Holiday Road Trip with Pete - Need Advice

[Travis1102]

Hi All,

My beardie, Pete, has now been with me for a couple of months and things are going REALLY well with him. I got him from Cheryl at BeardedDragons.co and he eats like a champ, is growing well (starting his third shed since I got him in September 28) and is very social with the family. So far, we haven't had to go out of town to where he had to stay alone more than the time we were at work...

However, over the holidays, we will be going out of town for about a week to visit 3 different sets of relatives for about 2-3 nights each which means quite a bit of time in the car and moving locations every few days. Pete will be around 5 months old at the time of the trip.

The trip will be broken up into 3 hrs first drive day, 3 hrs next drive day, 2 hrs next drive day and then 9 hrs back home the last drive day with downtime of at least 2 nights at each location. For the short drive days, I figure that's not a big deal and easy enough to plan around with feeding and light time. I can feed after arriving at each location and give him plenty of basking time. The last day of travel will be very long, so I will probably not feed him till we're home and then give him a couple hrs of basking time before lights out. I'm not too worried about the travel other than the stress it will put on him moving around. Luckily, each location will have a room with no traffic through it so he can be 'alone' most of the time.

The other issue is that I don't want to travel with his big glass enclosure. It's a medium size Zilla critter cage (I think it's the 20L) and I don't want to risk breaking it moving it around a lot. I was thinking about getting one of the clear rubbermaid type storage bins, cutting the top out of the id and covering with mesh screen. I'd then velcro his UV light inside that and put his heat lamp on top of the screen. Obviously, I'll have to plan it well enough that I don't have to worry about the heat lamp melting the plastic lid and ensuring that the bin is shallow enough to get the light close enough to Pete to keep him warm. Would something like this work or are there issues I'm not thinking about?

For the time in the car, I plan to travel with him in a cat carrier or similar and use a heating pad plugged into a power inverter in the car if the weather is too cool.

Any tips / advice about a better way to make this trip with him? Like many others on here, I don't trust random people to come into my house to take care of him and definitely don't want to leave him at someone else's house while I'm away.

 

[ReptileAddiction]

It might be easier to buy a reptarium as they can fold down. But since you will be up and moving a lot it might be kind of a hassle. If you get a small one though it is relatively fast/easy to put together. That is what I would do if it were mine.

 

[LLLReptile]

A small reptarium with a simple heat light is probably your best bet. They're really easy to put together, nice and lightweight, and you can break it down and store it super easily. For short term housing, that might be the most viable and practical solution.

-Jen

 

[beastiesmommy]

My husband and I just got back from a 20 day road trip from Toronto, Ontario, Canada to Orlando and Daytona Beach, Florida. We stayed in seven different hotels going and coming, and spent the rest of the time in our time share. We took his favorite wood climber, his heat lamp, his towels, and his favorite stuffed toy with us in a light-coloured (beige) Rubbermade tote that was about two feet deep. At the hotels, we set up the tote with a towel or two on the bottom, his wood and his stuffed turtle and fixed the cord of his lamp around a door handle. That way, the light hung outside and away from the plastic tote. The rim of the light's hood/cover touched the door, but that part never gets hot enough to cause a burn. Also, because the light was slightly angled, Beastie could have a 'warm' and 'cool' side, and there was room for his water and food dish, too. It was even better at the time share: there wasn't anything he could get under, and so we just set up his wood and his turtle on his towels, hung the light on the door knob, and he could come and go from this area at will. He freeroams at home a lot, so this suited him very well and we all had a fabulous time. In the car, even though it was cold outside, he was very happy sunning himself on the rear ledge of the car, behind the back seats. I spread one of his towels, and he could walk around from side to side, look out the front or the back, soak up the heat of the sun through the windows, and make himself comfortable! Enjoy your trip!! Congrats on travelling with your beardie!

 

[Travis1102]

Hi everyone, thanks for the replies! I kept meaning to log back on, but December was a very busy month with a death in the family and then the holidays. I appreciated all the feedback.

Due to getting too busy, I didn't get to make the preparations I wanted to for travel, so I ended up taking all of Pete's regular glass cage with us. Since I drive a pickup, space was not an issue and the only concern was packing it so that it wouldn't get broken. Everything worked out fine and he did great on the trip. For the drive itself, I used a power inverter to power a heating pad that I turned onto the 'warm' setting under a folded up towel to help keep him warm in the truck since the back seat had a tendency to get cold. It was cute with our 3 kids in the back seat...our son, daughter and Pete in the middle. Since he's still not fully grown, he was able to travel in a plastic critter keeper while we were driving and he slept most of the time...

I'll have to plan better for next year since he'll be fully grown and his normal cage will be much larger!