Reptiles vs. Blackouts...?

[Clear]

You learn fast grasshoppa, I was replying to this specific part of your post.

And so was I. The water would be cold before you actually needed to use it.

[mainbutter]

I voted nothing, because outside of ridiculously unlikely circumstances that threaten more than just my pets' lives, they would be fine.

I live in an apartment in the city.

If there was a blackout, power would return shortly in 99.99% of situations.

If it was a long-term blackout but only local, I could move the animals to a friend's place.

If it was a long term blackout and wide area, I would probably skip out of town for a bit with my pets if weather permitted, go visit family a few states over

If I had a serious, unmoveable collection of reptiles, that would mean for me personally I would at least own my own house. If I owned my own house, I would have a backup generator. They come in handy at the worst of times.

I can just about guarantee you that people like BHB with large buildings dedicated to raising reptiles have backup generators, but even BHB got screwed by weather before.

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Long story short, just about all reptiles will be fine without heat for a day or even a week or more, heck some people keep ball pythons alive for years with no heat. Don't panic.

[Allysen]

Ugh, we were IN that situation a few years ago. There was a horrible wind storm and our power was knocked out. We only had about eight snakes and an elderly iguana at the time, but it was cold out, and we freaked out!

We braved the storm, found a 24 hour Rite-Aid that had hot water bottles and heat packs, and thought we'd be okay.

Unfortunately, it was like, the WORST power outage our area had ever seen. We got the generator hooked up the next morning, but soon afterwords, my father-in-law's friend (who has a PHD in ASTRO-PHYSICS and ENGINEERING) decided to refill the generator while it was still running. So big fire, and boom no more generator. And of course, since the power had been out for two or three days at this point, there weren't any we could buy anywhere.

So what we did, since we had a fairly small collection at the time, was condense everyone into critter-keepers and Boaphiles, and drove them a couple hours up North to family who had power.

The iguana stayed with us, usually under shirts (which she enjoyed) and the birds had to go stay with friends who had better heating options. Meanwhile, we nearly froze every night until over a week later when the power came back on.

We learned after that a lot of reptile collections in the area were completely lost during the power outage. We were given a large male BCC and one of my favorite female BPs, Lucille, by a man who was paralyzed and had too much trouble getting the snakes out of their enclosures and closer to the fire, so he was scared he was putting them in danger.

We have a dedicated circuit for the reptile room now, and that's one of the three that the generator is hooked up to, so if there's ever another problem, we're good to go.

MAN it was scary, though!

[Vypyrz]

Even before I had reptiles I was out of power for 3 days due to an ice storm. I put a portable generator in the garage and ran an extension cord up through the attic and into one of my upstairs bedrooms, where I was able to run a space heater, lamps, and my computer, and a hot plate for warming up soup and stuff...


Rob

[Jason Bowden]

If it were an extended period of time I'd crank up the generator. Running the generator would be for human comfort also. AC is a must!

[blackcrystal22]

If you have no power and generator, how do you heat up the water? If you have a generator you can warm up the room or the snakes.

Natural gas heaters and radiator heat.

[Clear]

Natural gas heaters and radiator heat.

I dont know about where you live, but here when the power is out it is caused by some type of storm, ice, hail, thunderstorm, hurricane. They shut the gas lines off for safety precautions. But you are right, if you do have NG then you could heat up water!

[cinderbird]

24 hour heat packs are my friend personally. Or hot water bottles. Once i get my reptile room i'll end up with some sort of generator/heater thing. BUT, i don't plan on living where there is much ice.

I've lost power more times due to CAR ACCIDENTS than due to weather.. And i've lived in places where there is a ton of ice and snow. :/

[panthercz]

I do nothing at all because I have a generator hooked up directly into my main gas line and it automatically comes on during a power outage.

[Clear]

I plan on getting a generator just in case something happens.