heat lamp broke

[ATARI]

ive already ordered a new heat lamp but it will be to my house in 2 days. it is very cold in my house (65F) and I dont know how to trap heat at the moment as my heat pad is only heating a peticultar part of my tank. Im freaking out as she has been leaning on the heat pad all night and she will have to continue to do that for two days to keep herself warm. is there anything I can do in the mean time to help her?

[ATARI]

update: I covered the enclosure in a blanket to keep some warmth, the temperature is at 75 degrees

[Bogertophis]

For an emergency (assuming you have no heating pads whatsoever, or incandescent light bulbs that give off heat, for example), I'd bag the snake in a cloth bag (old
pillow case is fine, as long as there are no holes!), and put that bag into an "ice chest" (no ice, obviously) or other insulated styro-foam box (the kind they ship frozen
food in...often thrift stores may have them for sale cheap...if not, even many grocery stores sell ice chests/aka "coolers").

Then put a large clean jar or water bottle full of hot water in there for warmth and close it; depending on how cold your house is, you might need 2, but check the temps. When I had to do this for days during an ice storm, my house got down to 45* but all my snakes stayed a balmy 78-82* for about 8-9 hours at a time, at which point I replaced the hot water. Get the idea? Any questions? Your snake will sleep & be FINE this way...

As far as air exchange, if you're worried you can put a small bit of tape so the lid doesn't close quite tightly, but in a large cooler, there is plenty of air for one snake for 8 hours.

A blanket will NOT keep a BP healthy in a house that is 65*. None of my snakes got sick, incidentally. I've also moved across country with them packed the same way, bagged & in insulated containers. The other way to provide warmth is to bag your snake & put the bag in your shirt for a while, next to your body heat. We're about 98.6*, but in a cold house should be fine...use a belt to keep the bag from slipping out the bottom of your shirt. I've done this before at a
program for Earth Day, when the building for my snake program was way too cold. When people noticed the strange baby-bulge I smiled & said, "yes, I'm with
snake", LOL! But you don't want to sleep this way...you can roll over in your sleep & kill your snake.

[Bogertophis]

*Blankets only work by trapping heat, they don't actually produce the heat, and neither does a snake's body. Our metabolism is much higher & our warm bodies can use blankets to keep in the warmth we make...snakes cannot do that.

[bcr229]

Put a hide over the heat pad. The heat pad won't heat up the whole enclosure but it will heat up the small space under the hide.

When it comes to heat lamps and other consumables, two is one, one is none.