Power out! What will happen to my cham?

P

pocketheart

New Member
Hi there! my power is out (im on my cell phone!) and my heat lamp went out. i have nothing to back up heat for her, and the power company estimates it shoud be fixed by twelve thirty am. it is only 10, and im really worried about my veiled! Will she be okay through the night?
 
Veileds can handle temps as low as or lower than 50 degrees. She should be fine even if it drops below 50. Wrap a towel around three sides if you're really worried.
 
pocketheart said:
Hi there! my power is out (im on my cell phone!) and my heat lamp went out. i have nothing to back up heat for her, and the power company estimates it shoud be fixed by twelve thirty am. it is only 10, and im really worried about my veiled! Will she be okay through the night?
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Put her inside a dark shirt so she will go to sleep then put her inside your shirt. Your body heat will keep her temp high enought while she is asleep.
 
Or you can do as Laurie suggested. It depends on where you're located I guess, but veileds are pretty tough and can handle low temps at night.
 
I live in Canada (winter snowtime) and I dont think itll get colder than 10 degrees celsius, but im not sure. im afraid because her cage is downstairs. i will try the dark shirt suggestion, thank you so much for the tips!
 
She'll be fine one night at 10 C. I would just wrap a towel around three sides of the cage if it's screen, if you're worried.
 
I would do as everyone suggested (either putting her in a shirt and putting her some place warm, I wouldnt suggest sleeping with her though , or wrapping the cage in a blanket to keep warmth in).

Can you move her cage somewhere warmer in the house? You say she's downstairs which makes me think maybe it's warmer upstairs :) just an idea.
 
I've pondered this issue many times , as I, too, live in the Great White North (aka Canada).

I'd like to hear from as many members as possible on their ideas to keep things warm in a power outage.

Short of a generator I've considered and have used a few of these methods.

... using a car to keep things warm is dangerous , but can be done safely if you ventilate the interior and use a second person as a check and balance

... I keep empty plastic pop and water bottles around , as these can be filled with hot water from the water heater and placed around a room or closet to keep the temperature up...


... if you only have one or 2 chams, maybe worth having a styrofoam lined box available for each and some heat packs as an emergency backup. Heat packs cost about a buck or 2 each...

.... With proper ventelation, a kerosene heater might be worth having around. Again , this is potentially dangerous and should have 2 people involved...

....Any room with a fireplace , can be curtained off and used with a wood fire for heat....

... if you only loose electricity, any gas hot water heater should remain functional through out the outage....

...if the gas , to the house is lost , then electric space heaters, the kitchen stove, any electric hot water heaters are all sources of heat....
 
laurie said:
How did the cham do overnight and how are you doing?
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She is doing well! I woke up at 3 am with the power back on and went to check on her after I put her back in her cage for the night. She is doing good, and I'll keep these suggestions in my head for the next emergency power outage!
 
When our power goes out, which doesn't take a whole lot, I just fire up a generator outside and run a heater in the room. When the power is out we lose heat, phone, and hot water too. I had to deal with this a few times, so I invested in a small generator to keep a heater or two going.

The only special thing I had to do was last winter. The power went out about 10 minutes after I had misted all the cages. I was afraid of what effect having a sudden temperature drop in a cage that was just misted would have. I ended up grabbing the smaller sunning cages I have for basking in the sun in the summer and moving each cham to a dry cage.
 
moody232002 said:
that is a brilliant idea for future reference
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Actually, putting her inside your shirt might overheat her. Your body temp is 98.6 F...too warm for a sleeping cham. It might be safer to put the cham in a small box or bag close to you under a blanket instead. Be careful, a heat pack in a small styrofoam box can also overheat...those heat packs can generate temps up to 102 F for a while. Either use a larger box, or a very small heat pack that has been activated for a while.

I live in Alaska in a very small remote town and have several tropical herps, so I think about backup heat a lot. I made up some boxes with a perch, small towels, and empty hot water bottles (they are more insulated than plastic water bottles) all ready on a shelf. Also helps in case I have to leave the house in a hurry. Residual heat from hot water heaters or boilers can last quite a while after the power goes off. All you might have to do is move the chams closer to it to maintain a low night temp of 50 or so. I have a woodburning stove as backup. For those who don't, here are some other ways to provide emergency heat:

Draw some hot water from a faucet or the water heater before it cools into the hot water bottle and put the cham and the bottle in its box. You can also heat water on a gas or wood stove, camping stove, or one of those multi-wick emergency candles to heat it first. I keep some of these candles with food and water, some heat packs, etc. in my emergency kit for the house.
 
Not sure why a car wouldn't be safe.... as long as you aren't pumping the exhaust into the car... and even if you were... you'd prolly be fine as long as your car was made in the last 5-10 years and you don't have any major car issues like.... a bad cat or O2 sensors... or leaking injectors or really clogged intake...

The days of killing yourself by your car's exhaust are over...
 
summoner12 said:
Not sure why a car wouldn't be safe.... as long as you aren't pumping the exhaust into the car... and even if you were... you'd prolly be fine as long as your car was made in the last 5-10 years and you don't have any major car issues like.... a bad cat or O2 sensors... or leaking injectors or really clogged intake...

The days of killing yourself by your car's exhaust are over...
Click to expand...

Hey Summoner... give it a try and let us know how it turns out...LOL
 
summoner12 said:
Not sure why a car wouldn't be safe.... as long as you aren't pumping the exhaust into the car... and even if you were... you'd prolly be fine as long as your car was made in the last 5-10 years and you don't have any major car issues like.... a bad cat or O2 sensors... or leaking injectors or really clogged intake...

The days of killing yourself by your car's exhaust are over...
Click to expand...

UM...I live in WI and NO those days are not over..........still happens. Exhaust can still get into the car. Not so much a problem if you are parked out in the driveway but we have people up here that forget to open the garage door. In a closed garage or even a semi closed garage can build up deadly exhaust.
Carbon Monoxide poisoning happens in the house from some types of space heaters as well.
Yup when I lose my heat in the winter (natural gas) I turn on my oven and put my herps in ship boxes in the kitchen. Nappie, nappie till the heat returns. Only happened once thank god, but there basking lights were not enough for heat.
 
summoner12 said:
Not sure why a car wouldn't be safe.... as long as you aren't pumping the exhaust into the car... and even if you were... you'd prolly be fine as long as your car was made in the last 5-10 years and you don't have any major car issues like.... a bad cat or O2 sensors... or leaking injectors or really clogged intake...

The days of killing yourself by your car's exhaust are over...
Click to expand...

Klinger said:
UM...I live in WI and NO those days are not over..........still happens. Exhaust can still get into the car. Not so much a problem if you are parked out in the driveway but we have people up here that forget to open the garage door. In a closed garage or even a semi closed garage can build up deadly exhaust.
Carbon Monoxide poisoning happens in the house from some types of space heaters as well.
Yup when I lose my heat in the winter (natural gas) I turn on my oven and put my herps in ship boxes in the kitchen. Nappie, nappie till the heat returns. Only happened once thank god, but there basking lights were not enough for heat.
Click to expand...

Just ask Clea
 
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