What to do in a power outage?

[Julius2314]

I want to be prepared this year. We often get power outages. What do you guys do with your snakes during times like this? To keep them warm and stuff.. Thank you.

[slowhite03]

how long are your power outages? a few hours? they can go awhile without heat, the residual heat from your heating source will be sufficient enough for awhile

[Revenant]

My first lengthy power outage as a kid who kept herps, I was not prepared at all. It lasted several days. I made it out to the sporting good store and bought a bunch o 8-hour hand warmers, and propped bins over them so the snakes had an option to get some belly heat. When I first moved out, I was spoiled by living on the same block grid as a hospital, so the power was always back on PDQ.

Where we're living now is awful for power outages. Most of my current species will be fine if I pop some wood in the seldom-used wood stove to even the temps out at night, but we're working on a pair of sheds with back-up battery or propane systems that will be a feeder breeder house, and a separate quarantine facility. If it was an emergency, I could shuffle my snakes into those.

When it is hot, I don't worry about it much. If the furries are handling it okay, the scaley animals should be doing all right.


Mostly, though, I find with the hardy boids and colubrids I keep, power outages aren't as much of a danger as I used to think they were. Some of that is probably because I live in a pretty temperate-to-very warm zone, though.

[Zoo Nanny]

Keep in mind that this time of the year stores have winter stuff on clearance. Small portable generators can offer you power to keep your heaters on. These are really incredible for $400 or less you can get one that will keep your house warm and fridge cold. I bought one a couple of years ago because it was such a great deal. It's a small 3,000 watt. I have forced hot air heat so it can run my furnace, fridge, tv and assorted outlets at least one in each room. The following year a friend of ours was laid off from his electricians job and offered to hard wire it for us for $200. It's been great. Now all we have to do is plug it in the front of the house, hit three switches in the basement and start it up. The biggest problem with it being small is you have to refill the gas every 10-12 hours.

[pdomensis]

Try cuddling. :-)

[Julius2314]

thank you for info, I had a python in florida when I was a kid. died after a hurricane :/ So I wanna be prepared lol.

[shaunyboy]

I want to be prepared this year. We often get power outages. What do you guys do with your snakes during times like this? To keep them warm and stuff.. Thank you.

i cover all my tanks with blankets,to keep the exsisting heat in for as long as possible

also keeping emergency heat packs is a good idea

cheers shaun

[rmfsnakes32]

When we had a power outage this winter I put my snakes in pillow cases and put them in bed with me. the actual temp outside was 10 degrees. Wasn't trying to cuddle per se but it works keeping them warm.

[Freebody]

When we had a power outage this winter I put my snakes in pillow cases and put them in bed with me. the actual temp outside was 10 degrees. Wasn't trying to cuddle per se but it works keeping them warm.
the things we are more than willing to do for are loved ones :)
and that blanked over the cage and extra heat packs is a good idea, im going to remember than and go get a few, we get black outs not too often but had a few crows kill themselves this year biting the power line out front of the house and lost power for 12-15 one day, but that's the longest I can recall, worried the entire time but didn't think to blanket the cages.

[Revenant]

When we had a power outage this winter I put my snakes in pillow cases and put them in bed with me. the actual temp outside was 10 degrees. Wasn't trying to cuddle per se but it works keeping them warm.

I'd be too worried about rolling over on them.

[CK SandBoas]

We had a blizzard in February and we lost power for about 32 hours. I had the 48 hour heat packs, kept the tanks covered covered with blankets, and at night i had the larger snakes bagged up and under the covers with me, while my smaller sand boas were kept in the kitchen, where it was warmer. They all made it through with no problems.

[rmfsnakes32]

I'd be too worried about rolling over on them.
It is amazing qhat you can handle. I am a stationary sleeper that being said since I knew they were there I didnt even move

[smy_749]

A few years back (can't remember how many) we had a big snow storm in october. All the trees still had their leaves and became too heavy, ALLL the trees fell over. Destroyed houses, people died, millions without power...you probably heard about it (northeast US, specifically CT for me). Anyways, we lost power for 10 days straight, could see your breath in the house (was like 35-40 in the house after the first few days).

Anyways, I didn't have much at the time, few reptiles and some fish. Everything died.

[Zosime]

Try cuddling. :-)
their all cuddly and cute untill they poop on you

[Gungirl]

I have never really worried about power outages even though we get them fairly often in the winter but I have a generator and a fire place. I also always have on hand some heat packs. I keep my snakes in larger wooden vivs but I have smaller travel bins for them. If I don't want to or can't use the generator for the snakes I will place them in their travel bins and use heat packs under them. I only have 5 snakes so for me it isn't much work. I have also though about placing all my snakes in travel bins and then into the largest of the vivs. This way I only have to plug 1 viv into the generator and keep them all at a decent temp. Is it perfect? no but it will work in an emergency.

[infernalis]

I keep 2 propane heaters and 3 twenty pound propane bottles on hand during the cooler months. I can keep my whole house 80 degrees without power for days using propane.

[bcr229]

We would have to move all our snakes into travel boxes and keep them downstairs close to the wood stove. They wouldn't be at their ideal temperature range for a few days and we'd have to constantly mist them - the wood stove really dries out the air - but they wouldn't die from getting too cold either.

We do have a generator that was invaluable when we lost power for four days last summer after the derecho hit the mid-Atlantic region. Daytime highs were over 100*F for two of those four days, and we have two refrigerators and one chest freezer. Because of the generator we didn't lose any cold/frozen food, so it more than paid for itself.

[Stephan Grundy]

My snakes are in a room with a turf/wood-fired stove. It hasn't been much of an issue, since they're all Northern Europe/America temp-hardy snakes (corn, black rat, and Aesculapians - and our occasionally uncertain power supply is one reason I chose these species, aside from the fact that ratsnakes totally rock), and will be even less of one in future winters when they're brumating. But I do desperately want a dwarf retic, so I'm looking into battery-powered and backup generator options. Chill a corn snake all winter, you get a horny cornsnake in the spring. Chill a retic for one night...