Emergency!

[fishmommy]

Our furnace died last night sometime....
So it's cold in the house (I'm in NH) and Augie's tub has dropped to 75F as of this morning. It could be up to 12 hours before the service guy gets here so I have placed a 35 hour heat pack on top of the tub. Is this safe?
What is the protocol you follow with chemical heat packs?

thanks

PS. Augie just ate yesterday...hope this doesn't mess him up

[frankykeno]

Problem with that is that heat rises so it won't radiate down into him on the substrate. Here's what I did in a cold Michigan winter when the power went out. Put the heat pack inside an old work sock and tie it up good then pop it into the enclosure beside his warm side hide. We also did this and then popped the sock into a large margine tub with a ton of holes in it to create a sort of snake radiator for the big boa we were fostered back then (we used a few heat packs). We were actually concerned the boa might try to swallow the warm sock so this gave her heat with no risk. It worked very well to keep all the snakes nice and warm until the hydro kicked back on. We also covered every snake's tank or tub up with a blanket to retain all the heat coming off the pack and protect them from the cooler air of the room.

[fishmommy]

lucky for us our power is still on...the UTH is working overtime
it's just the ambient that is low.
I just removed the heat pack since the ambient hit 80... He actually moved himself over to the cool side so I guess everything is fine with this system
I'll just keep monitoring and dropping in the heat pack when it dips again over time.

that's great advice about the sock