Help! No A/C

[threadgoode]

Hello all!

This morning, the air conditioning in my house went out and the guy who came to fix it said it would be a lost cause until tomorrow afternoon. I've had power outages in my house before in the summer, but never since I've gotten my BP.

I live in Houston and it is HOT here. Lack of heat in the tank is the opposite of my problem right now. Ambient temps are 86 right now. I'm trying to keep her cool with a fan. Her hot hide is reading 88 ambient! She's chilling in her cool side right now, but I'm really worried. Should I unplug her UTH?

Temps are hopefully gonna drop tonight and the humidity is no problem at all, in this house we're at a steady 60-70% due to no A/C. I just really don't know what to do! I was more prepared with how to handle a power outage in the winter, not this!

Thanks in advance to anyone who replies!

[AbsoluteApril]

you can take a water bottle willed with cool water, wrap in a small towel and put that in the cage so she has something cool to wrap around (I did this when the AC went out in Vegas)

[Bogertophis]

Yes, OF COURSE unplug the UTH. A fan won't cool if it's just blowing air...it won't change the temperature, it only "feels" cooler because we sweat.

Thus...To make it cooler using a fan, you need a damp towel in front of the fan's outflow...like the way a "swamp cooler" works. Putting ice blocks in front
of a fan also helps, but not a whole lot. (humidity isn't a big deal anyway for a couple days for your snake)

If you are worried about excessive heat for your BP, put her in a secure snake bag (or pillow case) w/ no holes, either tie it or (preferably) use a twist tie to
secure the opening, then fold that over onto itself w/ rubber band around that...never had a snake escape a bag this way (& pillow cases are hard to tie/untie).

Then put the bagged snake in a good-sized ice chest & keep it closed to keep out the room heat...put a jar of cool-cold water inside to lower the temp.- for a BP
you probably don't need ice water...you'll have to test it out & check the temp. but this will keep your snake from over-heating. I'd open the ice chest about
every 8 hours (like when you change the water ) for air exchange, but if you're worried about it being closed without ventilation for so long you can also put a
tiny wad of tape where the lid closes, so it's not a tight seal.

I've had to do something similar in winter, w/ jars of HOT water, when my power was out for days from an ice storm. All 16 of my snakes were warm & fine.

[PitOnTheProwl]

Why would you need to unplug a properly regulated heat source?
I personally wouldnt worry too much about the ambient temperatures as long as you can open a window and use a fan to get some air circulation.

[Coluber42]

I have no AC in my house at all and we had an unusually hot summer here this year. The house did not drop below the upper 80's for long periods of time and was in the lower 90's during the day a lot of the time. On the hottest days, my snake was clearly uncomfortable - he'd be awake during the day when he usually isn't, prowling around and looking for someplace to cool off until I figured out how to keep him more comfortable.

But two things really did help a lot. First, wrap an ice pack in a towel and set it on top of a hide. When the ice pack is fresh, it keeps the whole side of the cage a little cooler and the hide a bit too cold, but once it cools off a bit it leaves the hide a comfortable temperature. I know that because I checked with a temp gun, but also because my snake really did make use of it.

The other thing is a fan. It isn't quite as effective for an animal that doesn't sweat, but it still helps. I put a fan pointing in the vents of the cage and was slightly worried that the vibrations would disturb my snake, but actually he was curious at first and then I'd often find him essentially "basking" in the breeze - sprawled out with his body halfway up a platform, positioned for optimal exposure to the airflow, and sleep like that during the day for hours. I don't know how much cooler it made him, but he clearly liked it and sought it out.

In any case, a short stretch of ambient temps in the mid-to-high 80's isn't the end of the world and your snake will be fine.


In case you were wondering, the human occupants of the house were not any more comfortable.

[Craiga 01453]

If your UTH is on a thermostat you don't need to unplug it. If set up properly it's not putting out heat anyway.

As long as you're not talking 90s or warmer for a stretch of time your snake will be fine.
Putting a water/Gatorade bottle of ice in the enclosure will help if temps get too hot. If you're talking high 80s you've got nothing at all to worry about short term.