Emergency Preparedness

[acpart]

Someone posted on another forum about being prepared in the event of extended power outages, but lately I've been thinking a lot about what I'd do if there was a fire in the house and I had to get out quickly. Does anyone have a leopard gecko emergency transport plan? I have about 27 geckos at the moment and I save all my cloth bags from my mealworm shipments. If I had to get out fast, I would put as many geckos as I had time for in the bags (hopefully I'd have enough time to bag the males separately) and head out. Anyone else?

Aliza

 

[dsreptiles]

financially a good plan if you had a ton would be to insure them if it's possible. Hey if women can insure their expensive legs, and body parts (models do this mostly) then I'm sure you can insure you investments as far as animals and cages etc.


Now emotionally. I'd say your idea is as good as any. Even if you end up with multiple males in the same bag, chances are all the moving around you'd be doing would distract them from fighting for the moment. Another good idea is if you have a porch or garage/barn anything of the sort. even a spare car where you could keep a few extra tanks/rubbermaids/small containers. do so. That way you could divide up your males as best as you possibly could to avoid any damage once your safely away from your house.

 

[marula]

...i have a plan for my dogs and my geckos...but you can't know what's can happend...so..i only hope to never be in the situation to check my plan...

 

[sacredcreatures]

I am a Manx cat breeder plus raise geckos of three kinds, Beardies and have lots of other critters. For the manx we first thought having many Cat carriers would work but of course depending on the amount it might not work so we got thoses extra big pillow cases and have them next to the cats in the cattery and we have done the same for each kind of reptile. All Leos go in one extra large Pillow case, all crested go into a another one ect. Then in a out building I have shoeboxes and sweather boxes stored for emergencies after I get them out of the house. Each bag has wants in it incase I need to just put them outside on the ground and people are helping me. Then I have heat packs available for heat depending on the temp. No I wouldn't be worried about males with males ect because I was saving their lives first. But You know there is always a possibility that you will not get them all out. Which really makes me sad but I will do the best I can. Yesterday my electric was out all day. I have eggs in a incubator and Dragons that need it really warm and the Leos, fatties and cresteds. I was so worried but all faired well. It wasn't too cold here so that was OK but I worry about winter. My husband says that rocks retain heat and that for the incubator I could have some in there at the temp needed and if the electric goes out it will take a long time for the temp to drop. Heat packs get too hot!. I know my system isn't perfect but I could get some out safely that way. I'd love to hear other ideas.

 

[BalloonzForU]

My #1 emergency plan is to not have an emergency. However we all know that plan could fall through.

My temporary plan for power outage with incubator is to plug it into my van and stay in the van with the incubator til power comes back on. We are shopping around for a generator for the whole house that will automatically kick on with loss of power and runs of my gas line.

In case of fire? That's a tuff one. Knowing my husband the only things he would be worried about is human life. I'm sure I would be able to get our dog out of the house, but it could take a lot of time to find the two cats as they have many hiding spaces, as for the geckos, RESs, Tort, mice, I'm not really sure of an easy and safe way to evacuate them from the house. :main_no:

Due to the age of my house, the wiring, is one of the reasons I'm pushing to get the herp room done over the winter. It is the only room in the house that has new wiring, with it's own breaker box, that can handle the load that I'll be putting on in the next few years. 16.5 x 9.5 room with seven 4 outlet boxes! And a second connected room 12 x 9.5 with another five 4 outlet boxes. :main_thumbsup: The rest of the house is tube and nob, pain in the butt, and is going to be a major project to replace, with plaster walls. My plan is to make the rooms as fire resistant as I can, maybe even put in a sprinkler system.

 

[BalloonzForU]

Actually I just thought of something that I've done when moving the racks that could be fast. With the lay out of the tubs I can actually stack the tubs inside each other without lids except the top one to get them out faster then place the lids on after getting outside. The hides and food bowls keep the leos from getting squished. That still leaves the cresteds, RES, Tort and Cats.

 

[SaSobek]

well when you have a fire. you dont have much time. i wasnt home when this happened back in march. i was in my car 10 min away by the time i got there the place was all smoke. here are some pics of what can happen. the first is of the incubator you can see the eggs if you look close had close to 80 eggs in there. the next two are of one of the racks that had well as you can see melted to nothing. (6 feet down to about 3 inches) i had about 50 geckos at the time and actualy about 20 had survived the fire. but had about 10 more die off later that week from smoke damage to the lungs. of the remaining 10, 7 look great back up to weight and some are actualy breeding already. but 3 of them are realy underweight still and get special treatment every day i have to hand feed them waxworms and they are finaly starting to come back around. View attachment 1922 View attachment 1923 View attachment 1924

so the lesson of the day is you can never be to safe. and be happy all the time with what you have cause it can be gone in the blink of an eye.
also a special thanks goes out to Alberto from A&M he baby sat my geckos that did live intill i had my new racks. Alberto thank you again for every thing

 

[gixxer3420]

WE just had a huge snow storm last night that dumped 20 inches of snow and we lost power last night at 8pm and we just got it back 5 minutes ago. I took all the ubs from my rack put them in the bathroom and started my littl propane heater(that I use for ice fishing) and ran that and still am until the rack wamrs up. If i didn't have that little portable heater i would have been in trouble. All is well though and the geckos are thriving and actually were breeding through out the night as I checked on them every 10 minutes.

 

[BalloonzForU]

OH WOW, SaSobek! I'm so sorry for your loss. I can't imagine coming home to that, it would just break my heart. What was the cause of the fire if you don't mind me asking?

 

[SaSobek]

Yea it was really hard. It was a turning point. It was either just give up on the Leos all together and not breed them or go bigger. Well I went bigger

The fire started from a bad power strip. It was working fine with no problems
For months and one day it sparked and poof up it went.

So if you have plastic covered power strips I would definitely go to metal cased ones that way if the spark they don’t ignite.

 

[Arconna]

That is absolutely terrible Sasobek...I can't imagine having to deal with that. I only have 15 reptiles, but if I lost even one I would be devastated. To lose so many must have been unbearable.

I actually haven't thought of a plan for a fire yet. I don't know if I could even get them out where I live if that happened. All but my turtles are kept upstairs (this house is really big) so if there was a fire I'd have to go up a spiral staircase, through a bedroom and down a hall.
I think if it came down to having to get them all out fast I would put my beardie in a tub and then start piling leo's into a tub and either leave my cresty in his cage and just ferry him out or I dunno. I'd have to have as little as possible to carry out :S. I just hope to god it never happens.

What precautions other than buying metal cased power strips do you all take for your wiring to hopefully prevent fires?

 

[Stitch]

A cheap, easy and safe way to keep your geckos warm when the power goes out is to use those little hand or feet warmers that hunters use. I had some left over from a foot ball game and figured it would be a good way to keep the geckos warm on visits to the vet in the winter.

 

[Arconna]

I do that when the power goes out here. I've only had it happen a couple times in the last few years, but still it's good to have. Luckily for leo's they don't require sunlight . It sucks for my beardie though.

Also another thing I noticed that you can do is run hot water over something to heat it up. I did it with sand in a bag once and while it takes a while to do it, it works. But some people might not be able to do that depending on how their water works. Ours runs hot water for a little while when the power goes out because that's how our hot water thingy works I guess *shrugs*

 

[acpart]

I don't know if this would work, but in case of power outage I'd put the cages on the floor, get out my down sleeping bags and cover them over.

Aliza

 

[Arconna]

What about air supply? I wouldn't want to kill off my geckos by suffocation...But maybe those sleeping bags breath enough.

 

[DanTheFireman]

Ouch, SaSo. That sucks to say the least, glad to see that there were some survivors. Also, stay away from those plug-in room fresheners. One of our fire inspectors down here said she's seen three fires with source of origin narrowed down to those.

 

[LeosForLess]

I don't know if this would work, but in case of power outage I'd put the cages on the floor, get out my down sleeping bags and cover them over.

Aliza

I dont think that would work, sleeping bags need heat to radaite it back. So it just traps heat, it doesnt create it.

In a power outage, i would get in the car with the bator, hook the bator to the car, and drive to a friends.
In a fire, i have all of my lids in a pile and i woudl lid up every gecko box, and get them thru the window well.

 

[Stitch]

Also, stay away from those plug-in room fresheners. One of our fire inspectors down here said she's seen three fires with source of origin narrowed down to those.

I have heard that as well.

 

[Nastynotch]

A cheap, easy and safe way to keep your geckos warm when the power goes out is to use those little hand or feet warmers that hunters use. I had some left over from a foot ball game and figured it would be a good way to keep the geckos warm on visits to the vet in the winter.

ya thats a grand idea.
i have a bunch of those things laying around the house.
though we havent really had a power outage since that big grid break down about a year in a half go.

almost half the country lost power for a good day or so. what did you guys do then?