What's the biggest rookie mistake you've made?

My biggest Rookie Mistake: I thawed over 120 rats (all albino) at the same time and of the 120+, only 13 were consumed.

At the time I was living at home so I put the extra 100 white rats in my families refrigerator. It was my sisters birthday the following day so I left a note on the big pile of plastic wrapped dead rats 'Happy Birthday'-I knew it would totally gross her out. What I didn't know that my sisters fiancées parents were visiting later that day, and all they saw was a big white object in the fridge with a note and immediately thought I had gotten her a decorated cake. When they took it out of the refrigerator to take a look they saw the red eyes and when they realized what it was-dropped it on the floor in shock and dead rats and coagulated blood scattered everywhere.

All I heard were grown adults screaming in terror.

Anyhow, I don't thaw out as many rodents now at once. (I prefer live)

My now Brother-in-laws mother refers to me as 'The Rat Bastard'.

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Originally Posted by Lord Sorril

My biggest Rookie Mistake: I thawed over 120 rats (all albino) at the same time and of the 120+, only 13 were consumed.

At the time I was living at home so I put the extra 100 white rats in my families refrigerator. It was my sisters birthday the following day so I left a note on the big pile of plastic wrapped dead rats 'Happy Birthday'-I knew it would totally gross her out. What I didn't know that my sisters fiancées parents were visiting later that day, and all they saw was a big white object in the fridge with a note and immediately thought I had gotten her a decorated cake. When they took it out of the refrigerator to take a look they saw the red eyes and when they realized what it was-dropped it on the floor in shock and dead rats and coagulated blood scattered everywhere.

All I heard were grown adults screaming in terror.

Anyhow, I don't thaw out as many rodents now at once. (I prefer live)

My now Brother-in-laws mother refers to me as 'The Rat Bastard'.

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That last comment makes this the funniest thing I’ve heard in a while! :D

When I bought my KSB, was told by the pet store (lol) that there was no way he could escape because they lack the strength to push up the lid. And that a branch is OK for decorative purposes, but it would absolutely never be used no matter what because there is no chance he will ever try to leave the ground. Well, about 2 years ago, I went on a trip for a couple days and after I came back, wanted to take the baby out. After about 10 minutes of searching through the substrate (since he's ALWAYS hiding down there somewhere), it became clear to me that he was not in his tank. I frantically searched my room and house for 3 hours with no luck. Finally, after all that, I found him hiding under a small bag of substrate that was literally right underneath the small table his tank was on. Apparently he climbed on the branch and pushed up the lid to get out, as at the time he was waaay too small to reach the top from the floor. Branch came out and heavy books went on top until some heavy duty clips were acquired. Lesson learned.

Side note, to this day at least once every week or 2 I walk in to find him fully extended up to the top of the enclosure, with his head by the screen. When he sees me looking he'll always just freeze, thinking that if he doesn't move maybe I won't notice him being bad. He's such a cute little noodle :)

Wanted to hold Paarthurnax a bit before his feeding after I had finally gotten through the first 3 weeks of waiting and didn't want to extend the period another 3 days. Forgot to wash my hands, luckily I had good reflexes that day and didn't get tagged. Always make sure to get all that rat smell off now so I can avoid getting tagged for one more day!

Back when i first got Sterling I was told i “didn’t need a thermostat to regulate his uth “ I was ignorant and listened to one persons advice and poor sterling ended up getting really bad burn on his belly . He didn’t eat for over 6 months . I had to put non-medicated neosporin on him every other day and clean his cage every day for so long . I’ve never felt so upset with myself and I remember sitting there thinking hat he was going to die and feeling like a complete failure .


That being said he’s alive and well today burns all cleared up and eating like a maniac .

I have really bad anxiety with my temps though considering they still get belly heat I just get scared my herspats will fail . Never want that to happen again https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...31b1b1c95d.jpg


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Omg, too many to count! Let's see, HUSBANDRY, not getting a thermostat, not getting a freaking thermometer :rofl:Luckily nothing serious has ever happened to anyone though. Here's some stupid me from old posts-

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Originally Posted by GpBp

Is it better to get a baby or to adopt an adult? I thought maybe the older one could be more used to its previous owner and be harder to tame.

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Oh Izzy, oh poor, dumb Izzy... :D

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Originally Posted by GpBp

Could the lead from the mechanical pencil hurt him..?! :weirdface

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Opened his mouth with the wrong end of the pencil :rofl:

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Originally Posted by GpBp

Weigh..:confusd:

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Just didn't know weighing your snake was a thing :stupidme:

And so so much more :rofl: I am still a rookie after all..:rolleyes:




oh and let's please forget this is a thing

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Originally Posted by GpBp

Hello! I was reading an article someone posted on this forum about a student flushing her ESA hamster (which is horrible :(), and it made me realize that ESA's don't need to be dogs/cats. I have horrible anxiety, and some other stuff I won't really get into, and I've been very stressed out for these last couple years. I feel the most comfortable in my room with my animals. There's something about them that just calms me down 100%. So, I was looking into getting an ESA. I read the website's article about snakes, and I thought about my Geno. I love him more than anything :love: I am thinking about registering him as my Emotional Support Animal. I know I can't bring him into public places such as restaurants/school/stores etc. that's not what I'm getting at. I wouldn't want to anyway. And I don't mean this to draw attention to Geno or myself in any way, shape, or form. Do you think it's okay to do? I don't even know if I'd qualify, but I'd really like to. Geno is a 2-year-old male pastel ball python. He's very very tame and has never had any behavior issues. Thank you!

https://www.emotionalsupportanimalco...support-snake/

(Feel free to move this if it's in the wrong place)

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I can think of a few:

- Thinking I was going to make easy money breeding ball pythons

-FAR too trusting of people on the internet

-Underestimating their ability to escape

-Not ball python related but buying a green iguana when I was not even a teenager.

buying a second BP. :oops:

boy that sure opened up the floodgates. ;)

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Originally Posted by BR8080

Thinking I was only going to have 1 snake.

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:: dead :: And so true!!

scape and setup the whole tank, and then remember to drill the holes for tubing and wires.