# Power outages and SLEEP Bed buddies?



## Hissy-Fit-Hazel (Jul 15, 2011)

Someone else's post just made me get thinking about power outages in the night or extended outages. How do you deal or plan to deal with this? 
I'm fortunate in that I have a back up battery that immediately sounds an alarm if the power goes out and will wake me...but most do not have a system like that. 

I have the hand warmers and all that for emergency plan all ready to go...but how do you sleep when you are worried about your hedgies???? 

I gave this some thought and I have a small plastic container with locking lid and a lot of holes drilled for air that I set aside for vet trips and such (small as in half the size as a small regular hard sided carrier. I wondered if in case of an overnight power outage I could put Hazel in this with a hand warmer (wrapped up safely of course) and take her to bed WITH me? I kind of wonder about air flow tho if I got her bin snuggled up to me for warmth and thought maybe I could put another larger bin with holes over her holding bin....any thoughts? 

I think this would keep her safe, warm and me able to still sleep but I do wonder about air flow under the bedding with me and her night time activity being disturbed. We have had times here with no power for up to a week (not often but it has happened ) Hmmm thinking further I could actually just put her in a regular small hard sided carrier in bed with me??? My battery back up runs max 8 hrs with power outage but that would be only with her heater plugged in...add in a light or microwave use to heat up snuggle safe or anything and that reduces the time rapidly. During the day I think I have down pat and if in doubt she can snuggle up carried around by me but night time is a bit of a concern. I suppose yes one can set a cell phone alarm to check on them but eventually that would die and not be able to recharge...and of course one would not sleep well of at all.


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## GoldenEyes (Nov 4, 2011)

I was wondering the same thing, living in Canada, we do get quite a few power outages, most dont last long but its happened where it lasted a week when we had this huge freak snow storm. What do you do in that situation?

I liked the car idea, going into the car with your hedgie with the heater on, but i dont own a car :roll: my mom does though.

I guess you can light some candles in the room to make some sort of a heat source in there, I've also seen people use small propane heaters. but I dont know if that's practical.


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## ShutUpAndSmile (Mar 7, 2011)

GoldenEyes said:


> I was wondering the same thing, living in Canada, we do get quite a few power outages, most dont last long but its happened where it lasted a week when we had this huge freak snow storm. What do you do in that situation?
> 
> I liked the car idea, going into the car with your hedgie with the heater on, but i dont own a car :roll: my mom does though.
> 
> I guess you can light some candles in the room to make some sort of a heat source in there, I've also seen people use small propane heaters. but I dont know if that's practical.


Candles are a bad idea, especially to sleep with at night. Huge fire hazard. Even when your not asleep. 
Also running a car would cost a lot of money in gas I feel like. x:
I don't have any suggestions. I feel like the carrying case next to you isn't a bad idea. Your body heat would defiantly help.


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## GoldenEyes (Nov 4, 2011)

I actually just had a thought (PING :idea: lol) um I dont know if any of you have heard of this heating pad called TIKTAK Heat? Basically its this "heating pad" that has a little clicker thing inside of it, and you click it and it causes it to harden and heat up, no electricity needed. It lasts for 2 hours and they're 6 bucks a pad. 

What it says on the back : "Heat Therapy Pack gives instant heat up to approx. 54 degrees when activated."

Might not be perfect but for 6 bucks what the hey. I have about 4 of them because I kept rebuying them instead of boiling them like you're supposed to to "reset" them to the way they were before. 

I think I might boil mine. That'll be about 8 hours of heat, not the best but mixed with my body heat that might work well.


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## Nancy (Aug 22, 2008)

Even though our power rarely goes out now, I do have memories of the Ice Storm. Ours was only out for 12 hours but my parents was out for a week and people just north of us were out for a month. The first few years of owning hedgehogs I lost sleep in the winter whenever there was a storm or drop in temperature. We put in a gas stove. It looks like an old fashioned wood stove but works off natural gas. It will keep the house warm and the heat travels upstairs to the hedgies room. With luck, they could all stay in their cages and their room would be warm enough. 

In areas where the power goes out frequently for extended periods, there needs to be a plan in place for keeping hedgie warm as well as keeping household pipes from freezing. For a few hours or up to a day, mitten warmers will work but past that a better solution needs to be thought of. Some people have a generator and are able to run their furnace plus heat up a snuggle safe.

I have numerous of those little clicker activated heat packs and no way do they last 2 hours. They work okay for a bit of warmth after the bath but certainly are not a solution in a power outage. The chemical activated hand warmers that last 6 or more hours are better. I keep a good stock of them.


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## GoldenEyes (Nov 4, 2011)

AHAH Yeah thats the storm I was talking about Nancy, I dont really remember it, i was a bit younger then and apparently dont remember having a week off of school but our power was out for about a week and a bit, we had to go stay at my grandmas. We did end up buying a generator after that, but I dont really know how it works :s I guess I'll have to figure that out.

But our generator is really loud. Like CRAZY loud, is there any quieter ones?


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## Nancy (Aug 22, 2008)

Generators are loud but they sit outside so the noise shouldn't be that much of a deal. 

The ice storm certainly was an experience. My parents power had gone off and we brought them out to our house. The next morning ours went off. My girls thought it was a riot, cooking on the camp stove and grandma and grandpa here. By evening the house was starting to get chilly when thankfully back on came the power. We are on a main road and main line so ours had to be fixed before they could do the side roads. My kids were off school for a week and even when they went back there were many kids who weren't there because the buses couldn't get down the roads.


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## Lilysmommy (Jan 7, 2009)

I posted this on my own post about the storm in Michigan, but I thought I'd post here too, in case anyone's following this thread as well.

Looking around on this site - http://cozywinters.com/ I found some equipment that might be very useful in emergencies like this. I'm not completely sure what I'm thinking of would work, but here's what I found:

http://cozywinters.com/shop/bench-warmer.html This is battery-powered, so doesn't need to be microwaved or anything that would require power. The battery does need to be charged, but as long as you keep that charged beforehand, it'd last for about 5 hours, at least. You can also buy extra batteries to keep charged.

http://cozywinters.com/shop/lh-adhesive-warmers.html These could be stuck on the walls of a sterilite container in order to help heat the actual container more rather than just the floor. Covering the container would help hold in the heat from the body warmers and the bench warmer, too.

They also have battery-heating clothing, but it's rather expensive...But if you could afford them, at least during the day you could put on a heated sweatshirt or something and keep you and hedgie warm!


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## GoldenEyes (Nov 4, 2011)

Is there a thermometer you can buy that will set off an alarm if it gets to a certain temperature? That would be SO handy


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## GoldenEyes (Nov 4, 2011)

http://www.petsandponds.com/en/reptile- ... 34113.html

It sounds like this one does, so that might solve the issue of if the power goes off at night!


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## JuliaZ (Dec 1, 2011)

We have several backup resources, having endured an 11-day outage after an ice storm a few years ago without hedgehogs:
- chemical hand warmers
- natural gas fireplace which keeps one big room habitable
- gasoline generator & fuel for 48 hours
- 2 cars, and we always fuel up completely before big storms are due to hit (most gas stations that had power and therefore working pumps ran out of fuel)
- public spaces (the city/county runs generator-heated warming centers that technically don't allow pets, but how would they even notice the little hedgie nestled in your sweatshirt? :shock

I'm also a huge fan of the "hedgie in a fleece bag snuggled up with me" plan, though I recognize that it's not practical for days on end. 

Having co-slept with many cats and dogs and two children from hours after they were born (at home) onwards, I know I can successfully and safely co-sleep with other "people". I think a hedgie would be a bit more of a bedhog :roll: than normal but it would still be doable.


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## Hissy-Fit-Hazel (Jul 15, 2011)

The small dog carrier I have in my emergency stuff dedicated for Hazel I have figured out is JUST big enough that I could actually drill a hole in the rear and hook a wheel up in there. SO...in case of no heat in an all day/all night situation and need to sleep... I could put her in that with warmers and just keep the door end uncovered in bed with me lol. Really would not take up much room. She could still do all her hedgie activity stuff and I could sleep without too much worry. 

Having the crate door up near my snoozing face is a little concerning tho when the poop-wheeling starts hahahaha


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