Ideas for heating without electricity?

Hi everyone,
New member and prospective first-time snake owner here. My 8 year old daughter is very interested and so I've been reading up but am stuck pretty hard on the heat issue. We're in western Maine in a cabin with only wood heat. Probably gets down to 50F in the winter at night. We're on solar and do not have enough reliable power to plug in a heat mat. Have been thinking about USB rechargeable handwarmers that a snake could cuddle up to? Or finding a species that does better with cooler temps but is still personable and fairly small. Anyone have any ideas? Thanks!

I'm afraid a pet snake under those conditions is not feasible. All snakes require a reliable heat source. Even garter snakes would probably go into hibernation mode unless you could maintain the heat. You may be able to provide temporary heat, but the snake's health will suffer eventually.

Yes, that's what I was afraid of. Darn! So, another question: I see heat mats with different wattage ratings, but don't know how these match up with different size habitats. Have looked a bit on this forum but have not found ratings for a 20 gal tank, the size we'd be hoping to get for a single corn snake. Thoughts on what size/electric rating a heat mat would need to be for that size tank? Or should I go not by wattage but by centimeters, and make sure what I get covers 1/3 of the tank, like I've read? Obviously, I'm trying to get away with the least amount of electricity possible and still keep the snake healthy. Thanks.

I have not used heat mats for several years, as I have rack systems for my snakes. But Dragonling, a forum member, works at a pet shop and may be able to tell you the wattage recommendations for your tank. When I did have vivariums I used what is called "flexwatt" and cut it to any size I needed, added the wires and affixed it to the bottom of the vivs. There used to be a company that would cut any size you wanted and added the wires. You would just tell them what temperature you wanted to maintain. I don't know if they still do that. You could search online for flexwatt and see what you can find out. You could also send a private message to Dragonling aka Wind Serpents and ask her advice.

Thanks, I will try to figure out how to PM. Have also been finding some options for rechgargeable 12v batteries that will run a 16w mat for a day, so maybe we can go that route when there isn't enough sun to plug into the main system.

I thought about that, but I think it would be more cost effective if you can talk your daughter into a puppy. LOL.

Agreed, but the background to us ending up interested in a snake is that my son gets asthma from everything else under the sun. Been trying for five years to find a pet my daughter can keep indoors, as she loves animals and our farm's livestock isn't the same. I even considered cockroaches at one point, when she went to "bug camp" and had lots of fun holding them, but they are in the same family as dust mites which, yup, cause my son to have asthma. We can't even have a pet cockroach! So you see, we are rather desperate at this point to try to find something that will work.

Well, snakes do make wonderful pets. Sorry to hear about the asthma problem. Keep researching heat mats or flexwatt, and good luck.

Yah, I think I want to go for it. I've got a line on an inexpensive corn snake nearby (owner is moving,) and we'll put out the money for the batteries. It's always fun to learn about a new species, and if this snake does for my daughter what I'm hoping it will, it will be invaluable. I will post further if we do buy one, to share with others who may be in similar electricity situations.

To anyone else trying to figure this out- we have a system that is working! I will put together a real post with pics eventually, but just wanted to say you are welcome to be in touch with me if you're looking for information before I get the post up.