Power Outage Questions

[DVirginiana]

So my city is in the middle of a snow apocalypse right now, and it's entirely possible that I'll be dealing with power outages in the next day or so. I've stocked up on those muscle warmers that you can get in the hunting section that are for putting on your chest... Mainly I'm curious as to what sort of success people have had with using athletic warmers and stuff like that in heat emergencies?

[kueluck]

Never used them, but we did get the Mr. Heater - America's Most Popular Portable Heaters just in case. I can put all the frogs/toads and snakes in temp containers in one room. I think your area might get more ice than us in W-S, but then LOTS of prayer helps too.

[deranged chipmunk]

Snow apocalypse? Please! We have had over 44" so far this year! I know you southern folk aren't used to it, but come on! Lol

Those heat packs are ok for small, confined places like a cardboard box for a few hours, but otherwise useless. Bags of warm water, provided you can heat it will be much more effective. Ziploc bags would work. But those warmer a are good if you are in a jam.

[Mentat]

Starting to snow here now and pray you don't lose power. My chimney runs on gas, so that is the back up plan for a Winter power loss at home. Still, would have to transfer all frogs to temporary containers and move near the heat source. Sadly, the fish would be on their own heat wise; because they are to big to get out of tanks . I do have battery powered air pumps with lot's of D cells for aeration.

Thank's for the info on the heater Gail! The fact that one can be used inside house safely, makes it real handy for an emergency .

[Louis Charles Bruckner]

I just got a FB posting from my local exotic pet vet about not using portable heaters indoors with birds.
I know that birds are more sensitive to toxic gasses like Carbon monoxide but I wonder if our beloved amphibians will
react to those gasses.

I know that you should have a window cracked to get fresh air in even with humans. But are these animals so sensitive
that even cracking a window wouldn't be enough?

[flybyferns]

OR

fill gallon jugs with hot water
put your frog into a smaller tank
put the jugs of hot water against the glass
(monitor how hot the glass gets )
cover the entire tank and water jugs with a blanket
change the jugs as often as needed
use thermometers----as this works well

get a generator

[DVirginiana]

Unfortunately, if my power goes out I have no hot water and no way to heat water (oven is electrical too, so I have no way to heat the water). I'm definitely going to get one of those heaters once the roads are passable again though...

The good news is that I'm in a metropolitan area, and the power is never off for extended periods and I've got enough of those heat packs to keep refreshing them for awhile. Honestly, we weren't expecting the snowstorm to be quite this bad until late last night so picking up the heat packs was kind of an emergency last minute thing.

Snow apocalypse? Please! We have had over 44" so far this year! I know you southern folk aren't used to it, but come on! Lol

Haha, no one here has the equipment to deal with the snow so everything pretty much just shuts down. When no one has tire chains or experience driving in snow, and the state doesn't have the right equipment to keep them clean, you can't really go anywhere. Then, you have the people who go out anyway and then give up and abandon their cars :P It's not weird to have roads blocked by people that just half-pulled over and left the cars...

[Mentat]

I just got a FB posting from my local exotic pet vet about not using portable heaters indoors with birds...

Think that warning is only for birds! They will keel over many fumes (i.e. some cooking utensil coatings) that are OK for humans .

[DVirginiana]

Think that warning is only for birds! They will keel over many fumes (i.e. some cooking utensil coatings) that are OK for humans .

I think it has to do with their high metabolism and respiration rate... I'd think herps would probably be safe.

The only fume issue I've heard of with reptiles other than the well-known stuff is with larger pythons getting nicotine poisoning. Not that you should smoke around them anyway, but their metabolism was apparently slow enough that enough nicotine built up in their system to become toxic.

[Heatheranne]

I've actually used the thermacare heat wraps. They work for about 8 hours. If you put them on the outside of the glass, they get about as warm at the UTH heat pads. I put a blanket over the tank then. For those of you that have gas heat, the boiling water works well. You can also must with 78-80'F water (dechlorinated, of course, or spring water, distilled water).

[kueluck]

In NC we had a huge power outrage over the weekend and tons are still powerless. Ours went out on Friday at 10:30 am and came back on Saturday nigh around 7:00 pm. We use our Mr. Heater Big Buddy and I can't tell ya how happy we are with this. 2 small propane tanks ran it for 9 hours on low and it keep the living room and vivs between 70-74 degrees. I also had the vivs covered with blankets leaving the front uncovered. I just hung beach towels in the doorway to keep as much heat as possible in the living room, plus we have a 20 ft vaulted ceiling so if we would have had the normal 8 ft the living room would have been warmer. I did crack one window about an inch just to let some fresh air in.

[cjbage]

the power here in the mountains used to go out during a heavy rainstorm let alone when it snowed lol, they had a faulty transformer that finally blew and took out the poles it was attached to, after replacing it the power here rarely goes out for more then a few min, but in case of longer power outages I usually light my fireplace and seal off all the other doors, I was wondering would having the fireplace lit using untreated wood be detrimental to frogs ? Cedar's tank is sitting on a wheeled cart so can move him around if necessary for cleaning etc and would be able to adjust how far away from the fireplace to keep his temps in the right range.

[deranged chipmunk]

I can't see where it would be. They encounter forest fires in the wild, so as long as your flue/chimney is clean, you shouldn't be building up and carbon monoxide within the house.

[kueluck]

My question would be what is "untreated" wood? If you're using wood from felled trees there shouldn't be a problem. Like Bill said, as long as your chimney is clean all is good.

the power here in the mountains used to go out during a heavy rainstorm let alone when it snowed lol, they had a faulty transformer that finally blew and took out the poles it was attached to, after replacing it the power here rarely goes out for more then a few min, but in case of longer power outages I usually light my fireplace and seal off all the other doors, I was wondering would having the fireplace lit using untreated wood be detrimental to frogs ? Cedar's tank is sitting on a wheeled cart so can move him around if necessary for cleaning etc and would be able to adjust how far away from the fireplace to keep his temps in the right range.

[cjbage]

There was someone running around here that was selling wood that had insecticide sprayed all over it and another that was selling wood that had been sprayed with a fungicide to kill the mold on the bark etc. some people in the hills are a bit strange.. so finally i called the park ranger service and they put me in touch with one of the people they use to clear out their deadfall lol so i get..untreated wood

[kueluck]

Ah, gotcha.

[dumpyfrog101]

hahaha are you guys kidding come to canada where we have igloos! JK but seriously it minus 44 and when it minus 4 we all run around in are tee shirts you amricans are such wimps.

[Louis Charles Bruckner]

Thanks to my job I have a natural gas 15Kw generator and a 5kw UPS.
After hurricane fran hit I never wanted to be with out power.

[kueluck]

It's not us that we're concerned about, it's keeping our cold blooded critters happy and healthy. Also I'm offended by that comment about Americans being wimps!!

hahaha are you guys kidding come to canada where we have igloos! JK but seriously it minus 44 and when it minus 4 we all run around in are tee shirts you amricans are such wimps.

[cjbage]

Thanks to my job I have a natural gas 15Kw generator and a 5kw UPS.
After hurricane fran hit I never wanted to be with out power.

There is a propane store that installs tanks etc, was thinking of getting one of the propane standby generators put in for running the appliances/water heater and heat pump, but...had to replace the heat pump and have the well redone to bring it up to code because the people that had this place before went the cheap route and the "well company" made a mess of the electrical, dug the well real shallow so it kept running dry and then the morons put in the wrong size pump so it burned out, all last year so need to wait a bit.