Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi all, A question for everyone ..I live in Upstate NY

I just spent a couple of weeks down in Florida ,(Its just downright unfair more Herps just walking around taking in the sun than I could count ,Here in NY I ONCE saw a skink lol) But 2 days before my sceduled vacation was too end my Herp sitted called and asked if it was really good for my Geckos and Iguanas to be sitting in 50 degree temps because they sure moved kind of slow.After I woke from fainting ,I calmly (ok screamed) asked exactly what he meant 50 degrees and for how long??? Since last night I guess ,I didnt want to wake ya .Now considering moments before I had recived a call about how we just had our first snow ..I was imagining my heat out and my entire collection of cresties froze to death. To make a long story short ..after a frantic call to my local furnace repair man and a impressive bribe to drop everything ..the furnace was repaired and every crestie and herp survived their 50 degree ordeal.
But having realized the chink in my armor ..I think I want back up plans A B and C .. Ive ordered a gas fireplace in case my furnace breaks down, and a kerosun in case the electric goes out. Any other suggestions for such emegency situations?

I went thru the same thing but worse a couple of winters ago. Lost power for about two days. I am lucky to have a fire place upstairs and had to put all my geckos in bins stacked near the fire place. I also had two incubators going, the temps in the incubators dropped to the low 60's for a short time.

I got lucky that time and didn't lose anything even the eggs hatched ok.

The room I was working on when you were here is complete now. It has its own gas stove controlled by a theromastat and will keep working even if their is no power. All you need power for is the blower. If you go gas try a model with out a blower, you can always add one if you need it.

PS. hows the crested you got from me doing, did they color up?

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RandyS
R&B Geckos
Email: randbgeckos@adelphia.net

Thats very good info to know on the gas heater ..I didnt realize it wouldnt need power (although I guess I should have).I will be having that installed that this week.

One is a very rich chocolate that will flare up a handsome red. The other is a lighter chocolate and its color never varies. Ive got plans for them both. I happen to like the chocolate color better than some of the more popular colors .Also while my experence is minimal and my pool of 20 too small a sampling to make any hard and fast statement. There is no doubt that those two are growing much faster than any of my others ,Im thinking the introduction of some freash wild caught genes will be a big plus to my colony .

kerosene heaters are usually good however the fumes are not, besides that fact most kerosene heaters still need electricity to work. basically what i do ( in iowa ) is keep several dozen heat packs just laying here in case i run into a situation like that. it's not like the animals can't very easily survive shipping in a box with a heat pack below freezing, so i just separate everything in tupperware containers similar to shipping them and check on them every couple hours.

What a close call you had! I've been looking into getting a back-up generator. In addition to a houseful of geckos, I have 3 freezers full of my hubby's game (deer, moose, turkey & pheasant) and losing power for any extended period would spoil all of it.
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Terri
4:8:4 crested geckos: Popcorn, Goldfish, Harley, Bear, Big Red, Olive, Smudge, Blackie, Belle, Brilliant, Tina, Brick, Toni(y), Kermit, ChiliPepper & Spot