Anyone In the USA Dealing with The Freezing Vortex?

[EpicWin]

I'm curious to know how everyone and their chams are doing during this insane cold-spell across 3/4 of the US...

Are your chams doing okay? Are you guys staying warm?

All the best to you! Hope it clears up for you soon..

~Heisenberg & Travis

 

[szpond]

Everybody stay warm!!

I have heard of power outages within my state. Thank goodness we have not been one of them.

Check out this thread for some valuable info.

https://www.chameleonforums.com/power-outage-no-heat-122660/

Assuming outdoors is not an option for heat and UVB.

A window will provide sufficient light to see by (doesnt UVB, but they can go without UVB for quite awhile without issues).

If the house gets too cold and you need short term heat, put chameleon into a shoebox (he'll settle down after he's been in the dark for a while) with a towel wrapped:
-old fashioned but still very effective hot water bottle (your hot water tank will stay warm quite a while, or boil water on a BBQ or fire)
-or one of those chemical heat pads such as are used for shipping or keeping hands warm in gloves
-or the salt(i think?) based ones in which you snap a metal disk and the liquid gets hot as it hardens, then you can reuse it after boiling.

Some emergency animal hospitals have generators to keep their buildings warm, and may allow emergency day care, for a fee.

Consider a little UPS to run a small watt lightbulb - just enough to keep him warm in a smaller cage covered with a blanket.

You can buy small human-powered generators - you pedal a bike to create current to run his heat light bulb or an electric blanket (this isnt as far fetched as you might think: http://www.los-gatos.ca.us/davidbu/p...c_blanket.html
or http://www.windstreampower.com/Human..._Generator.php
or http://www.econvergence.net/easy.htm

Consider a gasoline or deisel generator if storms and power outages are common where you live.

Consider living somewhere with an alternate source of heat, such as propane or a wood fireplace, or a gas oven/stove.

Install Solar panels / wind turbines that charge batteries, which can then be used to power a heat bulb or whatever is needed.

 

[EpicWin]

Everybody stay warm!!

I have heard of power outages within my state. Thank goodness we have not been one of them.

Check out this thread for some valuable info.

https://www.chameleonforums.com/power-outage-no-heat-122660/

Oh wow! Well I'm hoping that you will get through this nasty cell without one!

Something I plan to do if it ever came to that is, I have a coleman stove. If the power went out and I needed warmth for my cham, I'd light the stove and put some heat reflecting material (like one of those space blankets stretched across a board) at an angle behind it to radiate the stove's heat into the room. (far enough away from the cham, obviously)

Alternatively, if you have 9V batteries, you may be able to rig a temporary power source for electric heat.

Thanks for the resources!

 

[laurie]

I'm curious to know how everyone and their chams are doing during this insane cold-spell across 3/4 of the US...

Are your chams doing okay? Are you guys staying warm?

All the best to you! Hope it clears up for you soon..

~Heisenberg & Travis

I live in Montana, sadly this is normal weather for us. This is not what I am familiar with since I as born in California. I an doing ok in the cold. Not sure if that is good or not.

 

[EpicWin]

I live in Montana, sadly this is normal weather for us. This is not what I am familiar with since I as born in California. I an doing ok in the cold. Not sure if that is good or not.

I was raised in NM and move to CA when I was young. I will be moving to CO though this year. (to avoid the fukishima radiation on the west coast)

I think it's a good thing that you're doing ok in the cold.

 

[sharlaxle]

I live in WI we hit close to -40 last night. I keep a space heater in the cham room, however last night I placed all of the chams in their emergency sleeping boxes, and put them in a closet. In each box I put one 40 hour heat pack. Needless to say they had a warmer night then we did
I always keep spare heat packs on hand for cold emergencys. You never know when power will go out.

 

[craig90]

The last couple nights have been in the -20s in Ontario. My cham is in his own room with a heater so he has the warmest room in the house.

 

[Dave20101]

I live in Michigan and the last 2 days we were at -40 below with the wind chill, and both my chams are in the basement which is 50f at most. I had to rig some duct work from the only vent in the basement over to my cages which brought the temps back up in the upper 70's. It's been really difficult to keep temps and humidity where they should be. I hate the winter and Michigan!

 

[PoshPenny]

I'm in Atlanta Ga and we got down to 1 degrees with a windchill of -12. I just bumped up the heat and kept my chams room at 68 at night.

 

[APBMM veil charm]

I'm in Maryland and it got to 10 degrees here has been a problem keeping my cham warm but I order another veiled from Fl Chams that was suppose to get here Tuesday and I think he mite come tomorrow . It should reach the low 40s so Wish me luck .

 

[Chameleonmaster]

i'm in michigan and it's freezing -14 where i'm at! i haven't lost power thank goodness, everyone stay safe on the roads.

 

[Seiryu]

Also in Michigan! I think we got 8-10" of snow in my area. No power outage here, so house was 68-70 F. Have a generator as a backup in case though!

Going to start to warm up and hit the 20s/30s this weekend, wahoo! Hopefully the snow/ice melts a bit before the reptile show this Saturday! Almost couldn't get out of the parking lot last show.

 

[Saldarya]

I live in Montana, sadly this is normal weather for us. This is not what I am familiar with since I as born in California. I an doing ok in the cold. Not sure if that is good or not.

I figured by now you were just frozen solid and that I would never hear from you again.....

 

[zachmcgaughey]

Ill put it this way. I have had to sleep in a desert with the temperature so high

 

[broderp]

Guess I'm lucky. In Ohio, the temp dropped to -18 or so with the wind chill. My house stays about 65 degrees most of the time even without heat. My chams enclosure at night seems to stay about the same temp. The family complains about the temp, but I just put on a sweatshirt or more cloths and I'm fine.

BTW, were does one get these 'heat sticks'?

 

[jdanielson69]

I was 63 in Northern California today

 

[EpicWin]

I live in WI we hit close to -40 last night. I keep a space heater in the cham room, however last night I placed all of the chams in their emergency sleeping boxes, and put them in a closet. In each box I put one 40 hour heat pack. Needless to say they had a warmer night then we did
I always keep spare heat packs on hand for cold emergencys. You never know when power will go out.

That is genius!! Heat packs. So simple. Good thinking!

The last couple nights have been in the -20s in Ontario. My cham is in his own room with a heater so he has the warmest room in the house.

Glad your cham is safe and sound in there. I'm stoked to hear everyone is doing ok with their lil guys.

I live in Michigan and the last 2 days we were at -40 below with the wind chill, and both my chams are in the basement which is 50f at most. I had to rig some duct work from the only vent in the basement over to my cages which brought the temps back up in the upper 70's. It's been really difficult to keep temps and humidity where they should be. I hate the winter and Michigan!

Get a space heater for in there! (If you can shop right now) They are really great and the idea above with some heat packs is really smart.

I'm in Atlanta Ga and we got down to 1 degrees with a windchill of -12. I just bumped up the heat and kept my chams room at 68 at night.

68 isn't too bad! I read chams can be okay down to 50 but it's not ideal for them.

I'm in Maryland and it got to 10 degrees here has been a problem keeping my cham warm but I order another veiled from Fl Chams that was suppose to get here Tuesday and I think he mite come tomorrow . It should reach the low 40s so Wish me luck .

Good luck!! Everything will turn out great and you'll have a happy cham coming soon!

Also in Michigan! I think we got 8-10" of snow in my area. No power outage here, so house was 68-70 F. Have a generator as a backup in case though!

Going to start to warm up and hit the 20s/30s this weekend, wahoo! Hopefully the snow/ice melts a bit before the reptile show this Saturday! Almost couldn't get out of the parking lot last show.

Glad you're doing okay in this insane weather! Sending good snow melting vibes.

Guess I'm lucky. In Ohio, the temp dropped to -18 or so with the wind chill. My house stays about 65 degrees most of the time even without heat. My chams enclosure at night seems to stay about the same temp. The family complains about the temp, but I just put on a sweatshirt or more cloths and I'm fine.

BTW, were does one get these 'heat sticks'?

Haha same here. I only keep my room warm where Heisenberg is. Otherwise, I wrap myself in a fleece blanket for the rest of the house. You can probably get some heat packs at like a sporting goods store or even a grocery store may have them, perhaps even a gas station...

I was 63 in Northern California today

It's been a nice 65 - 75 lately here in SoCal.

 

[Ninkylou]

Lucky in Seattle as well. Not too bad, kinda rainy...shocking I know, but we have been temperature and snow lucky so far this winter.

 

[fluxlizard]

I was a little worried going into this week because this is the first time my lizard building has seen this kind of cold (-24 with wind chill), and with the recent rebuild I wasn't sure how it would handle it. Normally I don't have to heat it to keep it above 50 at night. It did fine- although some of my blow in insulation at the edges of the building seems like doesn't do as well as the old fiberglass rolls. I'm getting a little condensation right near the top plate of the wall from the cold air. Kept my water trickling and no freeze.

 

[TheAmbulatingFerret]

I just wanted to point out these because everyone has been talking about heat packs. They come in different sizes and shapes and you can reuse them by boiling them.