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Whelp, we were luckier than many in the Orlando area (only minor property damage, no injuries, no interruption in water or phone service), but we were w/o power from about 9:30 Friday night 'till 6:45 Tuesday evening. Was very worried about Oolong... the house never really got much below about 80 degrees that whole time, but never really got much above that, either. We didn't offer him food for that period, as we figured going w/o food for a few days would be better than his not being able to digest his food properly due to too-low temps. We took him outside to get some sun when we could, but w/ all the rain, lately, that only amounted to an hour or so a day, if that. Was also worried about the high humidity.

Oolong seems to be recovering nicely today, so we're hoping he won't have any lasting problems due to storm-related stress (was pondering whether or not we could sue the power company for vet bills if Oolong comes down w/ an URI ;} ). My question, though, is does anyone have any clever ideas for helping beardies live through unexpectedly stressful times, particularly when you're w/o power for several days? We considered hooking Oolong's lights up to the computer's battery backup, but didn't think that would last long enough to make a difference. If we'd been w/o power for another day, we probably would have ended up taking Oolong up to live at the radio station where my fiance works, since they had power the whole time. Not really sure how the Higher Ups at the station would feel about that, but I think Oolong would be a fine mascot. ;D

Hope everybody else weathered the storm well...

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~Alice

1.0 Bearded Dragon (Oolong)
0.1 ferret (Lil' Guy)
7.4 cats (Angel, Goblin, Hush, Kirin, Sammy, Squee, Toes, Feets, Gypsy, Kana, Raisen)

Personally I'd still feed the dragon if there wasn't power. I'd just give him stuff that's easier to digest (apple, squash, etc) stuff like that and avoid super worms and the like. Anyway, do the best you can and don't worry too much. A couple of days in the 80s shouldn't be too difficult on the beardie. Unless he was already ill, he should be perfectly fine.

Don't worry. He'll be fine. Don't worry about the UI. I think it would have taken a long time for that to be a prob. Not to mention, there are a lot of people who house them outside here in FL without any problems. I think the humidity causes problems when they are in a confined area where nasties are prone to grow. He had plenty of fresh air etc.

Good luck.
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Joel R

Coming some day.
www.SpikesAndScales.com

I agree, you shouldn't feed your dragon without enough heat to digest. I live in the midwest and have had to deal with this in the winter when ice takes the power lines down. I use heat packs for the dragons to keep warm, you can get them in the Sporting Goods section @ Walmart.
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www.classylizard.com

I Hear Ya!!

I'm in ST Pete so I had a person I work with keep Dex till we knew it was safe to come home.

as was said: 80 for a few days with no food should not be a big problem as long as the dragon is otherwise in good health etc...

remmeber that they have stores of fat that they use when they can't find food all the time. so if your bd had good mass and fat pads then I bet he could go a week and still be ok.

as long as the temp and humidity did not get to crazy and he could hide out and be safe.

my worry was if my apt was flooded by the storm surge from tampa bay that the cold sea water would do bad things.

so I got my Dex out and on high ground to avoid a drowning !

Hope any one else in FLA is doing ok!
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