Really hate power outages

So last night had an 8 hour power outage. After 4 hours with no power and checking temps and seeing everyone go down to 70 degrees, I break out my red tail boa, bp and bearded dragon totes and load them all into my car and run it on and off for 4 hours to keep it around 80 degrees inside. This is 3am to 7am when power finally came back on. Needless to say, I was very tired after all this. I think next time im gonna invest in a small generator lol. Was the longest 4 hours ever. Anyone else have other ideas to keep reptiles warm in a power outage that last 8+ hours other than a generator or sitting in a running car with the heat on :P

8hrs, Wow!

Good job on your part.

The only thing I think to add is, to , after the hot side cools down, soak it with hot water,and spray all over as well with hot water. I would remove the repetile first since a lot of disruption is going on.

Mr buddy propane heater. We lost power 2 nights ago. Ran upstairs grabbed a tank and set it to low. Ran it 8 hours no problem and used nearly no propane.

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Mr buddy propane heater. We lost power 2 nights ago. Ran upstairs grabbed a tank and set it to low. Ran it 8 hours no problem and used nearly no propane.

Mines green. Works great. http://www.mrheater.com/portable-buddy-heater.html

Oh good idea. I didn't think propane heaters were safe to use indoors, kind of like trying to heat your house with a propane bbq. You hear those stories of people dying from asphyxiation and stuff.

Oh my red tail and bearded dragon are oblivious to distractions. My beardie actually didn't wake up during the whole ordeal. She finally woke up at 9am when her lights came on from the timer and looked at me like "why are you awake so early?". And my red tail was just stretching out in her tote in the backseat. She is really mellow and loves to have her head and body rubbed. The only one jumpy was the baby BP but she's only 8 weeks old and I've had her 2 weeks so she was excited. Now she is destroying her cage so that seems to be her sign of "give me a rat NOW!" :P

Our power outages rarely last more than a couple hours, but I keep a lot of empty gallon jugs around. We fill them with hot water, put the tropical animals into small travel containers, and place them and the hot water bottles under a blanket. Never had them dip below 80 using that method. Just have to hurry and use the hot water before everything goes cold.

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Originally Posted by Foolish1

Mines green. Works great. http://www.mrheater.com/portable-buddy-heater.html

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That's pretty nice. Definitely cheaper than even a 3500 watt generator. I'll have to look into one of those. Thanks.

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Originally Posted by DVirginiana

Our power outages rarely last more than a couple hours, but I keep a lot of empty gallon jugs around. We fill them with hot water, put the tropical animals into small travel containers, and place them and the hot water bottles under a blanket. Never had them dip below 80 using that method. Just have to hurry and use the hot water before everything goes cold.

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Yeah we usually don't lose power either. I think some idiot hit a transformer because like you, when we do lose power, its only for a couple of hours except last night.

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Originally Posted by Reinz

The only thing I think to add is, to , after the hot side cools down, soak it with hot water,and spray all over as well with hot water. I would remove the repetile first since a lot of disruption is going on.

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Spraying hot water all over everything is just going to work temporarily. The water is going to cool and since the heat is out it is not going to evaporate like usual and instead just get cold and leave the cage wet.

Apart from a small propane heater you can fill water bottles with hot water and then place them in a couple layers of tube socks. This will give your snake a nice warm object to wrap around and you can easily heat them over. This works if you have gas appliances.If you don't you can keep hand and foot warmers(the disposable kind) on hand. Be very careful with these as they get VERY HOT. They will need to be wrapped in socks and tested before throwing them in to your snakes after you let them sit a few minutes to see what temp they reach. Not that the water bottle doesn't need to be checked, but these produce the heat instead of loose heat like the water bottles.

Plus another one for the Buddy Heater -- love my Mr. Heater. On a full cylinder, I've found it will run for about 6 hrs on Low and it heats the studio/snake room (a small spare bedroom) to the upper 70s when it's cold out, low 80s when mild. Also, we have a woodstove against the adjoining wall, which helps tremendously. We avoided an outage last night, but lost power to the storm the day before . . . it's a relief to have a plan with everything ready to go. Especially after once losing power for 7 and a half days in the 2007 wind storm and relying entirely on the woodstove when the propane ran out. Not fun but very doable. Depending on where you are, a small generator set on the porch to run a couple heat lamps or an RPH can also work in a pinch. But, yeah. Buddy Heater.

I live in a very small mountain cabin. Never an issue. Never feel like not enough O2. Holding gtp can't type much.

Yeah the house here, everything is electric or natural gas. Electric stove, natural gas heating etc. I'll probably pick up one of those Mr Heaters. That seems about perfect for the rare occasions I do lose power and it sure will beat sitting in the car with my pets and the heat cranked. Felt like Noah in the ark :P And you really realize how uncomfortable a car is after sitting in one for 4 hours especially when its 3am and you really want sleep haha.

And i've used those hand/foot warmer packs and yes those things can get really hot. I don't know how they work for shipping reptiles without cooking them.

I've looked at generators also but for the cost, I'm not really sure its worth it as like I said, we really don't lose power often but a $100 Mr Heater and a refillable bottle of propane sounds pretty cheap for insurance.