Summer precautions

I should have posted this sooner but better late than never.

With summer in full swing and the US having higher than average temps in most areas, be sure to have some precautions set up in case of power loss and such. If your power goes out and your in the middle of a blistering summer, temps in your home can become quite high in a short period of time. I talked to friend of mine on Oklahoma today and he was the victim of a 3 day power outage about 2 weeks ago. During that time temps outside were in the 100's and his home heated into the 90's. He lost 3 clutches of eggs in the incubator. Luckily he had several ice packs and frozen drink bottles already prepared to put in the dragon enclosures. If not for those ice packs it's possible he could have lost some of his juvies and adult breeders.

I know of a few snake breeders who have suffered loses this summer as well. Thankfully, dragons can tolerate higher temps than snakes but prolonged exposure to high temps without an area to cool down can prove to be dangerous and possibly fatal to dragons as well.

Just be sure to be prepared if your in an area that is going through one hell of a summer this year.

I lost all but 3 of my eggs from one of my clutches this year due to a power outage. Our house heated into the 90's for several hours and killed most of the developing embryos. The temperatures where we live are well into the 100's during the day. Even with running the air conditioner constantly, we have trouble keeping the temps. in the incubator below 85* F. We have found that using mini icepacks called "cubies" works great to lower the temps. We just use 3-4 every three hours. This works in a half-full incubator, eggs on one side and ice packs on the other. You would not want to place the ice packs anywhere near the eggs for obvious reasons. Anyway, it has worked great for us and saved our eggs.

Jamie Hough
Valley Dragons

Hi Jamie - nice to see you here. :-)

Also, you can place your animals in a rubbermaid/sterilite container and set them on the basement floor (if you have one). Ours is a poured concrete and well below ground so the floor maintains a cool temp throughout the summer - no matter how warm the room gets.

Thanks

Our house is really set up bad for my little breeding project, lol. I wish we had a basement. Instead it is a two story (which means hot downstairs and then REALLY hot upstairs). The coolest part of our house is in the living room - where my three kids play, kind of a bad place to set up incubators. The lizard room stays at 83 degrees, but when the power goes out it is definitely a problem. Thankfully my lizards were okay when we lost power (just lost the eggs), but I will definitely keep some larger icepacks in the fridge to use for my adults if need be. We had severe storms come through again last night, and everyone across the street lost power. We were luckily spared! Gotta love the unexpected stresses of beardie breeding - lol. Now the really fun part comes when you have to pile all your animals in a a couple of sterilite containers and huddle in the closet with your 3 kids while a tornado passes overhead, all the while trying to keep everyone from killing each other. Gotta love Arkansas weather too, lol!

Jamie