Worst Disaster?

[gregsballs]

I was just curious as to what types of disasters members have had with their snakes. Perhaps the snake escaped and found his way inside a heater? Things like that...share any type of disaster that maybe we can learn from.

[CritterVet]

Does a mite infestation count? Not a horrible outcome, but very expensive, time-consuming, and stressful for all involved!

[gregsballs]

That counts!

[Nate]

I had one of my smaller snakes disappear for about 24 hours...after being stupid and leaving the tub open

I searched high and low for hours. the next morning, I figured he'd pop up somewhere, so I continued searching. It wasn't until I pulled the tub right below his tub and realized he was squashed under that tub the whole time.

There's about an inch between the surface of the shelf and the supports where the tub slides - so he crawled into that gap while I had the other tub pulled out, and when I pushed it back in, i pinned him down.

I felt absolutely terrible when I found him - still do! But he was just fine. Doing great today

[CritterVet]

Forgot to mention lesson: QUARANTINE!! regardless of how "reputable" the source, and treat newbies for mites on arrival.

[Big Gunns]

A Monitor ruined Pimp Daddy's(another personality) hair gel right before a night on the town.

[jason79]

Well it didn't happen to me but I had to deal with it.. a friend of mine was building a cage and we used some corner molding for bath tubs that had sticky stuff on the back of it so we stuck it in the corner and thought it would be OK. The next morning his Mojave female around 100 grams was stuck to the side of the cage covered in the sticky stuff. Had had to get a knife to cut the stuff off the side of the cage so she wouldnt be hanging from it. He had to go in to work that morning so I went over there to help by the time I got there she was stuck to herself covered in the stuff in a little ball. I thought for sure she was gonna die. I rubbed her down with cooking oil and then at least she wasn't sticking to everything it took me hours to get all that stuff off her but I got it and she is doing fine now. I learned one thing NEVER PUT STICKY STUFF OF ANY KIND IN WITH YOU SNAKES and also cooking oil will make it stop sticking.

[gregsballs]

Well it didn't happen to me but I had to deal with it.. a friend of mine was building a cage and we used some corner molding for bath tubs that had sticky stuff on the back of it so we stuck it in the corner and thought it would be OK. The next morning his Mojave female around 100 grams was stuck to the side of the cage covered in the sticky stuff. Had had to get a knife to cut the stuff off the side of the cage so she wouldnt be hanging from it. He had to go in to work that morning so I went over there to help by the time I got there she was stuck to herself covered in the stuff in a little ball. I thought for sure she was gonna die. I rubbed her down with cooking oil and then at least she wasn't sticking to everything it took me hours to get all that stuff off her but I got it and she is doing fine now. I learned one thing NEVER PUT STICKY STUFF OF ANY KIND IN WITH YOU SNAKES and also cooking oil will make it stop sticking.

Wow - that sounds like an ordeal. Glad she is doing well now!

[MarkS]

Blew a breaker on the circuit that runs the exhaust fan in my rodent room. The temperatures quickly soared to over a hundred degees and the air quality was so bad I almost passed out walking into the room. More then half of my adult breeder rats were dead and the bodies had quickly putrified in the heat. The rodent urine from the tubs was evaporating into the air increasing the humidity in the room to about 100% there was so much moisture in the air that the walls were running with condensation that was mixing with rodent dust causing brown streaks running down my walls and brown puddles pooling on the floor. I had to wear multiple masks and I was still dry heaving every time I walked into the room to grab another tub to clean.

[Bruce Whitehead]

Obviously my big one was the fire.

...most people know about. Watching my house burn. A fire starting in the back of the house and ending by blowing out my front windows... yet the ONLY room in the house not devastated by fire was the snake room. I lost 4 snakes over the months to follow from stress and illness related to the fire, but there were also around 40 that came out without a scratch, including 3 that escaped and were found in the rubble up to 3 days later.

Bruce