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The weather is so wierd these days its hard to say. Generally we only go into -s long when it will be only in the -'s in the evening its not often we have it below degrees. Unfortunatley. I love the cold weather.

I don't know if a dwarfie could handle that. I guess it depends on how cold you boat gets. Dwarfies like a cooler room, but if it gets too cold a dwarfie would want to hibernate. It wouldn't be good the spend too long in hibernation.

Welcome back! Good to see you found us.
Life on a boat sounds great but lonely without any kinda of company.
A small rodent would be fairly easy to care for. But you would need a small heating pad or something too keep them warm when you have your heat off.
Last year I had 3 dwarf hamsters. Where I was living we didn't have central heating and cooling just wall heaters and it got too cold one night and the two that were further away from the heater didn't make it. A week after that I moved Grey back home to my parents so he wouldn't have the same fate.
Or you could get something easy like a Leopard Gecko. Coming from a first time reptile owner, I've had hamsters, a rabbit, hermit crabs, fish, frogs, and dogs but my leopard gecko, Allison, is the easiest pet I have ever had to care for.
Right down to price too: sand $4, crickets $1 a dozen, meal worms $5, meal worm bowl $2, water bowl $5, low energy LED heating lamp $8, the most expensive things were the 20 gallon tank, rock cave, and the dried grape vine which were $20 a piece. And that's just the start up costs.
Every 3 months for 50lbs of sand. if you mix crickets and meal worms I buy 200 count giant meal worms every other month and 3 dozen crickets every other month. Regular cleaning I will spot clean everyday and change her water. As far as giving her food I check it everyday but she will eat about 5 small crickets every other day and meal worms I'll put about 20 and over the course of a week she will finish them off. I leave a carrot in the bowl so they are more active change that out every other day. I love it!
I've been told that leopard geckos are one of the easiest pets to care for and I can vouch for that.

Thanks for your advice Libby.

I'd love a Gecko only problem is battery power. My boat runs off 4 leasuire battries. If i need more than 12v I need to turn on my inverter to get a max of 240volts so running any kind of heating pad/lights would drain this immediatley. I wonder if there is some kind of pad I can get where it is warmed up on the fire and retains its heat while I am away for the day.

I think rats would be perfect if I could keep them warm only problem is space and rats cages are big!

That brings you back to dwarf hamsters again. They are small and they don't need to much heat. I thought you might not have actual electricity.
You could put a hot water bottle under part of the cage or where ever would give the best heat. As long as the hamster had a choice it could keep warm if it needed to.

Are there heating pads that can be warmed and then left to cool. I have a heat bag I use for stiff muscles. It is actually rice in a cloth bag. I heat it in the microwave and it gives off heat for some time. It is safe because it gets cooler over time so it can't burn anything or over heat.
This might not be a good winter to get anything. I gather you have it cold.

Hand warmers!!!! They would be perfect!! not too big either. I don't know how expensive it would be though.

During a power outage one winter my bearded dragon and I huddled under blankets with a hand warmer to keep us warm. In the end we had to evacuate, but it was -20C, that is very cold.

There are ways of heating a place safely. I suspect that there are hot water solutions that would work. Water gives off heat slowly over time.

With all the power problems we are having this year I want to look into safe ways of creating heat without electricity. I might look at different types of batteries. Generators are dangerous (can't be used inside!) and very expensive. And right now, totally sold out in Toronto.

I have electricity just have to be really conservative.

That sounds promising Cathrine. Only problem again is space! It wouldent be fair to keep them in a small cage.

Aaaa what a dilema. Ha

I like the idea of living off the grid. I did for a while when I lived in a barn in the mountains once. I do have to admit though, that I was not there during the winter. I had a wood-burning stove. It was cold there even in the Autumn.
Stones are one of the best ways of providing heating which lasts for a long time. The stones are heated on a fire (outside) then they have to be put into some fireproof carrier ( a metal bin or shallow tin bath?) and obviously they mustn't come into contact with wooden flooring or flammable materials. A 'stand' can be made out of bricks. Fireproof bricks are best.
Heated stones dealt with safely like this will retain warmth for hours. They can be placed underneath bedding etc (so long as they do not come into contact with flammable things.)

Heated stones. Hmmm. That bears thinking about. I wonder if they could provide power outage heat. They could be heated outside(a safety issue) and brought in. Even a little heat source would help.

I hear you Tom. Space and power, two things in short supply. I have a little electric heater. It is filled with some kind of oil. It heats up and then gives off the heat over time. Even if you unplug it when you are out, the heat still radiates.

One dwarfie would not need too much space as long as you have a good wheel. The cage could be on levels with ladders so the hamster would have more area to run. Dwarfies sleep during the day so the hamster would not miss you while you are out. You could cover the cage with a blanket to keep the warmth in. A sleeping hamster would not mind at all.