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One of my worst case scenarios happened today

heatwave

heatwave

Certified Herp-a-holic
OK so probably THE worst case scenario is fire, but I think my second worst case scenario is total power loss.

And yep, we lost power last night. My entire family was out of town, I stayed behind as I needed to work and be able to take care of the animals. We had a really bad cold snap come through: it was in the teens/low 20s this weekend and we had snow on saturday. I checked the snake building before I left for work at about 6pm and everyone was just fine. The room temp was in the 70s and everyone had additional belly/basking (depending on species) heat.

When I returned from work the next morning at 9am, I knew something was wrong because the driveway floods were off. Went straight to the snake building and sure enough, we'd lost power at some point in the middle of the night. It was about 23 degrees outside. The snake building was in the 40s. For some reason my generator did not kick on. I got the generator going and got it back up in the 60s with additional belly heat but I have no idea how long everyone was in the cold. I carefully checked EVERYONE, removed waters so no one decided to stupidly soak while they were chilled. No one was dead but all the young uns were very sluggish. I am mostly worried about my exotics: the ball pythons, RTBs and burms. They were in a section of the snake building that stayed warmer, and I do not think their cages dropped below 60 but thats still really flipping cold. My iguana too- when I touched him in his cage he litteraly fell off his branch and landed on his back. I thought he was dead but he woke up sluggishly.


Its murphy law that all of my normal fail safes...well...failed. Typically (theoretically) if there is a power loss A) someone is at home and registers the fact that the power is out because we have an alarm that sounds in the house B) the generator kicks on C) someone is at home and can suppliment heat if needed with our stockpile of heat packs etc.

The FIRST TIME we loose power, none of that works, because no one is at home. *sigh* power restored sometime around lunchtime, and by the time I went to work again tonight the snake room was back to its normal ambient temp in the 70s and everyone seemed ok. We gave back waters too, and my family came back from their trip, so someone is at home again.

Fingers crossed there are no ill effects.... if so we will be stunningly lucky....
 
I'd be fairly worried about the pythons and boas, too. Keep a VERY close eye on them for RI. The corns will most likely be fine. And the iguana. In Florida, where they live, on the odd nights it gets cold enough to "freeze" them like that, there are always stories about them falling out of trees and then being fine. Poor Iggy, though!
 
I just had something similar happen this winter.

Bump all the exotics temps up a tiny bit, 2-3 degrees, for the next week. That's what my vet suggested and so far I've not had an RI issues at all from the balls. Take the temps back to normal after a week or so, unless you see a critter having issues. Listen super close to their breathing.
 
What about humidity autumn? Do you think I should lower it a bit? Would that help? I'm supposed to feed the balls on wednesday- do you think I should skip this feeding?

I'm mostly concerned about my male RTB. My burms have cages built on tables, but he's in a 90 gallon tank that is currently on the floor because I havent had a chance to build him a table yet. I have these wall thermometers that display the current temp, the coldest temp in the last 12 hours and the highest temp in the last 12 hours. The thermometer by the exotic side read 58 with a low of 52 and a high of 76(prior to power loss). That thermometer is about six feet higher then his cage though so I think his tank may have dipped into low 50s/high 40s at some point. The thermometer on the colubrid side read 42 with a low of 37 and a high of 70. Thank god I have the exotics next to my gas water heater- it keeps that side a lot warmer.

I hate the waiting game.
 
I would keep the humidity normal to a maybe slightly lower. Don't do anything to raise it, but just keep it steady.

Skip this feeding. They might be grumpy, but it will be worth it. Return to normal feeding after the raised temp period.

What kind of heat source does the RTB have?

I rode out two pretty terrible power failure using this method and it worked well.
 
He has UTH and a heat lamp- was planing to build him a cage like my burms with heat tape and better insulation but haven't gotten around to it yet. He's my last one in a glass tank. I feel awful :(
 
You might want to insulate the sides somehow. Duct tape towels around the glass maybe. His ambient needs to stay up a bit. He will probably be okay, but boosting temps a little can't hurt and will help him fight off anything.
 
I have a few glass tanks that I insulate in the winter- on the bottom and three sides- with fiberglass insulation blankets- it's fiberglass in plastic. (The mice from Gourmet Rodent come wrapped in it). Also, if there is a screen lid, laying a towel over the top slows heat loss.
 
O gods, my sympathies! That's been one of my concerns for a while, as I live in rural Ireland where the power is sometimes unpredictable in the winter. The only reason it's not my nightmare is that we're sticking to corns and rats for the time being: both can survive a winter outdoors in this climate (and regularly do - there was an escaped corn recaptured recently here after overwintering outside, fat and happy and a good deal longer after his vacation in a field that was clearly Mousie Central), let alone a few days of power outage in a house with some solid-fuel heating.

I'm hoping to get a dwarf retic in the future, but before I do, I'll have to look into some sort of battery-powered heat pack or such to use for it when the power goes out (or when we're out for the day, in case the power goes out while we're away).

Best of luck getting your snakes over their chill!
 
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