Can't believe I didn't think about the Hurricane... No-power heat possibilities?

[xFenrir]

So I can't believe I forgot about the threat of power outages from Hurricane Sandy (I'm in Maryland). Unfortunately, we own a boa and she's in a big 6Lx2Wx3H wood tank. I doubt there are shipping packs that are big enough to be effective, and I don't think that a blanket over her enclosure will do much... What else could I do?

This is assuming that my boyfriends' house doesn't have a generator (that's where she's housed, and I don't think they have one, and I'm positive they're sold out of generators around here...). I'll be staying there so I'm sure if worse comes to worse we can trade off holding her under a blanket, but obviously we can't hold her forever and we can't keep her out when we're sleeping...

OR would it be possible to temporarily put her in the 40 gal breeder tank we previously used for our BP (with some jury-rigging to hold a boa of course)... I KNOW it's too small for a proper enclosure but it would only be temporary and I'm sure would hold heat/be easier to heat than her huge tank.

[DellaF]

To bad you aren't closer you would be welcome to keep her at my place. If I had to put mine in a smaller enclosure temporarily I would.

[bioteacher]

You can get 24 heat packs (like the hand warming kind). Depending on how hot they get you could place them in a bag in the enclosure or under it.

Worst comes to worst, you could always bag the snake and cuddle it!

[Evenstar]

The 40gal tank really won't hold heat any better than her larger enclosure. In fact, the larger one might be better - if memory serves me right, isn't it made mostly from wood? If so, wood is a much better insulator than glass. The glass tank will only be as warm as the rest of the house and will not hold heat in.

What I would do is run to your local outdoors store - Gander Mountain, Dunhams, whatever - and pick up a package of heat packs hunters use to put in their boots or mittens, etc. These do get quite hot and you'll need to wrap them in a towel or something similar so the snake can't press right up too it. Another option would be to tape a few of them to the outside of the side of her enclosure. This should help to keep the enclosure warm and she won't be able to burn herself on the side.

Hope this helps! Best of luck in the storm - stay safe!!!


bioteacher beat me to it - those are the same kind of heat packs I'm thinking of.