The holiday season is among us and though many of us are prepared for the seasonal temperature changes, have you considered what your pet reptiles may need?
Reptiles and Seasonal Temperature Changes
We have sweaters, blankets, and hot coffee, but what can we do to make sure our reptiles needs are met as the temperature outside gets colder and the humidity drops? Most keepers outside of states that have a hotter climate like Florida keep their reptiles inside where they can be warmer, but that doesn't mean that you shouldn't be prepared in the case of any emergency.
Reptiles kept indoors
Keeping your pet reptiles indoors provides a good opportunity to manage all of their care requirements in a mostly controlled environment. Always take into account that as the temperatures and humidity change outside your indoor environment changes too. You have the upper hand over outdoor keepers because you already have space allocated for your pet reptiles. This time of year the main concern you need to take into account is making sure your equipment is running well. If your heaters are running smoothly than you are ahead of the game. However, this provides a chance to replace equipment that may cause error because this is the time of year where you want to avoid error. You may also consider upgrading heat sources to larger ones if your home gets too cold.
Space heaters are also a good option, though they can lower your humidity. There are a few types of space heaters, but here we will be comparing ceramic tower heaters vs portable radiator heaters. Ceramic tower heaters often come in a smaller size. They can work for a small room and usually oscillate. Portable radiator heaters are best for larger rooms and don't oscillate, therefore heating everything based on how close it is in proximity to the heater. They both serve the same function of keeping your room at your desired temperature. Make sure to purchase one that allows you to pick your desired temperature and consider connecting a thermostat to it as well. You may potentially want to get one that can be wifi controllable.
Reptiles kept outdoors
For the most part, you can use a similar practice for outdoor reptiles. The curve ball may lie in allocating the space for your reptiles that are kept outdoors. Once you make room for your pet reptiles, the only thing that you may need different from the details listed in the indoor section of this article is caging. If you decide to keep your reptiles outdoors you can always make heated hides. A good heated hide is insulated and has an outdoor grade heat mat. I.e. the Zoo Med Repti Therm Habitat Heater accompanied with a proper thermostat. However, I do not recommend keeping your reptiles outside year round if you experience very cold temperatures and/or snow.
Emergencies
It is always better to be safe than sorry. We take a look back at the severe power outage that happened in Texas during winter 2021 which caused many reptile keepers to lose animals. Though disasters like that are not predicable and they are extremely unfortunate, we can look at those events and try to tackle them as appropriately as possible moving forward. For those that live in climates that can get too cold for your reptiles it may help to have a generator in case of emergencies. We can't predict the future, but any steps we can take to protect our pet reptiles is important for good reptile husbandry.
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