Warming eggs - power outage

OK, so I've prepared for keeping my snakes warm during outages due to winter blizzards, but I guess had never really thought about eggs....

Our power at home has been out for several hours (I'm at work now), and am debating on just how to deal with it if it isn't back on by the time I get home in the morning and the temps are dropping. I have plenty of heat packs, and was thinking about using those to keep temps up...but not sure what the best way to go about it would be. Putting them in a smaller cooler maybe, with a couple of heat packs taped to the sides of the cooler?

I would rather just leave the incubator sealed up for awhile and watch the temps, but if the water is still rising in my basement, we're going to have to move everything anyway....

Any thoughts?

Blizzards, tornadoes, floods......Iowa just plain sucks.

Jugs of water heated up may help hold stable temperatures in a cooler with heat packs. I feel very lucky here, the area just 10 miles south of me just got mowed by tornados. We got a lot of rain dumped on us, but not much beyond that--and it's all headed your way now.

I was just thinking about that earlier tonight, myself. I have 3 clutches in incubators, and they're all ball python, so they're kind of finicky. We have a generator, but we've never even taken it out of the box. :P

Can you get a small generator, or maybe a 115vac/12vdc converter and run the incubator off a car battery. Not sure how this would work out, but I have given it some thought myself.. Good luck!!

Originally Posted by Cat_72

OK, so I've prepared for keeping my snakes warm during outages due to winter blizzards, but I guess had never really thought about eggs....

Cathy,

What method do you use to keep your critters warm in winter outages?

I agree with Casey. A small generator or a transformer from your car might be the best bet for short term use.

Another option is if someone else has a large generator. I know that you have a good relationship with your vet. Does his/her hospital have a backup generator and if so can you bring your incubator and eggs there?

Last option, put them in your car, run the heat inside, drive to the east coast where I'll plug in the unit and take you for a swim in the ocean to cool off.

I was worried about this myself, so id love to see everyones ideas on how to handle a situation like this.

I have a couple places i could go, if i absolutely needed to, that have generators. but its a good topic! Especially with all the crappy storms that we've been having lately

When I was in New Orleans after Katrina for animal rescue. What I used to keep the reptiles warm. Was the rubber water heat packs. Heated over a fire they stay pretty warm a while. If you have everything in a room what I used to keep the room temp up was the screw on camping heaters that just screw to the top of the little propain tanks.
There used for inside of tents so I think they don't give off to much or any carbon dioxide. Also heat packs wrapped in socks, but I would think the rubber water heat packs would be good for eggs ...

The propane tanks aren't so good with poor ventilation, no--tents are pretty permeable to air.
I like the vet idea, I'm sure they'd be willing to help in an emergency situation like that.

Thanks for all of the input!

Our power did come back on this morning, so all is well for now....and we only have a few inches of water left in the basement, so it could have been a LOT worse. But it did really get me to thinking anyway!

For the winter, we have kerosene heaters and heat packs, but running a kerosene heater really didn't seem practical for this. I'm just nervous about overdoing the heat with something like water bottles (or the heat packs for that matter) - I'm thinking it would be better to have them remain a bit cooler than usual as opposed to overheating them. It just seems so many options would be impossible to regulate the temps with any degree of accuracy. I don't worry so much about keeping the snakes at an "exact" temp, just keeping them fairly toasty.

I may end up looking into a small generator, or the converter Casey mentioned. I know that my vet would help me out, and think that would be a great idea if I thought it would be a long-term outage, but then the idea of moving them all over scares me (I'm such a baby about the eggs, lol), knowing my coordination I'd end up tripping and dropping them or something while transporting them. But then again, the ocean sounds mighty tempting, lol.