Hurricanes, what you need to know and what you need to do!

Last year I made a post about hurricanes and what all you should bring/have with you so I am just going to summarize that and add on to it!

The time has come upon us, hurricane season, I know a lot of you guys won’t know what to do if you are new to keeping hamsters or animals in general, so here I am going to make a list of what you should have for a hamster emergency kit!

The list!

A travel bin

Bedding

Bottled water

Food

Betadine

Heat packs

Cold packs

Wheel (optional)

Explanations!

A travel bin!

First off we have a travel bin, that’s pretty obvious if you can’t take your normal sized enclosure, for a travel sized bin you can do a critter trail or something of similar size, though I would recommend doing a bin so we don’t give money back to kaytee or brands like them to make more critter trails, so only use them if you have one, or don’t it’s up to you! I will always recommend that you have a bin that the hamster can at least have 1 hide, water bottle, and a food dish (unless you scatter feed)

Bedding!

Bedding is pretty obvious, I would always keep enough so you can do a full cage clean of every animals enclosure you bring, I get that when evacuating you may not have the space for a giant bag of bedding but I hope you could make it work somehow.

Bottled water!

The reason you should keep bottled water on you is because you may not always have access to clean water, so either keep water or if you have access to tap water and reptisafe water conditioner, you can always do that! If you have bottled water I will suggest keeping enough so you could fill up all of your animals water bottles 5 times or more.

Food!

I hope this is pretty self explanatory so instead of telling you why you should have food I will just say I suggest keeping a month or two worth of food because you never know what can happen with a hurricane and food supplies.

Betadine!

Betadine is for if your hamster has an injury and you need to clean their wounds, for betadine I think you have to dilute it so I’m not exactly sure how well it would work for fast situations. I apologize I’m not well versed in how to use betadine for small animals, I just know you should have it. If someone knows what to do and how to use it (cream or the solution I don’t know which would be better) please comment down below I will add it here!

Heat packs!

Heat packs are for if you hamster gets cold and needs to be warmed up fast, for heat packs you want 40+ hours so they can last a longer time.

Cold packs!

This is basically like the one before but if your hamster gets too hot. I know if the AC went out in Florida during the summer that would be one hot house, the cold packs are to help if your hamster starts overheating in any case scenario! I haven’t heard someone say these are necessary but I assume they would be good to have, another option are chinchillers, to which you put them in a freezer and rotate them every few hours, I would recommend having 3 and rotating them every 8 hours or so if you go that route, but if you lose power and don’t have a generator then that can’t be very trustworthy

Wheel!

No a wheel is not necessary but I would suggest if you can fit one, bring one. I know critter trails or something like that won’t be able to fit a wheel but some bins are high enough to fit them if you go that route.

That’s all! Thank you all for reading this post and please stay safe!

A note for other rodents keepers- this list can also be used for other rodents, most rodents who need leveled cages I don’t know about them but I at least plan on using mine for my gerbils as well, I assume it could be used for mice or other land rodents (and possibly other rodents who need leveled cages but I will get back to you on that)! Thank you all for reading this post and please stay safe!