Tornados and geckos

[Bamagecko76]

I was just wondering about what you guys do with your reptiles during severe whether, do you leave them as is, take their setups to shelter, or put them in temporary containers?

I personally leave my reptiles up stairs mainly for their sake because I feel that the risk of a direct hit from a tornado does not out way the stress moving them to the basement would put them through.

Thoughts?

 

[OnlineGeckos]

Yikes, if you think you may have a direct hit and your house may get destroyed, you should just take your gecko out and put it in a lil critter containers and take it with you. I mean you don't want to lose the pet right?

If it becomes too frequent, you can always look into setting up the tank in the basement until the bad weather season is over.

 

[fl_orchidslave]

In Florida, the state requires a disaster plan diagram for permits to sell animals or display in public. This is to hopefully keep from having unintentional exotic pet releases into the wild, due to hurricanes. Transport containers are a must for this.

In your case, preparing for a tornado, there is very little warning and many things to protect, like old family photos and documents. About the best thing you could do for your gecko would be to have a 15qt sterlite with the flip up style locking handles set up with a paper towel,plastic sandwich or deli box hide, and a couple 2oz portion cups for food and water. You would want lightweight things in the container so the gecko wouldn't be hurt by being jostled around. So then you'd just yank him out of his cozy tank and into the previously prepared container. In the case of a lot of geckos, plan your groups ahead of time and put up a physical note so you don't have to think about it in 30 seconds.

When the tornados hit the midwest a short time back, I considered these things. What can reptile owners do to save their animals? A lot of their comforts would have to be temporarily left behind. Healthy animals can withstand this, and minimum is better for evacuations.

Five minutes isn't a lot of time.

 

[artes]

If tornados are a frequent problem where you live, I would come up with a plan like they suggested. When the tornados hit Alabama last month, they're so rare I had no plan, and ended up having to go downstairs without them - and I was worried sick, and pretty disgusted with myself, but I only had a 2 minute warning. Luckily, my neighborhood wasn't hit by anything but some rain, but it could have been a lot worse. I now have constructed a tornado/storm plan for my pets, and am working on gathering supplies. Basically, the plan involves paper towel lined critter carriers and a large box to put them in.

Trust me, your reptile would rather be pissed off at you then picked up by a tornado.

 

[Gecko977]

My gecko's tank is not heavy so I would probably have a family member take the tank,I'd take my dog then get to the safe part of our house.Or the other way around. But if you have many gecko's or you want something easier have a critter keeper prepared.

 

[TokayKeeper]

if even feasible, what about having a rack or 2 pre-setup in a storm cellar, basement, or some form of tornado shelter that matches ones' collection. One could keep a colony or 2 of mealies going and backup generators for supplying electricity for not only oneself and their family but even the geckos/herps. I know of many within the green tree python community that happen to live in heavy snow areas that keep either generators or oil space heaters prepped some such what if scenarios. Then again, outside of initial storm watches and warnings one doesn't usually get much time to prep when that tornado siren goes off. If it were me and I lived in such an area I'd have little transport containers ready so I could just grab and go and worry about getting them into the rack I may or may not have in the storm cellar. At my former museum job, if we had time to grab animals we would. In circumstances that didn't warrant such, human life was valued more; whether one agrees with that statement or not.

I actually had the oh crap thought this past February when all of NM and extreme West TX experienced days at below freezing temps. A couple mornings driving to work had my truck's temp gauge reading -17 to -30°F here in the Albuquerque area. We had broken water lines and black outs throughout the state.

 

[Kristi23]

Mine have to stay where they are. We don't have a basement, so we grab the dogs and go into the bathroom. There's no way I could gather all my reptiles.

 

[SDCowboy]

If there's that kind of an emergency here in CA (fires or quakes), I'm sorry but the geckos are getting left behind. When you have to evacuate (we don't have basements here) you gotta grab what really matters and get the hell out of there.

 

[missf410]

Thankfully where I live hasn't had a lot of severe weather during my lifetime. (There have been some close calls and some major disasters before I was born.) Just in case I have an emergency kit for my reptiles. It includes an enclosure (Lrg cricket keeper), food dish, water dish, bottled water, heat and cold packs, and a few hides. It comes equipped with everything but the geckos.

I figured that since I took responsibility for them when I purchased them that they should be on my emergency preparedness list. If it were to come down to saving a human life or my geckos I would choose the human life. I would miss those little buggers everyday though. They are so cute!

 

[AmberJean86]

I live in wisconsin, so we don't get horrible weather, but I got so sick of worrying about every storm that I made my reptile room in the basement. Much easier to control the temperature then too. It's a nice little hide out from everyday life too.

 

[LeoMerlin]

Yikes, this is something I've not thought about before, and good information to hear. Makes perfect since though. I don't know how I'd manage it, but I'd do the best I could, especially since we have five horses, a dog, and three cats along with my little leo. Mikey (dog) stays close to mom so we don't have to worry about him during severe weather, aside from whining. The cats on the other hand, they go as they please so they're always a challenge. I will have to look into that extra care plan just as a "in case" scenario. We had some bad tornadoes in our area not too long ago, a whole week of bad weather. I'd be so upset if anything happened to any of my animals while this was going on!