Owners beware!! Adhesive gauges!!

[jamesmarshall221]

Hi everybody,

Just want to make a quick announcement to any beginner, intermediate and experienced keeper alike.
Please be VERY cautious when dealing with adhesive backed thermometer and or humidity gauges when dealing with snakes.
I had never had an experience like this that has ever happened to me but thank god I knew what to do in order for me to help my snake.

Today was feeding day, I get home with my mice after going out (they've only ever eaten live) and I come back, I always feed charlie first. (first ball python, 7 years old) his feeding response is amazing.

Next is my girl daisy, didn't notice anything at first until after I had noticed that she didn't come out of her hide after holding the mouse in front of it. I then take up her hide, and the thermometer/humidity gauge I had bought as a deal (made by zoomed) was completely stuck to the underside of her neck/head! of course at first I panicked because it looked as if her whole
underside of skin had been torn off, but I took the time to relax for a minute and went to the kitchen, grabbed some vegetable oil and q tips and started rubbing on the adhesive/skin.
I peeled the thermometer from the base at first as it would sort of loosen up the tension it held down on her skin. The vegetable oil did the trick a few minutes later with what looks like only very minor damage.

She will be going into the vet tomorrow for a check up and hopefully everything looks good.

Please beware when dealing with adhesive and snakes. This was the absolute worst case that could've happened and I'm just so happy that I knew what to do in that time of action.

Just imagine what would've happened to a poor kid seeing his snake like that.

PLEASE BE CAUTIOUS OF THE THERMOMETERS WITH ADHESIVE BACKING, PLEASE! YOUR SNAKES WILL LOVE YOU FOR IT.

[jamesmarshall221]

https://ibb.co/dT75Pf

[PitOnTheProwl]

This is why we have said no tape in an enclosure for at least the last decade or longer.....

[Sunnieskys]

This is why I tell people NO when they grab these. Besides being inaccurate my snake got stuck too. I'm going to Just put this in my signature line. I. Tired of reading these posts.

[CALM Pythons]

This isn’t new. Its one of the first things taught if people research before getting a snake. These pet stores sell anything and 90% of what they sell for reptiles is wrong and dangerous. Im Glad you had a good outcome. Ive seen pics of snakes tore right open from that dumb sticky crap they sell to people.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Zincubus]

You'd think supposedly responsible companies like ExoTerra would remove their 'adhesive' backed thermometers / hygrometers etc from sale ....especially given that they're practically useless and not even fit for purpose !!

Check out the readings of these on my snake wall for decoration only ..

Hygrometers show 47/48 or 64 ish
Thermometers show or 55F or 79F




Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

[VereMyth]

I never used the adhesive part just kind of laid it in my enclosure(But I do think they sold me one without adhesive) But I quickly got new ones after realizing they weren't accurate at all.

hmm, Gotta spread this after all...Some people need "Specifics." After all, you don't need that one person to go "No tape, Yeah I can do that. But why no adhesives? Like these thermometers were MADE for snakes! It even has pictures!"

That's like saying "Taco Bell is healthy! It was made the healthiest! Fast food restaurant in some magazine!"

[Craiga 01453]

I'm glad this work out relatively well and only minor injuries occurred.

Thank you, OP for sharing, it's a great public service announcement.

This is why we often say it's not a matter of "IF" it's a matter of "WHEN" if people choose to roll the dice with improper equipment, adhesives, etc...etc...

Hopefully by sharing this a few people will see it and learn from others rather than learning the hard way themselves.

[wolftrap]

I applied a layer of double sided tape to the top of my BPs cage to keep my cat off of the plastic hatches/mesh screens, but the only time I opened one of the back mesh vents, I didn't close it to the point of fully latching - I found my snake on top of her enclosure, and her ENTIRE BODY was stuck to the tape. She looked like she melted. Obviously she was very upset, and hissed up a storm when my husband and I were trying to pry her off without ripping off her scales... I used olive oil on the base of her scales and finally worked her loose with only a small scratch, but her face/jaw was screwy for a full day or two afterwards, all swollen like a bulldog... Luckily a vet gave her a bill of health and she ate without any problems on her next meal day, but it definitely taught me two things pretty vital for a new snake owner...
1. Snakes + tape = no Bueno
2. Your snake WILL find a way to escape, so batten down those hatches and be excessive.
If I hadn't looked up how to get her loose from the tape, I'm not sure what I would have done. She looked so stuck that it seemed like removing her would rip her skin from her body, and for a split panicked second I thought I had to kill her rather than hurt her in such a way. Hands down the WORST THING to ever happen to me as a pet owner.
Everything is perfectly fine now, her scratch healed up nicely, she gave me a perfect shed recently, and she's still the sweetest BP you'll ever meet, but I can't help but think that there were several valuable learning opportunities in this situation. But if I had taken my research truly seriously, I would have learned these lessons without causing unnecessary harm to my danger noodle.
New owners, please take heed from my horror story....

[jamesmarshall221]

Hello again.

Thank you all so much for not being too critical on me for my mistake.

It's my first time as I said dealing with an experience like this, so it's definitely changed my whole view point on keeping reptiles and snakes especially.

Thank you all to the informative comments shared by you kind people on the matter.
I posted this to spread awareness against making the mistake,
as I only want to make other keepers experiences better for the sake of the animal.

I took her to the vet today, and thankfully there is no permanent damage and or any tears/rips in her skin and or underside so that has taken a lot of weight off of my shoulders.
She looks to be more comfortable than she was yesterday, the skin is a bit more stretched out though so I will keep an eye on that.
Again, I thank you all for the kind words and comments.

Thank you.