Heating and Husbandry During A Power Outage

[Ax01]

So I moved back from sunny California to my rainy, overcast hometown of Seattle. Sometimes I forget how wild the weather can be here in the Pacific Northwest.

I was out shopping around noon yesterday and in between this shop and that shop, there were periods of heavy rain and wind. Trees were bending, branches falling, etc. with periods of blue sunny sky. Crazy weather. Anyway when I got home around 3pm, my lights and electricity were out. I immediately went to check my BP's. Temps were in the mid-70's and they were in their hides. I wanted to grab some spare camping handwarmers and throw it in with my snakes but thought it might not be a good idea until I knew these were safe. So I waited. My neighbors said the power had been out for over 2 hours. Power was restored around 4:30pm and I immediately checked their thermostats and temps. I also used heat lamps to help bump up temps quickly.

Even though we are at the tail end of summer, I was surprised by the gale force winds and heavy rain yesterday. I knew I would have to ask the forum about this at some point, but did not realize it would be so soon. We usually have 3-4 major power outages a year, namely in late fall through winter with the worse being 12 hours long and/or overnight.

I want to keep my snakes warm and comfortable during these situations. So I just want to know what are your heating and husbandry plans for electrical power outages? What do you do or what would you do?

[Ax01]

ok the HotHands hardwarmers i have says they have an average temp of 135 degrees. they look like these.



so i guess don't use them. would the heat packs used for shipping reptiles work?

also as a last resort - would handling your snake on your body be ok? am i a 98 degree heatmat?

[Bigfish1975]

We've had power go out here in SoCal a few times. Really not too bad with the insulated snake room. My biggest concern is when I have eggs in the bator. That's usually the most stressful for me. In the wild, they will have some fluctuations in temps from time to time. So a little cool weather for a short period shouldn't be too bad. One thought that I have and I don't know how if it would work for you is a portable generator.

[creatism]

During the winter it can get pretty cold, we have a gas heater we use to heat the room if we loose power. Ideally we'd have a generator and then nothing changes.


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[Ax01]

We've had power go out here in SoCal a few times. Really not too bad with the insulated snake room. My biggest concern is when I have eggs in the bator. That's usually the most stressful for me. In the wild, they will have some fluctuations in temps from time to time. So a little cool weather for a short period shouldn't be too bad. One thought that I have and I don't know how if it would work for you is a portable generator.

i can't run a gasoline generator; hmmm maybe another power source generator exists.

During the winter it can get pretty cold, we have a gas heater we use to heat the room if we loose power. Ideally we'd have a generator and then nothing changes.

gas as in gasoline? i'll assume u meant natural gas/propane. I'll look into that too.

[M.P.C]

DO NOT USE THOSE HOT HANDS.... those things get very very hot and can very easily burn, i know from expierence because i used to throw them in between my gloves when i rode my motorcycle into winter, gotten burned a few times with them and i had a layer of material between my skin and the hot hand...

[Ax01]

DO NOT USE THOSE HOT HANDS.... those things get very very hot and can very easily burn, i know from expierence because i used to throw them in between my gloves when i rode my motorcycle into winter, gotten burned a few times with them and i had a layer of material between my skin and the hot hand...

nope. not gonna use them.

what about those reptile shipping heat packs? Uniheats when in a pinch?

[Jabberwocky Dragons]

I want to keep my snakes warm and comfortable during these situations. So I just want to know what are your heating and husbandry plans for electrical power outages? What do you do or what would you do?

You are on to the right idea but the wrong product. In an emergency, you can use a shipping warmer pack and tape it onto the side but don't put it inside the tub with the bp. Ideally, the best situation is a backup generator. You can get a cheap one at Harbor Freight for $80 that will run your fridge/freezer and all of your animal heat during an outage (for the 2 snakes).

I had all of our animals in their own outdoor building that's insulated and has a more than capable 5K watt heater. We had a freak cold snap last winter and it got down to negative 15 degrees overnight and the interior of the building dropped to 38 degrees! I added multiple space heaters directly in front of our snake racks and threw multiple shipping warmers into the dubia colonies. This was in addition to the 5k watt heater running full blast.

All of the animals pulled through fine with absolutely no ill effects from the cold night. I attribute this to also using high quality, enclosed racks and high quality heat tape that kept the tubs well heated even though the building got cold. It was a major lesson though. What if we had lost power? I have a whole house generator but it's not powerful enough to run the 12k+ watts continuously that the animal building drew that night... we could have lost everyone. By this Fall, I'll have moved all of the bps into the basement where it stays a fairly constant temperature year round. During the cold snap, it dropped down to 50 in our house but walking down into the basement felt actually felt warm. Our generator will have no problem powering their heat now during an outage no matter how cold it gets. As a bonus, the humidity down there is awesomely high for them.

So that's my advice for your situation (shipping warmers and a small, cheap generator) and then also my plan for ours based on recent events. Great thread and foresight!

[Jabberwocky Dragons]

i can't run a gasoline generator; hmmm maybe another power source generator exists.



gas as in gasoline? i'll assume u meant natural gas/propane. I'll look into that too.

I run a propane generator and highly prefer them over gasoline. You can't get one for the $80 I mentioned earlier though... you'll probably need to spend at least $300-400 but it will be able to power a lot more. Propane is much safer to store, has a basically unlimited shelf life, and I think runs cleaner.

[Stewart_Reptiles]

Depending on how many animals people have, anything from hot water bottle, to heat packs (the ones used for shipping) to generator can be used.

I have a generator for the house and for the incubator and for the snake room I have Buddy Heater http://www.walmart.com/ip/16622306?reviews_limit=7& (there are 2 sizes available and the can be connected to a large propane cylinder)

During power outage the priority is to provide a hot spot but to provide an acceptable ambient temp of 75 or above.