The wind blows

[Bogertophis]

god yes, that was an awful storm. I don't have gas heat, but do have a wood burning stove to heat water on. Essential for morning coffee!

So... How did you make sure the critters didn't get burned by the hot water bottles? How did you seperately them from the bottles?

I used to have a wood-burning stove, that's very helpful to have (even though they're messy & "needy", lol).

First, the snakes were in pillowcases...and 2nd, the water was hot tap water, not boiling...and there seemed to be no issue at all, though you could rubber-band some
cardboard around the jar if you wanted? None of the snakes tried to lay on or next to the jars when I looked...the jars were in the corners & the snakes stayed relaxed
in their "sleeping bags".

The jars of hot water heated the air in the "coolers", they weren't used as UTH. If you wanted to use them as UTH, you could fill many short jars, put them on
the bottom of the ice chest with a false bottom over them (cardboard? welded wire? etc.) so the heat would rise into the bagged snakes above. Either way would work, but it would be awkward (if using jars for "UTH") when it came time to refill the hot water & the snakes would get chilled meanwhile.

So anyway, IF you run out of heat packs or just want to try hot water anyway, I wouldn't use boiling water, that's all. (-unless you insulate the containers)