Cold Weather Prep: What do you do?

It also depends on how many snakes you have. Just one or two can go into bags and down your shirt for warmth. If you have a lot you may want to look into something like a kerosene heater for the room and all your snakes whose enclosures can't be moved into that room go into temporary tubs for a few days with ambient heat.

Living in Chicago all my life and keeping snakes for most of it, I learned that a cooler is a highly underrated herpers friend. Right now I have one cooler just four my 4 snakes. It’s definitely big enough to hold them all comfortably for a few days. I have pillow cases for everyone, heat packs too. And I added two airholes about a quarter inch, that can easily be covered with a small piece of tape depending on the situation (like moving the cooler to the car). And it comes in so handy for trips to the vet if and when required. I even have “caution live animal” stickers on it. ;)

How do you set up the styrofoam coolers for longer-term (as in days) holding? If you have pics that would be awesome but a description would help too. I want to have kind of an "Winter Emergency" kit with the cooler set up and filled with what I need so if the worst happens I'm ready to act.

Either a portable generator or a Mr Heater Big Buddy along with a few cans of propane depending how many hours your outages usually are.

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Originally Posted by Tessellate

How do you set up the styrofoam coolers for longer-term (as in days) holding? If you have pics that would be awesome but a description would help too. I want to have kind of an "Winter Emergency" kit with the cooler set up and filled with what I need so if the worst happens I'm ready to act.

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Hope this helps give you an idea. I put two small holes on top for ventilation (that can easily be covered with a piece of tape). I also have a bunch of heat packs and twice as many pillow cases as needed. If something goes wrong for a couple of days, they’ll be fine. Maybe not the Hilton, but I’ve had the power go out enough to be prepared. And I kind of like my snakes, lol.


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Originally Posted by bcr229

It also depends on how many snakes you have. Just one or two can go into bags and down your shirt for warmth.....

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Sure, for a couple hours...but not when the power is out for days. When we had that ice storm, the first thing I did was bag my snakes up & put them under my
down comforter with me for warmth. (I was such a rookie that I thought surely the power would be back on by morning...) When I later told a few people that
I'd done that, they thought it was SO creepy? (obviously, they weren't snake keepers) Anyway, the morning brought "plan B", ice chests with jars of hot water.

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Originally Posted by Bogertophis

Sure, for a couple hours...but not when the power is out for days. When we had that ice storm, the first thing I did was bag my snakes up & put them under my
down comforter with me for warmth.

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Actually that's a great idea and I've suggested it, with the change that the snake bags then go into plastic bins for several reasons:
- Extra security in case the snake escapes the bag (it happens),
- The bin will prevent your sheets from getting dirty if the snake pees, and
- My dogs sleep in the bed too so if the snakes are in bins they won't get stepped on or smooshed by a German shepherd if they're protected by the bins.

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Originally Posted by bcr229

Actually that's a great idea and I've suggested it, with the change that the snake bags then go into plastic bins for several reasons:
- Extra security in case the snake escapes the bag (it happens),
- The bin will prevent your sheets from getting dirty if the snake pees, and
- My dogs sleep in the bed too so if the snakes are in bins they won't get stepped on or smooshed by a German shepherd if they're protected by the bins.

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Actually, that's exactly what I did, I just didn't elaborate: each bagged snake was put into a plastic 'Critter Cottage' w/ ventilated tops, & THEN under my down
comforter with me. As you said, protection from roll-overs, protection of MY bedding in case --it happens, & better assurance of air flow. My dogs have their own beds & blankies, so they did their own warmth.

But sadly the power didn't come back on for days, so the next morning I got up after I planned my next move to keep the snakes warm: that's when I
changed them over to ice chests & jars of hot water...I was honestly surprised at how well it worked. The jars I used were large, like what instant iced
tea crystals come in, and I have them saved in a box in my garage, ready in case there's a next time. (pickle jars would work nicely too)

The only snake that wasn't in a plastic 'cottage' was the large BCI that I had then...she was only in a pillow case & was kept right on top of me for extra
warmth, and she kept poking her nose sky-ward, trying to figure out what on earth was going on? :D I'm SO glad she didn't have to "go", I took a chance. :rolleyes: