06/20/2022
EMERGENCY INFORMATION IF YOU OWN ANIMALS:
Recently we had some severe storms roll through Wisconsin. There were 8 confirmed tornadoes last I checked.
I lost power from 630pm Wednesday until 4am Friday. Besides losing a lot of human food in my fridge, I experienced a tremendous amount of stress over my reptile family.
Most reptiles are tropical animals. I have some that require, yes REQUIRE 120 degree F Temps. Without adequate heat, they cannot digest food, it can rot in their guts and cause illness and death.
Fortunately I keep hand warmers on hand for hunting and extra just in case. I was able to at least keep a warm spot for my smaller animals that had been fed just prior to the outage. I was really anxious about my larger animals who have bigger enclosures. I could not feed them on schedule. Hand warmers aren't hot enough for their needs, either. They ultimately slept/brumated through the outage.
Takeaways:
1. Definitely keep all kinds of warmers for animals, especially exothermic reptiles and amphibians.
2. Get a generator or enough back-up battery packs, kept charged, and cover at least enough wattage for heat pads and heat lamps.
3. Bonus if you can afford a battery pack to power your food storage devices.
4. Buy charcoal to go with the grill you own so you can eat your thawing steaks and not just stare at them longingly.
