Winter care - Tips and thoughts

[Garter_Gertie]

So you mean if the boiler goes out - it did. And the sniglettes were fine. Because if the power goes out I'm not going to have electricity to work the heater!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[olive oil]

Oh I had a brain fart, we use Kerosene.

[stitch]

I have a question: What's normal behaviour for a snake in the wintertime? My Steve used to be quite active until very recently, now he just lays around most of the time either in his hide or in the warmer part of the tank. He doesn't even seem interested in climbing his branch anymore... Sometimes he's so still, I have to watch and make sure he's still breathing. :/

[Garter_Gertie]

Stevie-boy's brumating a bit. Slowed down for the winter. Bet he'd not eating like his ol'usual self either, huh?

Normal sniglette stuff. Others will give a more detailed answer.

Oh! Have I welcomed you yet? If not, "WELCOME!"

If I have, "WELCOME!" again!

[reptile3]

I am praying that this winter will be like last years... very mild!! here in GA we get ice storms, not much snow.

I have all that I need to keep all my reptiles safe & warm!! I am prepared. Also you can use those survival heat pads
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/...500_AA280_.jpg

you can get them at home depot, or other hardware stores.

We use our heat when it gets below 50 in the house.. my hubby is a cheap arse. We do use the fireplace alot, that is when all my breathing issues arise too!! yay me!!

Thanks for this post Wayne...

[gregmonsta]

Our living room is the warmest in the house ... probably thanks to our snake tanks in part ... in the evening we always move our washing in there from the spare bedroom ... nice humidity during the night ... a good emergency thing to have around the house is those handwarming packs that you can get for hillwalking ... a lot of UK stores use them for transporting reptiles ... if your power goes just activate it and pop it in the enclosure (check the temp first and wrap it tight in a pillowcase if needs be) - 24hrs peace of mind

[adamanteus]

I have a petrol generator for back-up..... works for me!

[infernalis]

I have a petrol generator for back-up..... works for me!

Some day I'll have one of those....

We have been looking into Solar and wind as a way to get rid of the grid..

[adamanteus]

My generator will never replace the grid, but it's enough to run the house if we have a power out.

[infernalis]

We have too many power outs here... So a generator would be nice.

If we were to heat with wood (free fuel) and use that to also heat our water, then use a propane stove for cooking, then we could get by just fine with a bank of lead acid batteries and inverters to run the TV and computers.

There is already a great selection of lights that run on 12 volts.

We only use $100 a month in electricity, but over a 5 year span that's six grand to the electric company... do it myself and even if I spend 3K on power equipment, that's another $3K to buy garter snakes with

Oh and the savings in heating costs would be around $2000 a year...