Gustav. Evacuating? What do I do??

I personally think anyone in the path of that storm needs to evacuate, no matter what. pack up the snakes, pets, kids, exc and get the ___ out of there!

I would also do the pillowcase thing, if it didnt work well and keep stress low breeders wouldnt use that method. In the even we need to evacuate and were going to be stuck somewhere awhile I will transport in pillowcases and bring bins with me to set them up in while we wait. This way you can stack the bins together (hopefully you kept the lids) and call it a day. Hopefully you wont have eggs to worry about (talking about breeders here)

Good luck and may you stay safe!

Get a big tub and put each snake in a pillow case/snake bag. Then use Heatpacks or handwarmers for warmth...

Just to clarify, my only thought with bringing food is that if this thing comes in as strong as they say, and you are in the direct line of fire, we are talking possible weeks before you could get back. Look how long it took folks to get back after Katrina.

I would forget the food. Make sure they are given water access as much as possible though. Most snakes can last a month or two without food. Water is a necessity however.

We are about 35 miles Northeast of New Orleans (about 20 miles from where the eye of Katrina hit). It sucks that we will probably be on the strong side this time......but we plan on staying unless conditions get really severe (i.e. Catagory 5 hitting New Orleans directly, putting us in the very worse of it).

For Katrina, we did not have power for almost a month. But we now have a few generators, so I am making preperations to get the reptile collection 'consolidated' and easily moved to an air conditioned room.

I would also do a search on this site for more information. We had several discussions after the Katrina season.

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Originally Posted by ShawnT

Get a big tub and put each snake in a pillow case/snake bag. Then use Heatpacks or handwarmers for warmth...

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The heatpacks and handwarmers will be too much for most conditions. The temperatures this week in the southeast are 90+ deg. I would be more concerned with the animals getting too hot than being cold. Heat kills animals quick.

I am in the same situation your in, but I am prepared!

You will need to get the same amount of tubs as snakes, 2 water bowls, hides, newspaper, and if you can, heating. That is only for when you make it to your destination, not evacuating. For the trip put all your snakes in snake bags/pillowcases and put them in a styrofoam cooler or a shipping box with plenty of crumpled newspaper or something to keep them from not moving! You will not need to feed untill your back home safe, tonights my feeding night, but I am skipping it just in case. Be prepared, the oil right meteorologists have said that it will bee line for louisiana but shoot west towards us, but only a cat 2, but still be prepared to evac!

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Originally Posted by ADEE

I personally think anyone in the path of that storm needs to evacuate, no matter what. pack up the snakes, pets, kids, exc and get the ___ out of there!

I would also do the pillowcase thing, if it didnt work well and keep stress low breeders wouldnt use that method. In the even we need to evacuate and were going to be stuck somewhere awhile I will transport in pillowcases and bring bins with me to set them up in while we wait. This way you can stack the bins together (hopefully you kept the lids) and call it a day. Hopefully you wont have eggs to worry about (talking about breeders here)

Good luck and may you stay safe!

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Easy for you to say! It is so hard moving everything, and packing up everything, and then finding a place for animals..I might have to move a cow calf pair!

When we moved from Texas to Arizona (18 hours, i think), we had to pack up everyone. That included 1 dog, a parrot, 10 snakes, 5 beardies, 3 chameleons, a tortoise, a skink, and a pair of leos. What I did is put everyone is appropriate size containers (zip loc tupperware, tubs, deli cups, etc. and the dog and parrot were in their own crates :P) and placed them all in coolers. I think I had 5 total. I also packed my mister and paper towels and would spray everyone down during rest stops. Then I changed bedding as needed. When I let the dog out for a potty break, I let everyone get some sun. Everyone made it and are doing well. And the only reason I didn't put the snakes in bags is because of the misting. I didn't want the bags to stay wet. Hope that helps!

Dont feed your snakes before leaving. They will do much better on an empty stomach if temps flucuate up and down. Like mentioned earlier they can go for long periods without food and there bodies do much on an empty stomach if they get too hot or too cold. Just like when shipping a snake you want to give the at least a week to digest even more if you are expecting extreme temps.

My prayers and best wishes go out to you and evryone who maybe facing this big storm.:salute:

Be careful, everyone.

If i were evacuating, i would put everyone in their own cloth bag in a huge plastic tub or cooler, and tape some carbon hand warmers to the sides of the tub and just check temps every so often. I would take a t-stat complete with probe and a heat pad or piece of flexwatt in case i need to set up somewhere more permanently - and take lots of extra bags in case someone has an accident.

I would take water bowls but not offer water in the moving vehicle, and worry about feeding later - they can wait.

I don't know what i'd do with my rat colony :( :(

I'm worried for all of you and your pets. Everyone take care, be safe!

Just wanted to tell everyone good luck that is in the path. We will be here waiting it out. Evacuating is not possible for us. We have way too many animals and eggs in the incubator to move. We had to deal with Katrina and had little problems so this should be fine too.