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

[John1982]

Last weekend I was feeding some colubrids. This usually involves me opening tubs and trying to throw food in their faces before they come shooting out. With some snakes, like my indigo, I leave the tub slightly opened because I offer multiple smaller food items and want to track feeding without too much interruption. I've been raising this mexican indigo for almost 2 years now and figured I had her pretty well pegged, she'd take at least a couple minutes to find all three of her meals and scarf them down. I always know when she's finished because she will suddenly rear up, very dramatic, then advance on me while striking at anything that moves - never quite satisfied in the belly, this one. I continue my feeding routine with some of my ground floor animals which are my breeder pits. An adult female bull snake had just snagged a medium rat when suddenly something shiny and black crosses my vision as it flies through the air. The indigo, having finished her meals in record time(talking less than 1 minute for 3 reptilinks), had broken protocol and slithered out quite stealthily. I can only imagine that having sighted the bull snake below(a good 4 times her size, mind you), this indigo couldn't help but launch herself at a meal that might finally satisfy the insatiable. Everything felt slow motion from the passing blur and I was reaching for the snakes before touchdown. Her aim was true, having latched the head of the bull snake before any of the rest of her body even hit the ground, but luckily I was a mere moment behind. I laid hands on them before the inevitable chomping and thrashing could cause any real damage to the bull snake and managed to peel the indigo off her prey without much fuss. The indigo was not pleased that I ruined her super sized meal opportunity and continued to give me the stink eye for the rest of the weekend. The bull snake received some shallow puncture wounds - maybe a little more damage than an enthusiastic male might cause during courtship - but being a typical pit, she didn't even relinquish her hold on the rat and continued her feed like nothing was out of the ordinary.