GTP - Temp dropped to 17

[Skitzmixer]

Last night I lived my worst nightmare. Checked on my GTP before I went to bed everything was fine.. Woke up this morning and checked it again as I usually do and found the temp had dropped to 17 degree's!!! For some reason the power board's circuit breaker tripped through the night and shut everything off. I worked out it turned off around 12:30am because the timer stopped then and I found it at 7am.

Everything's turned back on now, I couldn't work out why it tripped, its well under the max load. I've now hooked up a UPS (universal power supply, basically a battery) that powers a new power board in the hope that the UPS can regulate the power a bit better and avoid this from happening in the future.

What are the chances of it picking up a respiratory infection from this? How long does it take to develop? What should I look out for?

Well that's my nightmare, any else lived there's?

 

[andynic07]

I don't think the ups will really help as the power usage will be too great for the batteries contained in the unit. They are usually made for computers that use less power and usually are designed to give you enough time to save data and shutdown your system and not long term outages.

 

[SarahScales]

Bulbs blow, ceramics stop working... It happens. If snakes were going to die every time temperatures dropped beneath optimum, they wouldn't be still be around after all this time. They will be fine, just keep an eye on them. My GTP survive the long weekend without a bulb because the petstores were closed and I stupidly just had a Kmart reflector bulb.

 

[disintegratus]

I'm not really familiar with GTPs, but honestly I would have thought that 7 hours of less than optimal temps should not be a problem. Prolonged lack of heating will certainly cause issues, but for such a short time, I don't think you'd have anything to worry about.

Yes, I have lived my worst nightmare I took two of my dogs round to my Mum's house, one of them being my big fear-aggressive boy, and some idiot left the back gate open. One of the dogs (the ditzy puppy) turned up at the front door, which was when I realised that the gate was open and Thundercleese was nowhere to be seen. I near on had a heart attack and started slowly driving down the street calling him, when about 3 houses down this giant orange blur catapulted towards the car and he jumped right in! Glad I was sitting down at the time, the relief actually made me go weak at the knees!

 

[champagne]

its not the low temps that kill gtp. you only get problems if it high humidity and low temps for a long period of time.

 

[Skitzmixer]

I don't think the ups will really help as the power usage will be too great for the batteries contained in the unit. They are usually made for computers that use less power and usually are designed to give you enough time to save data and shutdown your system and not long term outages.

The UPS is a 1.5kva, I use the exact same one in our server rack at work. It keeps 3 servers and 2 switches alive for ~20 minutes which is as you said just enough time to shut things down safely - if need be. However since I only have a pulse proportional thermostat that's connected to a 50w heat cord and 14w heat mat hooked up to the UPS I should think that it will last a lot longer. I don't need it to last for days, but a few hours would be ample time. I'll install the tools for it tonight and actually see how long I thinks I 'should' get out of it.

 

[Skitzmixer]

Bulbs blow, ceramics stop working... It happens. If snakes were going to die every time temperatures dropped beneath optimum, they wouldn't be still be around after all this time. They will be fine, just keep an eye on them. My GTP survive the long weekend without a bulb because the petstores were closed and I stupidly just had a Kmart reflector bulb.

Yeah very true, didn't think about that really. Just went into panic mode haha.

 

[Skitzmixer]

its not the low temps that kill gtp. you only get problems if it high humidity and low temps for a long period of time.

Thanks. Hopefully it doesn't happen again.. just become worried about it. The more I actually think about it, and the more I read, it should be ok

 

[Pythoninfinite]

If you check the weather data for Iron Range, where GTPs are common, the normal annual minimum temperature range is between 18 (dry season) and 24 (wet season). These are averages, so some winter minima will be well below 18C. Wet season maxima are 28-32C average.

They can cope with significant overnight drops without any harm.

Jamie

 

[Skitzmixer]

If you check the weather data for Iron Range, where GTPs are common, the normal annual minimum temperature range is between 18 (dry season) and 24 (wet season). These are averages, so some winter minima will be well below 18C. Wet season maxima are 28-32C average.

They can cope with significant overnight drops without any harm.

Jamie

Wish I actually thought about looking at that first. I think the fact everything seemed to go bad over the weekend (other non reptile related things), this mornings efforts was just the cherry on top. Thanks for reassurance though

 

[PrecisionPythons]

For those of us who own GTPs know exactly what you are going through, most of us seem to panic if a globe blows or the temps are down.

As jamie said, in the wild they will sustain significant temp drops overnight. These temps are going to be much colder than in an enclosure inside a house. So over a short period of time with no heat the GTP should be fine.

 

[andynic07]

Is RI contagious? Would you need to take extra steps other than the usual washing hands between snakes to stop the spread?