Can Ceramic/heavy bowls be potentially dangerous?

[MissterDog]

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?

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.

[MissterDog]

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.

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?

[Craiga 01453]

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.

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.

[AbsoluteApril]

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?

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.

[redshepherd]

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.