• Hello!

    Either you have not registered on this site yet, or you are registered but have not logged in. In either case, you will not be able to use the full functionality of this site until you have registered, and then logged in after your registration has been approved.

    Registration is FREE, so please register so you can participate instead of remaining a lurker....

    Please be certain that the location field is correctly filled out when you register. All registrations that appear to be bogus will be rejected. Which means that if your location field does NOT match the actual location of your registration IP address, then your registration will be rejected.

    Sorry about the strictness of this requirement, but it is necessary to block spammers and scammers at the door as much as possible.

Emergency: What if the power goes out?

measley

measley

Smile, you are alive!!
Hey all- it's raining hard here in Boston and hovering on freezing temps so somethings happening and the lights keep flickering etc...

What do I do about the heating of my snakes' tanks if the power goes out? I put a thick blanket draped in the nook where 3 of my tanks/tubs are, do you think this will help keep the heat in if the power does go out?

I have another tub in the bedroom with my newest corn who's still in QT. Her tub is on the nightstand next to the bed and I've draped some sweaters over the sides but I don't think this will be enough.

What do you guys do about power outages?

Thanks in advance for replies...

-McKenna
 
Last edited:
well my brother in law used to hook up a generator to his house when it went out, but he had like 40+ snakes.
I would say put blankets, pillows, coats, etc.. over the cages and move the cages to one of the warmer places. Like I move mine when the power goes out into the kitchen. That is the warmest place in our house when power goes out. and out here in the country sometimes our power doesn't go back on for over 2 days!! So after 1 we usualy go over to my grandma's (she lives half a mile away and we do farming with her) house where we keep our big generator that can run the whole farm over there.
I don't know what you would do but if you live in the city you probly won't have to do that
 
i don't think a power outage is too too much to be concerned about, unless you live in one of those places like winnipeg in canada when temps can get to -40! i think you're doing everything right so far. what do the temps get like in boston?
 
Thanks for your replies.

katia said:
i don't think a power outage is too too much to be concerned about, unless you live in one of those places like winnipeg in canada when temps can get to -40! i think you're doing everything right so far. what do the temps get like in boston?
Click to expand...

Well, a few days ago, it was 14 degrees, and then 54 degrees, now it's 33/34 degrees outside. Inside right now, it is 65 degrees but I'm worried if the power goes out overnight, it could cool the tanks to 65 or less inside... we live in an apartment with a lot of windows and some drafts. I think I'm worried more because the temperatures outside keep fluctuating ALOT...

The 3 snakes are in the laundry area which is kind of a nook and probably the warmest in the apartment and I have a blanket draped over the area so hopefully that will be ok but I'm most worried about Pebbles, who is in the bedroom more in the open than the other 3. I've draped blankets and clothes over her tub (leaving air holes so that the air and humidity doesn't get too too bad...)

I stress really easily and my boyfriend gives me a lot of flack for being a worrywort- I just want to make sure the slithery babies in the house are ok...
 
I'll never forget when my boy was a yearling, our area suffered some tremendous flooding which meant power was cut off and everyone was evacuated (but I obviously had no time to make arrangements for the snake too).

Well I went back over the bridge to my flat during the night - getting yelled at to come back by the flood police all the way! - because I felt so bad for leaving him behind. When I checked on him he wasn't moving and felt like a slab of cold meat, I was terrified. I put him in his 'shoe box' container (which I was still keeping inside the viv at that time) and wrapped it in blankets then warmed up a pinkie using how water and a candle!!

Sometime during the early hours the power came back on and his viv warmed up to the right temperature by 8am. He promptly wolfed down the pinkie and has lived for 8 long years unharmed by his ordeal!!

The things we do for our pets!
 
CaptBogart said:
Go to Walmart and buy some hand warmers, should be in the sporting goods section....
Click to expand...

I actually picked up some from a snake show last year... but I need to get some more since I now have more snakes. I did this after a large portion of MO lost power due to ice on trees and the resulting breakage bringing powerlines down.

I'll be happy if I never have to use them though :)
 
Not sure how much Wal Mart charges for the chemical warmers. But if you have a lot of herps, go to the Superior Enterprise website and order a bunch of them. Then you can use them for shipping, transporting, or whenever you lose heat / electricity. Always nice to have some on hand. They do use some oxygen, so don't keep them in an airtight container with your herp.
 
Where we live our house is part electric and part natural gas. We have it set up to where there are 2 water heaters, 1 gas 1 electric. The cooking stove is gas too. So if our power goes out all I have to do is hang a blanket on the doorway of the living room. This will block off the rest of the house and only the kitchen and living room will get heat from the cooking stove. I can just move the snakes into those two rooms and they should be fine. We had to heat like this one year during a bad ice storm. The stove, on low, heated the 2 rooms to the mid 70s.
 
bekers71 said:
Where we live our house is part electric and part natural gas. We have it set up to where there are 2 water heaters, 1 gas 1 electric. The cooking stove is gas too. So if our power goes out all I have to do is hang a blanket on the doorway of the living room. This will block off the rest of the house and only the kitchen and living room will get heat from the cooking stove. I can just move the snakes into those two rooms and they should be fine. We had to heat like this one year during a bad ice storm. The stove, on low, heated the 2 rooms to the mid 70s.
Click to expand...


I think the warmers would be cheaper than converting the house to both :D :D
 
oooo. I was so afraid we were going to loose power last night..some places did..but we were lucky..I traveled an hour in a snow storm after shopping last night..(for x-mas)..and I bought some hand warmers..just in case..
I have also Heated up water and put it in a Nalagene bottle..
we have our camp stoves to use if the power goes out...lol..so It works..
we may not be able to heat the house with them..but we can heat water...lol:dancer:
 
ye i think the hand warmers should do the trick ive bought a couple as im sure most of you are aware it gets very cold in ireland (-4 degrees celsius here most nites lately) and the area in which i live, there is alot of building going on so power cuts are a regular thing so i bought myself a few of the handwarmers just in case,,,, just check the ones u buy the first ones i bought i heated up and tried them myself but they were way too hot for my hands so would probably burn my snake, got others which werent as hot
 
bekers71 said:
We had to heat like this one year during a bad ice storm. The stove, on low, heated the 2 rooms to the mid 70s.
Click to expand...

Yeah, we got that ice storm to. We were stuck over at my grandma's for a week. Since we were "abandoning" the house I just unplugged the cages and brought them with us. Me and my mom tried to drive back to our house to get them first night of the storm but the snow was falling to rapidly and the roads were slick so after half way we turned back and got them in the morning.
 
If the warmer gets too hot, no worries! Just put some insulation around it, between the snake and the warmer. If you use something with some thermal mass, such as a water bottle or some kind of rocks or gravel or something similar, then those objects will pick up the heat from the warmer and distribute it more evenly, and for a longer period of time, than if the warmer is in direct contact with the snake.
 
Yeah, definitely get some warmers. The hand warmers are fine, thought they do get VERY hot, but as Kathy said, just put some distance between your snake and the warmer. However, they don't last that long, but are good in a tight bind.

I'd definitely get some of the ones designed for shipping herps just to have on hand. They last 40-60 hrs depending on which one you get and would be good if power was out for a while.
 
blueapplepaste said:
Yeah, definitely get some warmers. The hand warmers are fine, thought they do get VERY hot, but as Kathy said, just put some distance between your snake and the warmer. However, they don't last that long, but are good in a tight bind.

I'd definitely get some of the ones designed for shipping herps just to have on hand. They last 40-60 hrs depending on which one you get and would be good if power was out for a while.
Click to expand...

Yup, I think the shipping ones last longer which is what I got.... when I unpacked my newest guy last night at 5pm, it was still hot. Not sure what time Jeff shipped them out, but that was close to 24hrs I'm guessing.
 
Thanks so so so much everybody!! The power actually went out last night after my last post on this thread and didn't come back on until this afternoon.

What I did was just put the blankets up around all their tanks and made sure there were no drafts coming in. I just got home from taking a final and it looks like all the temps are back to what they should be and all the snakes seem fine (not quite active but when I pick them up, they're moving around my hands like normal).

I will definitely, definitely get some hand warmers to keep on hand for the next time something happens. I was quite worried last night.

Thanks again so so much for your replies!!
 
If ever you don't have handwarmers on hand (or snake), put on a jacket/sweater with pockets. Put your snakes in the pockets. Duct tape them shut. If the jacket/sweater isn't too thickly insulated, your body heat should get right to them. Your first concern is going to be any hatchlings. Your second concern is going to be your BP, who doesn't know how to count below 70. Take off any neck jewlery and replace it with your ball. With those other snakes in your pockets, make sure you do not smush them.

I had to transport my snakes in this exact way when a tornado came. Once the siren started up, everyone was headed for the hills!.... Or more accurately, my neighbor's basement. It was Spring, so a little chilly, but everyone was A O K!
 
Another emergency measure, if you don't have hand warmers, but still have some hot water left:

Just fill up some containers (old water or soda bottles, maybe?) with hot water and put them in an insulated container, such as a cooler. Then put your bags or deli cups of snakes in the cooler. Monitor it to make sure it doesn't get TOO hot! It should stay warm in the cooler for quite some time.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top