Owning bearded dragons is fun and cute but we should all have some sort of back up plan and emergency kit when the weather gets bad. I'm thinking about this today because I found myself frazzled last night as Dexter's tank made it to 65 degrees. Luci was okay, he is closer to the floor so he stayed at a high 67 degrees. I have a CHE but my extra dome fixture was being used for my frogs. Dexter got her wish last night and she slept wrapped in a blanket in the 72 degree living room. My first stop today is to get 2 more fixtures, one for Dexter and one for Luci. We were lucky the power didn't go out.
So things to have on hand would be:
-Warming blankets that can cover your tank. One time our electricity completely went out on a winter night and we quickly filled water jugs and bottles with hot water, put them in the tanks and covered the tanks with blankets to keep as much heat in as possible. Make sure if you cover your tanks with a blanket that you either turn your light switches to off or take them off completely. You don't want the lights to go on with a blanket wrapped around them.
-Some sort of portable warmer. I have those hand/body/feet warmers on hand but something better would probably be the warmers that you use to ship reptiles.
-A smaller tank that you can use as a temporary housing. A smaller sized tank is going to be easier to heat and keep warm. During hurricane Sandy, my frog people talked about how they put their frogs in smaller tanks to be able to move them to the room that had the fire place going or the space heaters.
-Have a place that you can temporarily bring your bearded dragon if you loose electricity or heat for a long period of time.
Another important thing to remember is don't feed your bearded dragon if you have no electricity. They need the heat to digest their food.
Also, everyone should have Betadine wash and Neosporin WITHOUT menthal. You never know when an accident is going to happen. Critical Care is also good to have on hand.
This is all I can think of at the moment, if anyone else can think of any helpful tips please write them down.
So things to have on hand would be:
-Warming blankets that can cover your tank. One time our electricity completely went out on a winter night and we quickly filled water jugs and bottles with hot water, put them in the tanks and covered the tanks with blankets to keep as much heat in as possible. Make sure if you cover your tanks with a blanket that you either turn your light switches to off or take them off completely. You don't want the lights to go on with a blanket wrapped around them.
-Some sort of portable warmer. I have those hand/body/feet warmers on hand but something better would probably be the warmers that you use to ship reptiles.
-A smaller tank that you can use as a temporary housing. A smaller sized tank is going to be easier to heat and keep warm. During hurricane Sandy, my frog people talked about how they put their frogs in smaller tanks to be able to move them to the room that had the fire place going or the space heaters.
-Have a place that you can temporarily bring your bearded dragon if you loose electricity or heat for a long period of time.
Another important thing to remember is don't feed your bearded dragon if you have no electricity. They need the heat to digest their food.
Also, everyone should have Betadine wash and Neosporin WITHOUT menthal. You never know when an accident is going to happen. Critical Care is also good to have on hand.
This is all I can think of at the moment, if anyone else can think of any helpful tips please write them down.
