Power Outage in Winter....emergency help!

[Bai]

Hi all,

Need some guidance on what to do with our 6 month old BP. We had an ice storm and had the power knocked out, and it's not expected to be back up until tomorrow night at 11:30pm. I anticipate the house is going to drop to 50 degrees, if not lower. We have no one nearby who can take him for the night. I'm not sure at what point the low temps may damage him or how long he can tolerate the temps, but I'm not keen to find out.

Will putting him in a small storage tub/ plastic box with holes and substrate with handwarmers under the substrate work? I'm not sure what to do short of getting a hotel and cranking the heat in the room.

I may be over-reacting and he'll be fine, but temps have been steadily dropping since this morning when it went out.

[SquirmyPug]

Do you have a way to heat water? Gas stove or anything? If you do then you can put the snake in a pillow case and then in a cooler or some kind of box that is insulated. Even if it's just a plastic container with blankets wrapped around it. Then you just put bottles of warm water in the cooler/ box to keep it warm.

[jmcrook]

If you go the tub and hand warmer route, I'd tape the warmers to the lid so the critter can't lay on them and get burned. Those get WAY hotter than a heatpack used for reptile shipping purposes. If it's going to get into the 50s in your place you may want a hotel for your own comfort as well for that matter. In which case just crank the heat and get cozy

[Skyrivers]

Body heat. Put him in a pillow case and put it next to your body under a coat and he will be nice and warm. Just make sure not to warm.

[Andiamo]

not sure if you can find one in person (without having to order on line) but there are power stations (chargeable or even battery operated) and hand crank generators that don't require gas available.

Not saying you can put a UTH AND CHE in there, but at least one or the other....or maybe just plug a small heater into it and keep one room warm

[Bai]

Thanks for all the great ideas!! I just looked at the temps that the handpacks get to....yikes. Some get up to 150 degrees. If I go that route, they will definitely be on the outside of the box probably wrapped in a sock, and I'll be monitoring the temps. I need to get home and check to see if my gas stove is still functional, though it should be. The furnace definitely is not. Since I can bring him to work with me tomorrow I'm not concerned about the day...mostly keeping him warm all night. I haven't ruled out the hotel yet either....I'll monitor the situation tonight and we may just end up bundling him up and smuggling him into the Holiday Inn.

[Bogertophis]

Do you have a gas hot water heater? I got thru a 4 day outage from an ice storm by using jars of hot water in ice chests...each ice chest had about 3 of
my snakes (each bagged separately & spaced out, not on top of each other and of similar size); in each large ice chest, 2 tall jars did the job for about 8-9
hours, at which point I refilled the hot water. Keep the ice chest closed otherwise...they stayed about 80-82* and were all FINE. Good luck, I HATE ice storms!

Ice chest or styrofoam shipping boxes, even an insulated lunch-box cooler, is the best option for holding temps. steady. You're lucky you only have ONE
snake, lol...I had quite a few (& still do).

Putting a snake in a snake bag (or pillowcase) & in your shirt is fine for temporary, but remember WE are 98.6* & that can be too hot. Plus, when you
fall asleep you might roll over on him...

I have also stayed in hotels with snakes when moving cross country...don't ask, don't tell, they'll never know!

[Bai]

This is going to sound ridiculous, but I honestly don't know if we have a gas hot water heater....we just moved in July, and I let my other half handle all of those details. I have several ice chests, so if that words (or if my gas stove lights up without issues and I can heat up some water) that sounds like a workable solution and I wouldn't have to run out and buy anything! I'm glad to have asked and have all these options!! Now to see if we can deal with the temps and don't end up at the hotel anyway!

[Stewart_Reptiles]

If you are looking at short term outage such as 24 hours or less and with one animal I recommend to pack the animal like if you were shipping it (snake bag in Styrofoam lined box and shipping heat pack or hot water bottle just make sure it is not in direct contact with the animal)

Long term I recommend to invest in a propane generator (it can keep things running like fridge and hot spot for your snake), you can also look into Buddy Heater to keep the room warm.

No matter where you live you got to be prepared, even if I am in the south I am prepared and this is a good thing last year I lost power for 3 days but between fireplace, buddy heater and generator everything went smoothly for animals and humans alike.

It maybe another 5 to 10 years before we experienced an outage but I just cannot risk it (I could if it was only us human but with all my animals I just can't)

[Bogertophis]

This is going to sound ridiculous, but I honestly don't know if we have a gas hot water heater....we just moved in July, and I let my other half handle all of those details. I have several ice chests, so if that words (or if my gas stove lights up without issues and I can heat up some water) that sounds like a workable solution and I wouldn't have to run out and buy anything! I'm glad to have asked and have all these options!! Now to see if we can deal with the temps and don't end up at the hotel anyway!

If you have a gas stove, you likely have a gas water heater. (I actually have an electric stove, only a gas water heater & a gas-log fireplace, but when we had the ice
storm in 2009, my fireplace was the vented type, so the heat from the gas logs went right up the chimney. For emergency only, I now have the ventless type gas-logs.)

You could even heat some water over candles, but it's kinda slow... I hope your stove works too. Hot water works very well with insulated "ice" chests, it's cheap & safe.