Biggest Husbandry Mistake?

[wnateg]

Sure, it may be embarrassing, but mistakes are an opportunity to learn, grow, and improve. Everyone makes them.

Yesterday, I made mine, and it inspired this post.

I accidentally left my emerald tree boa enclosure unlocked all night and all day, and I realized when I got home from work. So I decided to put a bamboo skewer through the door hinges to easily remember to keep it shut.

So, what is your biggest husbandry mistake?

[wnateg]

Actually, I remember another example. One time my cat jumped onto the screen top of a ball python I used to own, and she fell through the screen.

[Craiga 01453]

Sure, it may be embarrassing, but mistakes are an opportunity to learn, grow, and improve. Everyone makes them.

Yesterday, I made mine, and it inspired this post.

I accidentally left my emerald tree boa enclosure unlocked all night and all day, and I realized when I got home from work. So I decided to put a bamboo skewer through the door hinges to easily remember to keep it shut.

So, what is your biggest husbandry mistake?

Good thread topic.

Back when I first started out we weren't lucky enough to have forums like this.
My first snakes were set up with Astro turf substrate, an unregulated heat lamp and those horrible heat rocks that I can't believe are still available on the market.
Looking back I'm really lucky I never ended up with a burnt or cooked snake.

Actually, I remember another example. One time my cat jumped onto the screen top of a ball python I used to own, and she fell through the screen.

A perfect example of why cats don't belong near the snakes or their enclosures.

[sur3fir3]

So here is one. While I was working in a pet shop we got in a 4 foot Boa. Without thinking about it. I just reached in the bag and pulled her out. Needless to say she was a bit annoyed and decided to latch down on my hand.

I was not aware of the issue with Calci Sand at the time, but I had a KSB about 25 years ago, and I kept him on Calci-Sand.

We had a 16 Foot Retic at my old school. We tried making a small pool for the snake to soak. When we put it in her cage we were not thinking all that well. So we put it in her cage, and right away she spilled it. Little did I know that the corners of the enclosure were not sealed properly. After about 24 hours sitting in water everything swelled. We had to build a completely new enclosure.

This isnt about snakes, but its still husbandry.

So I bought a scorpion. They put it in a box with Air holes. On the way home my girlfriend was holding the box. I don't know how, but the scorpion managed to sting my GF through an air hole. Well come to find out she was allergic to the venom, and I had to go to the hospital ASAP.

I will see what else I can remember, but this is it for now.

[wnateg]

So here is one. While I was working in a pet shop we got in a 4 foot Boa. Without thinking about it. I just reached in the bag and pulled her out. Needless to say she was a bit annoyed and decided to latch down on my hand.

I was not aware of the issue with Calci Sand at the time, but I had a KSB about 25 years ago, and I kept him on Calci-Sand.

We had a 16 Foot Retic at my old school. We tried making a small pool for the snake to soak. When we put it in her cage we were not thinking all that well. So we put it in her cage, and right away she spilled it. Little did I know that the corners of the enclosure were not sealed properly. After about 24 hours sitting in water everything swelled. We had to build a completely new enclosure.

This isnt about snakes, but its still husbandry.

So I bought a scorpion. They put it in a box with Air holes. On the way home my girlfriend was holding the box. I don't know how, but the scorpion managed to sting my GF through an air hole. Well come to find out she was allergic to the venom, and I had to go to the hospital ASAP.

I will see what else I can remember, but this is it for now.

Great stories. I do wonder if there's ever been someone caught by a hot fang through an air hole.

[Bogertophis]

Like Craig, I've been around snakes for longer than there were snake forums, and here's my most memorable blooper that took place "way back when" the
footprints of the dinosaurs had only just cooled off.

A good-sized (3'+) wild-caught native snake was turned over to me & was very restless in the temporary tank I fixed up for him until I could return him to the wild.
I couldn't blame him...he'd never been in a house, much less a cage with glass walls...he spent all night pushing the substrate around trying to leave, & spilling his
water bowl in the process...what a mess! So I cleaned up his cage all over again, this time using some old masking tape to hold the layered paper towels (substrate)
in place, folding them & attaching them to the glass about 3" up on all sides & feeling very clever. He wouldn't be uncovering the UTH again THIS night...

Much! By the next morning he managed to (1) slide against the sides, causing the semi-sticky masking tape to let go of the paper towels in favor of his own neck,
(2) then he managed to lay over the UTH just long enough to "hot-glue" the tape to his scales, and (3) while not choking, was VERY indignant for being stuck in a
"neck-tie" he couldn't remove. Oops! Come to think of it, I don't much care for formal attire either.

So the one thing I haven't yet mentioned is that this was a rattlesnake, making the tape removal SO much more complicated, even with my long non-locking hemo-
stats. But I did finally get the tape off his neck, apologized profusely for being such a silly human (he didn't hear a word of it anyway), & got him fed, watered & re-
located within a week. And this is why we keep saying "NO tape or sticky stuff in snake cages! Ever!" It's amazing what snakes can do with the stuff, they're
so very creative.

[Bogertophis]

Great stories. I do wonder if there's ever been someone caught by a hot fang through an air hole.

Probably so, but when I kept rattlesnakes (for 20 years safely), I too thought about that & modified the Neodesha cages that I used for giving programs with them so that
no one could accidentally put their hand on an air vent & get "nailed". I added "fang guards", little cages made of perforated metal about 1" deep so there was NO chance
that any fangs could go all the way thru the covered vents. For those unfamiliar with Neodesha cages, they had sloping plate-glass sliders on the front that I could easily
lock in place, making the travel & programs I did with them quite safe. You have to think of EVERYTHING when you keep hots, and especially when you share them for
education.

[EL-Ziggy]

<< Used heat rocks for my BPs in the old days. Started out with an unregulated heat mat and fed my kingsnakes outside their enclosures for the first few months after I began keeping snakes again about 7 years ago. Thankfully, I've learned a lot over these past few years.

[Werewolves]

Both of these events were only early 2018, so I don't have the excuse of it being "back in the day", but...

I tried the whole "feeding in a separate enclosure" the very first time I fed my first snake since I had read that you were supposed to - that was also the day I got my first bite, trying to put her back in her cage. Thankfully I don't get spooked by things like that (sorry, Saturn, if an upset 1000lb horse doesn't scare me then your little 600g self can't no matter what you try) and saw how stressed she was, so I decided not to do that to her again. Then I belatedly discovered this forum, started lurking, and realized that what I had initially read about feeding in enclosures was wrong anyway.

I also had a minor tape incident, but luckily that was with the extremely patient ball python so getting it off her was easy enough. No tape goes ANYWHERE near snakes now.

[Awesomethepossum]

Almost losing my new snake.

I didn't buy clamps for my snake's tank, and thought a book would be sufficient. It was a sliding screen top with a broken lock. I didn't think a hatchling could be strong enough. Was very mistaken.

Anyway, I couldn't sleep one night and decided to do one last midnight check on my critters (they're kept in their own small room) and found Dante perched just outside his tank in full surveillance mode (neck and head upright) --having a staring contest with my geriatric cat. They were at eye-level.


I was unbelievably lucky, and I realized this. I bought tank clamps immediately the next day.

I still kick myself for it. But I guarantee it won't ever happen again.