Gustav. Evacuating? What do I do??

Because of Gustav I needed to know some things because I may actually be evacuating soon. When Katrina came through I didn't have either of my Bp's. Now what?
I live about 30-45 minutes from the louisiana line in texas, so pretty much right in Gustav's path. If I evacuate I need to know a few things. What to keep them in, how to handle long amounts of time in traffic, any kind of travelling/evacuation care tips. I was thinking hotel or wherever I would just put both my bp's in one tank with my light's and uth. But I would like some more insight. Any past evacuees? There has to be. Come on Tx and La herps! Much appreciated.
~TX Floyde~ :confused::snake:

i did not ever have to evacuate, but recently i drove from orlando, fl to northern michigan over the span of a few days with my BP along for the ride.

i put the BP in a small box with substrate in it and a little carboard hide. i kept a thermometer in the box also. I bought one of those little cigarette lighter power inverters so i had an outlet for my uth and thermostat in the car. the 100w inverter only cost $15 and should provide plenty of juice for a couple uth's or strips of flex-watt.

then i put the snake box on top of the uth and away i went. every time i stopped for gas i checked on the BP. she was always fine, if not a little peeved at me for the bumpy car ride.

there's really not much to it as long as you have the means to keep the temps correct. worst case scenario you go without the power inverter and use the cars heating/AC to control the temps. the only problem with that is you might be a little uncomfortable, but it all depends on the lengths you'll go to for your snakes!

I travel with my animals in a cooler that is not air tight and a themomater. I tied the animals off in pillow case, so they would feel more secure, and just focused on keeping the ambients right. After all, they do not have a nice hot spot when they are shipped. Plus, a cooler is easier to sneak into a hotel room. Just bring stuff so you can set them up the right temps in the hotel room, since you do not know how long you will be there. Also consider at least one feeding. Make sure you put the do not disturb sign on the hotel door, or you might give the cleaning lady a heart attack.

i had the maid walk in on me packing my snake stuff up, and i lucked out because we started talking about the snake and it turned out her mother's cousin's uncle's whatever was a breeder of various colubrids. she said my secret was safe, but be careful because most maids won't be so friendly.

Personally (yall may not agree with me) but when i was traveling up to MI with 3 of my ball pythons... i put them each in their own rubbermaid... with paper towel, a water dish... and thats it... generally speaking, most cars wont get to hot, if you have a/c and if you keep a temp probe in each tub you'll be able to check on them and cover them up with something if they start cooling down...

i never had a problem as long as i kept them in their cages... when i got to my destination, i had a temp probe, and an adjustable human heat pad - my grandma had a good one from when she was taking care of my great grandfather, that was seriously reliable... anyway, long story short. all i needed was tubs... and stuff... and if i had to evac (im in the panhandle of FL close to alabama) i would do the same for any of my snakes...

danget news just said its a cat 3! mann
(and it could easily come to us anyway once it gets into the gulf... in that case... everyone goes into rubbermaids... and we camp out at my church... dang)

didn't you have water splashing all over the place while driving?

ha, you would if you drive like a crazy person ;)
lol jk

i used the un tipable dog bowls (you know the mettal ones) and i didnt fill them to the top with water... so i really didnt have that issue :D

Good luck and be safe I hope everyone heeds the warnings and gets out. I'd follow most of what everyone has posted except feeding them I wouldn't do it. Remember they can go a long time in between feedings, a regurge is the last thing you want to happen.

yeah i wouldnt try and feed them either... unless you know you will be in the room for over 2 weeks... but even then, as long as they are at a current healthy weight, it shouldnt be needed...

Yeah, before today I was going to get the mice today. But I just found out a little ago that it's a sure evacuation. I'm about to hear whether I'm going to michigan or memphis. Great! Man :cens0r::cens0r::cens0r::cens0r: get's hectic so fast.
Thanks for everything guys, this stuff really helped. I think I'm just gonna bring my smallest tank and setup, but keep 'em in rubbermaid's in traffic. I may be handling them in traffic anyways, to aid in body temp. Hear we goooooooooOOOOOooooooooooo! Hurricane fun. ~Tx-Flyde~

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.

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Originally Posted by daniel1983

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.



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.

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Be safe Daniel we are also in a crazy hurricane zone and feel whats going on over there.

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Originally Posted by mistino

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.

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I hope and pray for everyone's sake Gustav doesn't keep strengthening be safe guy's.

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Originally Posted by mistino

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.

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be careful. please let us know you're safe when it's over.

I've never had to evacuate so I don't have too much advice for you. I would not feed but definitely provide water. When I had to transport two of my snakes for 4 hours in a hot car, I had them in deli cups (larger ones about the size of a small plate) and we had to try and keep the temperature down because it was around 101 in the car. (We had no a/c) If you know about how warm/cool it will be outside, you could just make sure the inside of the car stays around the mid to upper 80's. It would make you uncomfortable, but I've done it before.

Be careful and keep us updated. I hate storms and would be freaking out if I were in your position. We'd have to evacuate a lot of animals. Around 40 to be exact.