, and covered the rack with a large comforter.

I then spent the entire night holding the 1 hatchling and the 2 juveniles close to my body. The largest and most outgoing snake, Flame the female piebald kept trying to get out of the pillowcase and explore. The other two are smaller males and they are timid anyway, so they just huddled close to me for warmth. At one point Flame peed in the pillowcase and I had to keep her next to me and try to "sleep" with one eye open so as not to crush the snakes, and the smell of snake piss next to me! TALK ABOUT LOVE OF YOUR PETS! As morning got closer, the power was still not on, and the house was down 50F!!! I was really worried that some snakes might get sick or even die! I had to go to work, and was really depressed. Towards the dawn, I put the subadults in one tub together to keep each other warm, and insulated around the tub again, with the comforter over the rack. I was really worried about Chuck Norris, my hatchling, and I kept him close to me. By this time, he didn't even need to stay in the cloth bag, and was just pressed to my skin trying to stay warm. He didn't even try to move or get away. (It was pretty emotional, he was literally like my baby!) Finally, I had to go to work, so I put Chuck in a warm sock (war right off my foot!) and put him in the rack too, and hoped the power would come on soon!

Well, the power came back at 10 am, the rack came up to temp, and they survived! All 5 look healthy, but stressed out! I will be leaving them alone for the next few days to recover, and keeping an eye on their behavior. Now I have to wash my pillowcases and sheets!

I never thought I would sleep with snakes, in an attempt to save their lives! I have to get some sort of non-electrical heat source soon.

[zina10]

I would do the same, actually

Well done !!

[Sauzo]

That sucks. I've had to deal with that too. I put everyone in totes and loaded them into my car and slept in there with the engine running and heater going. It was a very uncomfortable night.

You might want to look into investing in an indoor propane space heater. Mr Buddy makes one that is safe for indoor emergency usage.

[MD_Pythons]

Man that reminds me, I gotta get some hand warmers in case that happens. At least your snakes were ok

[B.P.'s 4me]

Our snakes are an emotional and financial investment. Kudos to you for being willing to do whatever it took to keep them alive and well. I would have done the same (but am happy it hasn't been necessary.... yet. LOL Thank you for the suggestions of how to keep them warm and I hope they don't suffer any ill effects.

[Team Slytherin]

Stop it. That's really cute. I mean, really stressful, but also really cute. They got to sleep with dad! Glad things worked out for you! And glad they were calm enough to stay still and tucked in. I napped with my Dumeril's the other day simply because I love snuggle time with her, but my scrub would never allow such a thing. I'd wake up to find him on the ceiling or down the street!

[Godzilla78]

Stop it. That's really cute. I mean, really stressful, but also really cute. They got to sleep with dad! Glad things worked out for you! And glad they were calm enough to stay still and tucked in. I napped with my Dumeril's the other day simply because I love snuggle time with her, but my scrub would never allow such a thing. I'd wake up to find him on the ceiling or down the street!

When Flame peed in the pillowcase next to me, it really felt like a bad dream, I was like, "WtF?..This just keeps getting worse!"

[Momokahn]

It is relatively easy to make an emergency heat source for your snakes. As long as you don't have dozens of snakes in which case an emergency generator may be in order. At a hobbyist level and I'm only dealing with 3 snakes I have a cooler with a UTH, thermostat, and thermometer powered by a power pack with built in AC inverter. Put the UTH inside the cooler on the bottom, line the bottom of the cooler with water bottles filled with warm water, power the UTH with the inverter. Take advantage of your warm water while you have it. If you are on a well with a pressure tank, do the best you can until pressure depletes. Each snake goes into their own indivdual canvas bag. Drill a few ventilation holes. Heck any cooler would work. Don't know if I would use a Yeti. Kind of expensive drilling holes in it. A 12V DC power pack will power a 16 watt UTH for a very long time. As a bonus the power pack will even jump start your car.

[Godzilla78]

It is relatively easy to make an emergency heat source for your snakes. As long as you don't have dozens of snakes in which case an emergency generator may be in order. At a hobbyist level and I'm only dealing with 3 snakes I have a cooler with a UTH, thermostat, and thermometer powered by a power pack with built in AC inverter. Put the UTH inside the cooler on the bottom, line the bottom of the cooler with water bottles filled with warm water, power the UTH with the inverter. Take advantage of your warm water while you have it. If you are on a well with a pressure tank, do the best you can until pressure depletes. Each snake goes into their own indivdual canvas bag. Drill a few ventilation holes. Heck any cooler would work. Don't know if I would use a Yeti. Kind of expensive drilling holes in it. A 12V DC power pack will power a 16 watt UTH for a very long time. As a bonus the power pack will even jump start your car.

Cool idea! I may get a power pack, as I don't like the idea of having a portable gas heater in my house, (dangerous flames and Carbon monoxide, gas and kerosene are not my first choice for sure).

[cchardwick]

I actually keep my rat racks in with my racks of ball pythons in a small 10' x 20' room. The heat of the rodents keeps the room pretty warm when I turn off the heater and clean things up, it cools off a few degrees but since I have hundreds of rats in there I wouldn't think it would get too cold if the power went out long term. Who would have thought that you can heat a house with rats LOLOLOL.