Cold Weather Prep: What do you do?

[Tessellate]

Fall and winter are coming soon and I'd like to keep my habitat as BP friendly as possible. Ambient heat and humidity are what I struggle with most. I live in the Southern U.S. so temps and humidity aren't an issue during the warm months, but it gets very dry and VERY cold here when winter hits. To save on heating costs (plus I enjoy the cold) my living space sits around 65F or so. I know that's way too cold for my pythons. In the past I used a ceramic heating element for ambient heat but I could almost never keep the humidity up. This year I'm thinking of applying some heat tape to the cold side of the viv (a plastic storage tub) to keep it at its ~84F range. I've never done this before or really seen it done so I have no idea if that's going to work how I hope it does.

I'd like to know what your winter prep is like--how do you keep your numbers right when the temps plummet? Any and all tips will help!

[dakski]

Fall and winter are coming soon and I'd like to keep my habitat as BP friendly as possible. Ambient heat and humidity are what I struggle with most. I live in the Southern U.S. so temps and humidity aren't an issue during the warm months, but it gets very dry and VERY cold here when winter hits. To save on heating costs (plus I enjoy the cold) my living space sits around 65F or so. I know that's way too cold for my pythons. In the past I used a ceramic heating element for ambient heat but I could almost never keep the humidity up. This year I'm thinking of applying some heat tape to the cold side of the viv (a plastic storage tub) to keep it at its ~84F range. I've never done this before or really seen it done so I have no idea if that's going to work how I hope it does.

I'd like to know what your winter prep is like--how do you keep your numbers right when the temps plummet? Any and all tips will help!

You are using tubs? I would definitely consider heat tape for the cool side. Set it to 80F or so with a thermostat and you should be golden there. Then set heat tape on the hot side to 88-89F with another, or the same thermostat, if a dual temp thermostat. How big are the plastic storage tubs? You always put some heat tape towards the middle and set for 83-84F as well. However, again, you need a thermostat there too. The heat tape is cheap, the thermostats are what cost the money. However, if you keep multiple snakes together, you can use one thermostat for each zone with multiple plus to keep temps consistent in all tubs.

I live in CT and we've been having some pretty brutal winters with days in the 10F range or below and wind.

I keep all my reptiles in the finished basement as it is very well insulated and is also heated and cooled.

I have all Boaphile Plastics tanks (3 6'X2' and 4 3'X2' all stacked on top of each other - the 4 3'X2's are 2 6'X2's with a divider in the middle and RHP and Heat tape on both sides). They are incredibly well insulated and even with printless newspaper as substrate, when it's 20% humidity in the "reptile room," I easily keep my Ball Python and Boa tanks over 50% on their own. I spray every other day with warm water to keep humidity north of 60%.

I would consider spraying warm water in the tubs every couple of days to keep humidity up.

Additionally, I over-do the heating elements in my enclosures. I have medium heat tape on the right side (cool side) that only kicks in if the cool sides drop below 77F for my Boa and BP (this basically doesn't run all summer). On the hot sides and in all the 3X2's, I have an RHP and heat tape that work off the same thermostat to maintain proper temps on the hot side. I like redundant heating and belly heat and then neither works too hard or for too long. That tanks are so well insulated, that when it's 66-68F in the reptile room, which it is much of the winter, my animals are easily happy and warm with proper temps. Also, by "over-heating" the tanks and having each element doing very little work, my electric bill is much better.

The thermostats do 90% of the work with an occasional adjustment of 1F or so if room temps change dramatically.

Again, IMO, too many heating elements is better than too few. AS LONG AS YOU ARE USING A THERMOSTAT, and an appropriate one at that, the thermostat should adjust and keep temps where they need to be. In my case, the heating elements barely run in the summer (73-74F in the room) and run together, and not all the time to say the least, in the winter.

I hope someone else joins in the convo who is using tubs and maybe has some other ideas. I have had PVC cages for a while, but the Boaphiles blow my mind at how well they keep heat and humidity in. I have heard similar sentiment from people who have AP cages as well, and recently heard good things about Reptile Basics cages too.

I have no experience with either of the latter cage manufacturers so I cannot comment or compare them to what I have. I know the tanks I have now are far superior to molded PVC tanks that I used to have.

I recommend considering another type of caging, or hearing what others have to say about the tub setup. However, it cannot hurt, IMO, to run more heat tape and different zones with different temps as long as they properly controlled by thermostat(s).

Again, spraying warm tap water into the tub as necessary to increase humidity isn't a terrible solution either. However, please use hot/warm tap water. Cold water will drastically and quickly change temps and hot tap water (110F) when misted, drops fast. When I mist in the winter with the hot tap water (110F or so), it seems to go into the tanks at 80-90F when sprayed with a fine mist. This produced almost zero change in temps while helping to raise humidity noticeably.

Finally, I also recommend getting Reptile Specific Heating Pads, like the kind they use for shipping reptiles. Normal heating pads/glove warmers, etc. can get way to hot. These are designed not to get too hot for reptiles.

Reptile Basics sells them: http://www.reptilebasics.com/heat-packs/

These are great in case of a power outage when it's cold. Cheap insurance.

I have a bunch in my storage area just in case, but also have a whole house generator (mainly for the reptiles and for freezer full of snake food) in case we lose power.

So, to answer your original question, what do I do to prepare for winter.

1. Check oil in generator and check propane levels.

2. Have reptile heat packs on hand.

3. Check in tank temps (as I normally do anyway) and adjust thermostats as necessary.

4. Have spray bottle on hand in case I need to up humidity

I know this was a long way to go a short distance, but I hope it was helpful.

Good luck!

[Rvnhawk]

Reptile Basics sells them: http://www.reptilebasics.com/heat-packs/

2. Have reptile heat packs on hand.


Good luck!

That reminds me that I need to order some since our power goes out at least once a winter. We have a generator, but might have to cycle which breakers we have on, so they’ll be good to have on hand.

So thanks to the OP for the post so I had the reminder.


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[bcr229]

Use two strips of heat tape under the tub(s):
Set hot side thermostat to 91-92*F.
Set cool side thermostat to 82-83*F.

Put a hide over each strip. If you use aspen bedding you can also pile it around/over each hide to further insulate the space underneath the hide.

You can also warm just the room with your snake enclosures. I've also seen where people turn a very small space, such as a walk-in closet, into a "snake room" and they heat that separately.

I have a few racks in a cooler part of the house. I put a blanket over them in the winter and it bumps up the ambient temp in the tubs by a few degrees.

[Awfulthings]

Emergency packs and if you want to use heat tape temporarily, then i suggest going ahead and making a personalized rack. For about 30 bucks you can build whatever you want, make it fit wherever you want and heat however you want. You can make it fit your size tubs with a little measuring. A v100 thermo is about 80 bucks. Heat tape is usually around 2-3 dollars a foot. Most thermos only have one probe. Unless you have a rack, its kinda dangerous i would think to just have it out dangling by the heat tape. I have had tape fail and melt holes in parts of tubs. Luckily no noodles were hurt.

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[Tessellate]

I'm gonna screencap your answer for reference dakski, thank you for all your info! I only have two BPs in separate plastic tubs with UTHs, should I switch the UTH for heat tape? Or would a UTH for warm and heat tape for cold work too?
I had a scare two years ago when the electric bill wasn't paid by a roommate and I came home to a freezing house in the dead of winter. I was able to transfer my snakes to another home for a few days but since then I'm always paranoid about another power loss. I'm definitely going to get those reptile heat packs.

One of my guys is going to be in quarantine for another 2 1/2 months so a rack isn't an option yet, and since I only have two I want large separate enclosures for both. I say only two but...I now understand the snake fever. I'll do my research on racks and plan for the future.

Edit: when I say "plastic tubs" mine are watertight outdoor locking containers with vent holes, they're pretty hefty.

[Bogertophis]

Speaking of winter paranoia (power outages), those reptile heat packs won't help much if you don't have the right "insulation". I've successfully gone thru days
without power (or heat to speak of) and all my snakes were fine because they were bagged & kept (& not crowded together) in ice chests or-styro-foam boxes.
I have heat packs on hand, but during that outage I didn't & used jars of HOT water, replaced every 8-9 hours, to keep my snakes comfy around 82*. (I have
a gas hot water heater, but the forced air heat needs electricity; at the time I had a gas log fireplace but all the heat went up the chimney...that's been changed
to a ventless type...just for emergency use.) You can't go wrong having as many ice chests on hand as possible...I didn't even lose any food...my garage was 40*
and substituted for the 'fridge, while my porch kept my frozen foods frozen...that outage was from an ice storm, btw. I pulled icicles off the house & used them
to keep my food frozen too, lol..."whatever works"!

I later heard that as a result of that ice storm (back in '09), many lost their snakes, so I felt very fortunate to have been able to make do & keep all of mine
healthy & safe.

[Tessellate]

We have a lot of styrofoam chests actually, so that's excellent to know. With those and the heat packs I'll feel secure for this winter, since I only have 2 snakes. Thank you all so much for the tips!

[Bogertophis]

We have a lot of styrofoam chests actually, so that's excellent to know. With those and the heat packs I'll feel secure for this winter, since I only have 2 snakes. Thank you all so much for the tips!

I also use a cooler or styro-foam box whenever my snakes have to travel...just to protect them in the car from temperature fluctuations, either too warm or too cold.
And if you ever are moving & need to stay over in a hotel, it only looks like you are taking SNACKS into your room, not SNAKES. It pays to be sneaky...

[Coluber42]

Insulation goes a long way. You can trap heat in your tubs by wrapping foam around the sides just like you'd do to insulate a tank. It's a little harder on a tub because it's not as square, but you can still do it.

I have a PVC viv in my living room, which gets down below 60 regularly in the winter. Even my PVC viv has insulation panels (which I made to be more permanent and attractive, knowing they'll be needed during the cold months) and that makes a big difference. Basically, your choices are to make more heat (i.e, add an additional heat source) or to lose less heat (insulate).

If you're worried about your house losing heat due to power outages, it's worth having a plan on hand for dealing with them, because at that point heat tape won't really help!