Great weather for a parrot

Sitting here thinking about what I would do if I had to get Nike out of the house caused me a lot of concern because if I had to do it because of a fire or something, there would be no place warm for her until a car warmed up and that could take 10 minutes.

So I ordered a fleece cover from Celltei for my Pak-o-Bird and I'm thinking of going to a sports store and seeing what they have for hand/foot warmer packets or something like that. She would definately die after a bit of exposure to our weather.

Any thoughts on heat? It would need to be something that I could just activate and through in the pak.

This is a sample of just daylight temps, much colder in the middle of the night.

http://nhwoodworker.com/Gallery/faBiuZWsnpaorKmr_-5_2017-12-29 (1).mp4

I tuck Willow in my jacket (or shirt) when I have to take her outside.

The fleece cover is a wonderful idea! We drove 14 hours round trip in a blizzard when we picked up Ekko, and we brought some of the hot packs along in case the truck broke down. Luckily, we didn't have to use them, but were glad we had them. We had tested one out prior to leaving, and put it under the towel in his carrier. It did produce warmth without becoming too hot under the towel.
I feel your pain about the temps...we have been under a severe cold warning since Friday, with our temp hovering around -35C, and wind chill -43C. Finally today it is warming up, thank goodness!

So I'm thinking the only option is a 12v car heater. Put her in the pak, take her to the car, plug in the heater and instant heat that can be directed into the pack.

Terry, I discarded the warming pack idea because if an emergency happened, it would be freezing out, no time for the pack to warm and that that point probably too cold to be of any use. The Celltei fleece cover is the windproof kind, otherwise I wouldn't have ordered one.

ToMang07, Nike is not a tuck in your shirt kind of bird

So while I'm going to do more Google research, I'm thinking that the only source of power I will have is the car and I would need instant heat for the 5 or 10 minutes it would take for the car to warm up. Right now I think the plug in windshield defroster heaters might be the best option.

The packs we got are the ones you shake to activate, if I remember right.
A plug in heater sounds like a good idea, better to be prepared this time of year for sure!

An excellent Thread idea!!!

Time lines are so very important and although 10 minutes can seems like a very long time, it is also a very short time! And, the smaller the Parrot, the greater the effects of temperature. Your idea of using a fleece cover for your Pak-o-Bird is a great combination as it works to trap warmth within the Pak-o-Bird.

At this point, it becomes a choice for each owner to make and the time line is the operating factor, as to whether further support product(s) are needed or that the car, etc... will be able to provide heat soon enough.

Emergencies and what to have available is heavily influenced by the Weather and Season in one's area. In the upper Great Lakes, we plan for bitter cold and high humidity heat, which defines our two worst case weather events.

The type of 'event' that drives the need to move should always be based around that worst case for your area. For us it is a House Fire or local Chemical Spill, both of which, require being out the door in minutes. So, we pre-place /pre-pack what is needed for either Winter or Summer.

- I have not liked the Chem-heaters as they have specific 'operational lifespan,' which mean the need to be switched-out, not that difficult, but its just something more that needs to be watched.

- Our DYH Amazon pulls in at 500 g. and with his body mass and a fleece blanket which is part of the pre-pack in each auto, we 'believe' that we are covered.

- We are nuts, (just ask around ), we always back into the garage as a standard! This allows for a quicker pack and go from our 'attached' garage. It also saves on time fooling around getting the autos headed away quicker. Crazy, but you will be surprised what more you can do with just an addition 60 seconds. Add two autos, attempting the same dance and you can quickly begin to see the advantages.

Thank-you, for this truly great idea for a Thread!

Sailboat, if I had a garage the starting temp would likely me above 20 degrees but no garage so my car and truck are out in the cold. even at a warm 10 or 15 degrees the fastest warming vehicle will take 5-10 minutes to put out heat. The fleece cover is 3 layer with a windproof layer sandwiched in between and should provide a few minutes of contained heat before it starts to get cold.

I started thinking about this because in the last month, my furnace died, my propane shop heater got a frozen regulator and not related but added to my stress, my snow blower crapped out. We have a Nor'easter coming on Thursday and I'm unsure if I'll get the blower back in time...that sucks

I do need to do more disaster planning but in our weather, winter is the real problem, not the warmer months. I don't have a pre-packed food bag survival kit or anything like that....yet.

And then I have to start thinking about the other animals. The dog is easy but there would be an issue rounding up the cats as a couple of them (we have 4) tend to hide most of the time.

bill_e said:

Sailboat, if I had a garage the starting temp would likely me above 20 degrees but no garage so my car and truck are out in the cold. even at a warm 10 or 15 degrees the fastest warming vehicle will take 5-10 minutes to put out heat. The fleece cover is 3 layer with a windproof layer sandwiched in between and should provide a few minutes of contained heat before it starts to get cold.

I started thinking about this because in the last month, my furnace died, my propane shop heater got a frozen regulator and not related but added to my stress, my snow blower crapped out. We have a Nor'easter coming on Thursday and I'm unsure if I'll get the blower back in time...that sucks

I do need to do more disaster planning but in our weather, winter is the real problem, not the warmer months. I don't have a pre-packed food bag survival kit or anything like that....yet.

Click to expand...

Yup, I hear you!!!

We are at the Cottage and the standing temperature outside and in our unattached garage are very near the same!!! Last night at 7 degrees F, it took over fifteen minutes for our SUV to begin providing anything that could be called heat! 15 more minutes for there to be enough warmth for an Amazon to stand in front of the dash vent (no he was not with us then). Plus an additional 10 minutes to have something approaching comfortable. That's 40 minutes!

I really like your idea of a plug-in 12 vdc heater!!!!

My birds go out under my jacket until the car is warm enough


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In the short term I'd tuck clark in my shirt. If it's serious like my house caught fire I'd hit a neighbors house and see if they can keep them inside till things calmed down. I haven't done the packobird yet but I don't think the insulation would help here where it's -10 to 6 above right now.

Great thread for a scary situation!

The idea of a plug-in heater for the vehicle sounds best. If a 12V heater might be too weak, perhaps adding an inverter to convert to 115V and sufficient amperage might help? It would be necessary to immediately start the engine, and I'm guessing your battery is of sufficient strength and vitality to do so?

A quick Google search found various inverters that plug into a cigarette lighter. Might be more practical to hard-wire a unit to the electrical system?

bill_e said:

Sailboat, if I had a garage the starting temp would likely me above 20 degrees but no garage so my car and truck are out in the cold. even at a warm 10 or 15 degrees the fastest warming vehicle will take 5-10 minutes to put out heat. The fleece cover is 3 layer with a windproof layer sandwiched in between and should provide a few minutes of contained heat before it starts to get cold.

I started thinking about this because in the last month, my furnace died, my propane shop heater got a frozen regulator and not related but added to my stress, my snow blower crapped out. We have a Nor'easter coming on Thursday and I'm unsure if I'll get the blower back in time...that sucks

I do need to do more disaster planning but in our weather, winter is the real problem, not the warmer months. I don't have a pre-packed food bag survival kit or anything like that....yet.

Click to expand...

So, I'm guessing that you will be camping-out at the repair shop and inspiring them to complete the repair of your Snow Blower!!!

We sit in a snowbelt and cry alot about our weather in the upper Great Lakes! But it's nothing like the Nor'easters you guys get!!!

You're in our prays, good friend!

Scott said:

Great thread for a scary situation!

The idea of a plug-in heater for the vehicle sounds best. If a 12V heater might be too weak, perhaps adding an inverter to convert to 115V and sufficient amperage might help? It would be necessary to immediately start the engine, and I'm guessing your battery is of sufficient strength and vitality to do so?

A quick Google search found various inverters that plug into a cigarette lighter. Might be more practical to hard-wire a unit to the electrical system?

Click to expand...

Take care good friend! Check the limited amp draw available for auto inverters! Most 120 VAC heaters will pull plus 10 amps. And, I'm guessing that will be above what a 12 vdc inverter can provide. Will need to check that point!

The Bad and Good News is that the 12 vdc auto heaters provide limited heat, but enough heat to provide warmth into a travel Carrier or a Pack-o-Bird size container.

Yeah I had an inverter for my laptop once and it wouldn't even power up the laptop power supply, the inverter was under-rated.

No close by neighbors actually.

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Lets say your house lost power, or natural gas, or caught fire or worst case....

Objective: Keep bird warm and alive

1) put bird in shirt under coat, body heat will work.

2) instead of camping in car, move in car, even to 24 hr gas station? get to warm environment even before the 20 minutes it really takes to get a car warmed up.

3) I don't know about New Hampshire, I've only driven through, but I think they would take a bird in any of my local places to babysit if there was an emergency. They would probably love the idea....either put in a back office or on a back shelf behind the counter, etc. everyone loves animals and wants to be a hero except.....(fill in your personal enemy list here).

4) I don't think wrapping anything around a pack-o-bird would work for more than like three minutes, your own body heat would be far superior.

5) Even a separate shed with a heater, or a car heater, your looking at minimum 20 minutes and probably more unless it's going 24/7 to get ANY kind of warm environment.

6) If no store open, perhaps a police station, fire station etc. Any place that is open and has heat.

7) buy band aids, in case the bird is really pissed you tucked him in your shirt.

8) If the problem is a zombie attack, instruct the bird to go for mortal head wounds, and keep on pecking.

Thats about all I got,

Hope you get some ideas from this, hopefully helpful ones.

For heat, Have you seen those hand warmers, where you snap a metal disc and they heat up? They are re-useable (you have to boil them to reset them) but you can have a bunch on hand and the heat lasts 15-30 minutes.

I don't know whether those would be chew proof (and I doubt its' contents are parrot safe) but you could probably wrap them in towels to be doubly careful.

Other options in an emergency - an emergency blanket (for people) might work too - they're amazing at retaining heat, again don't know about the chewing.

Newspaper is good at retaining heat too (but not as much as the others) and at a pinch you could just stuff the pak o with shredded paper.

All of those you could shove in a pak o in a few minutes.

I would say if you wanted to be disaster safe - the best things you can do
* Have an emergency kit for everybody (including animals) either at the door, or in your car.
* Practice evacuating (even all the animals) and time how long it takes. That'll give you an indication of how long you will take in a real emergency.

(Source: have a place in rural Australia, they drum emergency safety into your head at school here)

I have these heat packs that are filled with what looks like a zinc acetate. It’s liquid, you bend a metal disc inside the bag and that starts it crystallizing. It’s an exothermic process, so a lot of heat is released instantly while it’s crystalizin and the heats lasts a good while. Later you immerse the solid filled pack in hot water, and it melts again. Ready to reuse.