Winter Weather Tips For Reptiles

[@cara9648]

Another tip is a lot of reptiles can die if it gets too hot, but can survive some cold, so making sure you're not over heating your animal is important. And knowing what extreme temps will harm your specific animal too.

[@georgiaherrera3857]

Thank you for mentioning heat pads. I recently got scolded on Reddit for suggesting using one.

[@chelmastly5802]

that's reddit for you... don't get me wrong, had a lot of help from people over there, but the whole subgenre of animal forums is generally an echo chamber of people without vet or zoology degrees pretending that they do. An electric blanket was what stood between my tegu and freezing to death when the power was out one year

[@poochiew.9302]

@@chelmastly5802 🤔 Just curious, how did your electric blanket work with no power?

[@chelmastly5802]

@ there are battery ones! I should’ve known to mention that 😅 they’re sometimes a bit more pricey but tbh it isn’t just my animals that need an emergency winter outage heat source, so do I

[@poochiew.9302]

@@chelmastly5802 Oh! I had no idea there were battery operated ones!

[@pencildragon1961]

Sometimes, the way design your reptile room helps. I'm here in the northeast, and my reptile room is in my basement, and the concrete floor radiates the cold from the ground in winter. Given a choice for flooring, I went with a waterproof vinyl plank flooring with 2 layers of underlay to get a couple of air gaps for insulation, to keep the room warmer.

[@poochiew.9302]

For those extreme emergencies when you need heat, the hand/feet warmers will work and they're fairly cheap. They're like the ones used for shipping but people put them in gloves or shoes. Might be more readily available too.

[@shadlyn3803]

I keep a handful of 96 hour shipping warmers in my emergency kit. If there's a severe outage, I can move my reptiles into their smaller "evacuation" containers and strap one of those to the side or wrap it in a towel inside. It gives my critter something to cuddle up against in an emergency if I have no power at all, and the smaller container makes it easier to keep warm.

[@shadlyn3803]

Also for true emergencies: I remember being told that if you think your reptile will be stuck in the cold DO NOT FEED. They may not be able to digest, which can make 'em really sick. Better to go hungry for a couple of days in *most* cases (may vary by reptile, so please consider this a thing to investigate not a definite guidance!)

[@SeverusSnape12345]

One thing you can do to help is use a space heater that has a way to set it to a specific temperature. It helps to make sure the room remains at a good temperature for the exotics in these cold temperatures. Even with the heater, the room they are in easily gets pretty cold since the door has to be kept shut to keep the cats out, so the temps can't equalize and the thermostat doesn't know an individual room dropped in temp too much. my beardie entered brumation early for whatever reason this year where he went into brumation around the end of august and came out in November. Goofball. It's his first winter as an adult though, so I'm guessing he may have been somewhat confused on exactly when he's supposed to brumate lol. I'll find out next year if the weird timing ends up being a trend for him or not lol.

[@davephillips8642]

Good morning Elle, hope your week ahead is amazing!!! It got really cold here in Northeast Ohio, so I'm hoping all the reptile owners were ready. The weather is crazy!!

[@littlecr3atur3]

I'm originally from that area! the lake-effect is no joke

[@davephillips8642]

@littlecr3atur3 you aren't kidding. Luckily, the Boardman area was able to stay away from the lake effect, but the temperatures stink!!

[@ellesreptiles]

Thank you! I hope you have an amazing week as well. The weather really is crazy. We went from warm and sunny to below freezing in a week 😅

[@davephillips8642]

@ellesreptiles it's totally crazy especially with it being Alabama. Hopefully, your weather goes back to semi-normal like soon lol. 🙂

[@PianoDisneygal10]

Insulating glass terrariums is useful too.

[@mirkrovi]

How do you that? A lot of my reptiles are in glass terrariums, and I didn't know that was thing.

[@PianoDisneygal10]

@ for me I have used sound proofing foam squares and have stuck them all around the sides and back of my leopard gecko’s terrarium. And I stick a piece on half of the top of the enclosure to prevent heat escaping that way. Went from struggling to get the terrarium to 80 degrees to easily reaching 90

[@mirkrovi]

@@PianoDisneygal10 that's brilliant! I'll look into that. Thank you!

[@PianoDisneygal10]

@@mirkrovi no worries.

[@deezgex]

​@PianoDisneygal10 that is very innovative

[@TehBuggy]

We get a lot of winter power outages in my area, so my extra tip is to prepare for that! I have a mini camping heater for emergencies, and if the power is flickering or a big storm is expected I skip/postpone feeding. If I think heat will be unreliable, I try my best to make sure my snake isn’t trying to digest something. Also have a backup plan in case power is out for several days in a row. My parents live nearby and they have a wood stove, so a few times I’ve brought my animals over to their place to stay warm.

[@catfrog1975]

Thank you for this video! One I'm running into this year is the artificial heating in my building really drying out the air, for humans and reptiles alike. I've noticed my ball python seems to drink much more regularly under these conditions, so I've upped his water change schedule to make sure he always has fresh water to drink. This tip is probably redundant for anyone who has more stable humidity in their enclosures & home, but for me, it's been essential!

[@Carnosaur290]

This is pretty solid advice. I always use the bio dude thermometer/hydrometer to measure the high and low temps even at night when I’m not awake.

[@deezgex]

Yes it does get cold here. When power goes out is when i worry and im 30min away at work at night

[@sa1ye00]

5:43 your thumb kind of creeped me out at first, but that’s actually so cool lol

[@marcosavila1204]

Very Helpful Video

[@InnocuousInes-pe8mk]

I'm not a reptile but I'm still gonna watch in case i meet one

[@ginabaker8167]

My beardie is only is only 10 months old. He actually brumated for 15 days. He has been awake for 5 days. waited until he was awake for 2 days to feed him. He is still not really eating a lot. He still has a nice fat supply stored in his tail. Your videos are so helpful. Thank you.

[@lostontheislandinks]

tHANK YOU FOR THIS!! This is my first snake winter and its SUPER cold here lol

[@nomnoms2396]

Excellent content🎉

[@MoPets888]

Great info!! We are in Montgomery 🥶

[@willammoore862]

Another great one!

[@GracePeterson-q9h]

Unrelated, but your blow out looks really good!

[@kaylaransome5835]

Thank you this was very helpful ❤

[@Syddddddddd12345]

Morning elle! How are you?

[@ellesreptiles]

Good morning! I'm great, how are you? 🥰

[@triple_A_rockhound]

Grow your own pet food for pets helps a lot for winter 😎✌️

[@melissaschroeder1670]

I know you have a full bearded dragon brumation video, but any thoughts on putting salad and/or bugs in daily even when they haven’t moved in weeks? I’m worried the bugs will annoy her or die in the tank or that she’ll eat some but stay sleepy and not poop for weeks.

[@LEMIEisa_BALLPYTHON713]

I put a heavy towel over top of the tank not on the heat light. Went up 8 degrees

[@littlecr3atur3]

💜💜💜💜

[@Craken_alt]

anyone got any tips for keeping humidity up? It gets really dry in my area.

[@cara9648]

Some people use foggers/misting systems in the tank to help keep humidity up. It depends on how high your animal needs the humidity. Another way is to mist the enclosure down multiple times a day. Another tip I've seen is having a bowl of water (not their drinking water) on the warm side of the enclosure as it'll evaporate and help keep the humidity up.

[@Craken_alt]

@@cara9648 ok thank you

[@mars-li1lp]

What if you live in the UK.where the temp goes up and down

[@mflee6590]

Does ceramic heat emitter kill humidity?

[@idkabtit-69]

Nope