Emergency Set Up

[Garnet]

Hello all. It's been a long time since I've been here. My normal ball, Skull the Python, is now three years old and thriving. I have been through some tough times personally but this isn't the place to talk about that. I came back to share a set up I've figured out for an emergency situation. I live in Lansing, MI and we had a helluva wind storm yesterday. Knocked the power out and it's not likely to be back on for a few days. When I got home yesterday (after have two teeth filled to make the situation even more joyous) the first thing I did was head to the snake habitat and grab Skull. The temp on the hot side had dropped to 65. So, I put him around my neck and zipped up my hoodie. He warmed up fairly quickly.

In the meantime, I decided that it was time to go to a hotel. The temp was going to drop last night to 27 and I didn't want to fight with keeping us both warm. I popped him and his favorite hide into a portable plastic tub that I use to keep him secure when I'm cleaning his habitat. Before I did that, I lined the bottom of the tub with three layers of clean kitchen towels. Packed my stuff and got the hell out of dodge. Nearest available hotel room was about 50 miles away. I was able to keep him warm in my car by putting him in the passenger seat, which is heated, and turning the heat down to it's lowest setting.

Got into the hotel room late last night. Was exhausted! So cranked the room heat up enough to keep him viable and not cause me to sweat to death. This morning, I went over to Meijer (which is a big box store like Walmart). Roamed around a while trying to figure out what-in-hell to do. There's no herp shop nearby, I was on my own. Here's what I did.

I bough a meat thermometer with a remote read out that is used for BBQ. I bought a heating pad with four heat settings. I bought a small tupperware container to use as a water dish. I put the temp probe underneath the first layer of towels beneath his hide. I set the remote to alarm at 85. Then I set the tub on the heating pad and turned it on the highest setting until the temp reached 80. Once it reached 80, I turned the heating pad down to the lowest setting and then put the water dish (filled with bottled drinking water) in the tub. For the last half hour, the temp has remained steady at 81 degrees.

I realize that the humidity is borked but I can't think of anyway to deal with that right now. Just want to keep my boy as healthy and as warm as possible for the next few days until we can go home.

When I can figure out how to take a pic of the setup and upload it, I will. Right now, I'm going to go get some lunch.

Thought maybe this post might help someone in a similar situation.