Can Ceramic/heavy bowls be potentially dangerous?

So one of the very few times I check my facebook feed I stumble across this very tragic post from an old classmate;

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Woke up to find my little baby Taiwan beauty snake dead. Not entirely sure what happened, but I think he may have dislodged his water bowl, as it was sitting on his head.
I'll be switching my one other snake who has a ceramic dish to a plastic one to avoid this happening again. I'd rather they flip their dishes over than get crushed by them.

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What a terrible way to wake up :( I feel so horrible for them!

This is the first time I've ever heard of something like this happening and I can't help but wonder if this was a freak accident or if this could be a possible scenario for ball pythons?

Was the bowl off the ground of the enclosure?

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Originally Posted by fndjason4

Was the bowl off the ground of the enclosure?

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I'm not sure, they didn't really say anything else besides that single post. I don't know what shape or type of ceramic bowl either so there are a lot of details missing.

I don't see how a water dish could end up on a snakes head in a cage setting so that it killed the snake. Maybe he set it on the snake accidentally? Maybe he set the water dish up on a rock for some reason? Even then I don't know that it should have killed it.

Sounds hinky to me.

I would imagine the water dish was possibly elevated with rocks or something. I did this with my King's water dish because it's his favorite hide and he outgrew it. I didn't have the heart to take it from him. So I used some patio block sections to elevate it while still providing him with his privacy. I took into consideration the sturdiness, as well as the weight of the bowl (light-weight plastic dog food bowl) and chose the patio blocks because they are uniform in size so it allows the dish to sit perfectly level. He will occasionally knock it off the blocks, but it's super light and he moves it with no problem. Plus, it is hollowed out underneath, which is why it's his favorite hide, so even if it falls on him and can't possibly hurt him.
I'm wondering if this person was trying to provide a hide and it unfortunately wasn't stable and too heavy and ended wit a sad, unfortunate, tragic result?

The only thing i can think of happening is if the snake somehow wrapped the water bowl and used its own body to pick up the dish and then accidentally dropped it on its own head. This seems very unlikely but maybe possible ?

I remember reading or seeing a video where it was suggested that the bowl be placed on the bottom of the enclosure and not over the substrate, otherwise some small young snakes might burrow beneath it and end up being crushed. Can't remember where tho.

Shouldn't be an issue with fatties like BPs.

I had a freak accident about 2 years ago with one of my amazon tree boas. I was in the room, feeding some boas. I always glance around and check out the others while doing this since it's when they come up to the front to see if they are getting fed. Looked into this ATB's cage and saw the snake coiled up half in the air in an odd position... 'what the...??' get closer (she's on the top shelf) to see what is going on and her rock hide is sitting ON her neck. She is not breathing. Her neck area is swollen. Luckily it must have just happened because I took her out, did some 'CPR' and she was still alive. It was traumatic for both of us (it took a while for all her movement to come back and a few days before she was acting normal again). The ONLY thing I can think of - these cages have perches. She was in her hide, went up onto the perch to see what I was doing in the room, had her tail hooked on the entrance of her cage, lifting it up, then as she was going back to the floor of the cage, her tail let go and it fell onto her neck.
If I hadn't looked in the cage, she would have died.
I have since removed all rock/heavy hides from any cage that has perches.

Perhaps it was something similar in this case? The user said 'dislodged' maybe it was up high or suspended? User also mentioned flip, maybe it somehow flipped it over onto itself? very strange but odd things DO happen from time to time.

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Originally Posted by AbsoluteApril

I had a freak accident about 2 years ago with one of my amazon tree boas. I was in the room, feeding some boas. I always glance around and check out the others while doing this since it's when they come up to the front to see if they are getting fed. Looked into this ATB's cage and saw the snake coiled up half in the air in an odd position... 'what the...??' get closer (she's on the top shelf) to see what is going on and her rock hide is sitting ON her neck. She is not breathing. Her neck area is swollen. Luckily it must have just happened because I took her out, did some 'CPR' and she was still alive. It was traumatic for both of us (it took a while for all her movement to come back and a few days before she was acting normal again). The ONLY thing I can think of - these cages have perches. She was in her hide, went up onto the perch to see what I was doing in the room, had her tail hooked on the entrance of her cage, lifting it up, then as she was going back to the floor of the cage, her tail let go and it fell onto her neck.
If I hadn't looked in the cage, she would have died.
I have since removed all rock/heavy hides from any cage that has perches.

Perhaps it was something similar in this case? The user said 'dislodged' maybe it was up high or suspended? User also mentioned flip, maybe it somehow flipped it over onto itself? very strange but odd things DO happen from time to time.

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Omg that's such a scare! I'm so glad you were there in time to help her! This is definitely giving me food for thought on how to approach my future snake set up and what to watch out for. What did you have for perches?

It's really hard to figure out what happened with my classmate's snake because there were no details or photos of their set up prior, but I'm wondering if it was suspended as well, or possibly above substrate? The flipping possibility makes me a bit worried if all a snake has to do is sit on the edge of a bowl and having it fall on them. There was a specific bowl I was considering getting with a ramp.

http://t.petco.com/shop/en/petcostor...ile-ramp-bowl#

I saw this in person and thought it was neat, but it's super heavy. I admit this story is making me a little unsure about this and honestly spooked. On one hand, since it's a ramp with a long and flat base, it seems it wouldn't get knocked over, but I'd a snake is heavy enough, maybe it could flip it over?

That design isn't very likely to flip, with shallow sides and wide foot print. More likely your frustration will come from the amount of substrate they push into it.

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Originally Posted by craigafrechette

I would imagine the water dish was possibly elevated with rocks or something. I did this with my King's water dish because it's his favorite hide and he outgrew it. I didn't have the heart to take it from him. So I used some patio block sections to elevate it while still providing him with his privacy. I took into consideration the sturdiness, as well as the weight of the bowl (light-weight plastic dog food bowl) and chose the patio blocks because they are uniform in size so it allows the dish to sit perfectly level. He will occasionally knock it off the blocks, but it's super light and he moves it with no problem. Plus, it is hollowed out underneath, which is why it's his favorite hide, so even if it falls on him and can't possibly hurt him.
I'm wondering if this person was trying to provide a hide and it unfortunately wasn't stable and too heavy and ended wit a sad, unfortunate, tragic result?

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Could be possible. A part of me sorta wants to ask what their set up was to figure out how this tragedy happened but I don't want to be insensitive or imply anything. I'm worried I may accidentally offend them :(

But this whole thing is making me wonder if I should go plastic bowls instead of ceramic. Would ramp style plastic dishes still be prone to being flipped over? I've seen both plastic and ceramic/super heavy versions and was originally thinking of getting the heavier one for the sturdiness but this story is making me have second thoughts because of how heavy it is. The thing feels like a brick.

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Originally Posted by Lizardlicks

That design isn't very likely to flip, with shallow sides and wide foot print. More likely your frustration will come from the amount of substrate they push into it.

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I think I'll gladly take the substrate shoveling frustration over flipping :p

That being said, there are plastic versions I've found,
https://www.amazon.com/Zoo-Med-Repti...00167XQLG?th=1

Same general design, wide base but lighter. Would this also have less flipping tendencies?

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Originally Posted by MissterDog

Could be possible. A part of me sorta wants to ask what their set up was to figure out how this tragedy happened but I don't want to be insensitive or imply anything. I'm worried I may accidentally offend them :(

But this whole thing is making me wonder if I should go plastic bowls instead of ceramic. Would ramp style plastic dishes still be prone to being flipped over? I've seen both plastic and ceramic/super heavy versions and was originally thinking of getting the heavier one for the sturdiness but this story is making me have second thoughts because of how heavy it is. The thing feels like a brick.

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Yeah, that's a tricky one. It would be nice to know what happened, but it's tough to ask. Maybe just say that you have a snake as well, and you were just curious with the best interest of your snake as your reason for asking?

I know the bowls you're talking about, they are super heavy. I have no experience with them, so I can't comment on them. I use plastic dog food dishes, just cause they're light and there's no way it could injure the snakes. They get slid around a bit, but I have yet to have one tipped over. They will use them as hides as well if the dish has the handles on the side and the hollowed out sides, at least until they outgrow it. That's why I had to elevate my King's.

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Originally Posted by MissterDog

Omg that's such a scare! I'm so glad you were there in time to help her! This is definitely giving me food for thought on how to approach my future snake set up and what to watch out for. What did you have for perches?

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In her cage, there are wooden dowels for perches and the hide was the Exo Terra reptile cave.

I think the water bowl you are looking at should work, flat against the cage bottom (not ontop of substrate), it's heavy and wide, should be okay imo.

It sounds like they had the bowl suspended, which does sound like a risky thing to do with anything heavy.

I don't think anything will go wrong with a heavy bowl sitting on the enclosure floor though. I also don't set bowls on top of the substrate, but I set it *on the floor* and the substrate wraps around it lol.

I can see how a heavy hide has its risks, since it has openings that allow the snake to lift it up.

I use plastic hides and heavy water bowls.