Stupid things that snakes do.

[GarterGuy]

Ok,
This past weekend, I decided to move Petra, my small male T.s.concinnus, into a bigger tank (now that I had room with the passing of Turk)...so I take his tank and sit it on the floor so I could move the new tank into position. Well while I was sitting the tank on the floor, he decides he's going to attack a small nob of silicone that's in the upper corner of his tank. Well he gets stuck on it! He pulls with all his might, even up ending pieces of drift wood and such trying to pull away. He's totally latched onto it and has his face right up against the frame of the tank so he can't move forward and pull his teeth out. I tried to pull the tab of sealant off, but there wasn't much to grab hold of and that crap's really strong. So now I'm starting to panic a bit and so is Petra, as he starts to thrash about!!!! So the only thing I knew to do was pull the frame off the top of the tank......not a very easy task and in doing so, I completely shattered the back of the tank. Luckily it was enough though that he could finally let go. What a friggin little moron!!!!!!!! Thank the gods that I was already going to move him to a new tank, since I just shattered his old one! Just thought I'd share my little drama with everyone.
Roy

[Stefan-A]

I for one would have taken pictures. ;)

[Sputnik]

And the award for owning the most stupid snake goes to... ;)

I bet he only did it because he thought you were bored!

[drache]

I hate those panicky moments when the snake is thrashing around and I feel like that's what my insides are doing also, while I'm supposed to keep a cool head

[Gyre]

That's bordering cute and mentally challanged. lol Well, I'm glad every one is oK, and sorry about Turk. :(

[adamanteus]

I once had a Spiny Tailed Iguana that constantly attacked the bright red thermometer in his viv, in the mistaken belief that it was a tomato! I changed it for a beige coloured one in the end (the thermometer, not the Iguana).

[Gyre]

Oh man.. That can be tough. We had fish, he was a HUGE Oscar. Every night when we'd turn his heater on, he'd attack the little red light. We went through a few heaters with that fish... 40 bucks a freakin' pop too!

[Stefan-A]

Well it didn't take long before one of mine did something equally stupid. Just fed the two of them, but five minutes after the female was done swallowing, I had another look at them. The female picked up a chunk of peat the size of her head and started swallowing it. I tried to intervene, but she managed to swallow it. [insert curse word here]

The "good" news is that peat breaks up when it gets moist and should pass through it anyway, but I really hope it regurgitates it instead. I definitely didn't need another thing to worry about. If she kicks the bucket because of it, I'm just going to call it "natural selection".

[rwgsnakes]

my ribbon snake bruno tied himself into a knot, and ate his tail once--after having 3 inches of his tail in his mouth he realized it wasnt a fish:confused: :rolleyes:

[Stefan-A]

Not the brightest of creatures, are they? :D Can't help but wonder how on earth they survive in the wild. Maybe there's some slug out there containing some vital vitamin-"don't eat yourself". If mine was a male, I'd rename it Ralph Wiggum.

[adamanteus]

How did slugs work their way into this thread? The slugs are taking over the forum!!:eek:

[abcat1993]

Well, if you live in France you could eat them. See, we do have something in common with garters.

[drache]

those are not slugs - they're snails

[KITKAT]

those are not slugs - they're snails

Ah, but a slug is just a snail with a poorly developed shell... riiiiight?!?:eek:

[drache]

apparently not
Snails also have those little wavy skirt thingys

[Sputnik]

Zuki had a bit of an adventure with an earthworm today. She managed to eat both ends at the same time, resulting in her being left with a wriggly loop...which wasn't going to make being eaten easy... The worm looped over Zuki's head (upper jaw only) and as she greedily tried eating the rest it tightened more and more over her head. Eventually she worked out that she could free herself by tilting her head to one side and chewing through the worm. She looked as if she had kinked her neck for a few seconds, then proudly slithered off!
I have a picture, will upload it as soon as I can.

[Sputnik]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v630/MrsSputnik/snakesss005.jpg

:( Such a shame about the light in this one, it could have made an amazing picture:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v630/MrsSputnik/snakesss011.jpg

[Stefan-A]

Oh yeah, I've had that happen to mine, too. :D Didn't have to chew through the worm, the other end just slipped out of its mouth when the worm got tight enough.

[abcat1993]

That happened to me, just with a monster nightcrawler, so he/she was having a bit more trouble. It never did loop around its head though, but my garter's teeth are practically nonexistent, so if it did there might be a problem.

[abcat1993]

And as far as them being snails in France, they take off the shells anyway, so they may as well be.

[Snaky]

Must have been a great sight Rosina:D

[Cazador]

Looks like Zuki's rockin out with a pair of headphones :D

[drache]

Very funny
I was thinking ear warmers
it should go in a caption contest

[OregonHerpaholic]

my ribbon snake bruno tied himself into a knot, and ate his tail once--after having 3 inches of his tail in his mouth he realized it wasnt a fish:confused: :rolleyes:

WAY TOO FUNNY!!! Would LOVE to see photo of that one!!!

Do they have Darwin Awards for Snakes??? I have an OLD mountain king that always grabs himself instead of the mouse, but I just thought it was snake dementia or something..

[RedSided]

Anyone find it funny the way that the snakes slide up and down the glass when you put them in a new vivarium?, its as if they are trying to find a hole in it :confused: , eventually they just tumble and start all over :D.

My brothers Fox snake is a devil for doing that.I think i might have to get a fox snake, such character:cool: .

[abcat1993]

They probably can't see the glass, or don't understand at least. Like a baby and a mirror.

[drache]

Our PI King often has a reaction when he sees himself in the mirror.
At first he recoils just slightly and then ge goes toward the mirror and then his tongue tells him it's not real. That first moment though - I always imagine this deep baritone voice going " Who is that big guy and what is he doing here?"

[zirliz]

Boa tries to steal my necklaces and chains and then hide down the sofa he's funny that way, also loves to rest in Macbook screen like he's on a tree.
He climbs shelves and hides under pillows not so much now since I make sure he can't get out :)

[Thamnophis]

At my job I almost had to break up two Python reticulatus (female 6 meter - 80 kilo, male 4 meter - 40 kilo) because the female bit the male in the side because she thought it was food.
When we wanted to enter the terrarium she let him go.
I have to say we were happy we did not have to interfear.
That femalecan kill you!
Stupid snakes!!! :rolleyes:

[Cazador]

Holy cow, Fons! How would you have done it? Cold water? Did you separate them afterward?
Rick

[adamanteus]

I had a freind once who kept a Retic in a big, walk-in viv. He was in there one day, cleaning up when she grabbed him by the wrist and wrapped around him. She tied his wrists to his ankles and he was four hours rolling around on the floor with her before he got free! He was pretty badly bruised.

[Cazador]

Man, that'd make you have to clean your pants! :eek:

[adamanteus]

She didn't wrap his body at all. Just tied his arms and legs together. She was only about 15 foot at the time, but they're a mega aggressive species.

[Thamnophis]

Normally we take one of the snakes out of the terrarium. This is 6 m X 4 m X 2,5 m. We have a sepearte room atached to this terrarium whee one snake can eat.
This is normally done BEFORE we are goning to feed them.
Both animals showed signs of shedding their skin in a week or so. We were not planning to feed them.
But... there were two dead rabbits left so and both snakes were laying as far apart as possible (but still togeteher in ONE terrarium).
We thought it could be done... the feeding.
We both gave a rabbit to one snake. Everything went well.
But... the enormous female thought that the rabbit of the male was better and she left hers alone and slithered to the male.
I kept her away for some time with a broom.
But the male was very slow in eating and in one moment she grabbed him.
We always are with at least two people while we are feeding our large snakes (also P. molurus and P. sebae).
But when they start "fighting" there is not much you can do without risking your life!
They are in feeding-mode on that moment and grab everything they can.
And you will not survive when a big girl like that grabs you.

Before we could decide what to do she let the male go and we could give here the rabbit she had left.
Both snakes had their mouth full with rabbit and now we could drag the male into the other cage.

So it were not the snakes that were doing something stupid, but we were!!!

In spite of all the experience we both had we made a real mistake. This ended well, but who knows what could have happend!

[adamanteus]

That could have turned really nasty Fons! Some of these bigger Pythons scare me. People are sometimes inclined to forget the raw power of the real giants, especially if their "pet" is normally placcid. As you have illustrated, it only takes one tiny slip and things can go badly wrong.

[Thamnophis]

The big lady of 6 meters and 80 kilo scares me too a little. Eventhough it is a gentle, friendly animal.
I am glad that I am a bit scared, so I stay sharp. A misstake is easy made.

[krystalirelan@southslope.]

I can see the loop. Hey while we are talking about eating things...what about Mollies? they breed well and are cheap. any reason not to feed to a garter?

[GarterGuy]

That could have turned really nasty Fons! Some of these bigger Pythons scare me. People are sometimes inclined to forget the raw power of the real giants, especially if their "pet" is normally placcid. As you have illustrated, it only takes one tiny slip and things can go badly wrong.



Yeh, I tend to not cross the predator/prey line when I'm looking at pets. No matter how nice retics look......anything that will eventually look at me as food is not going to happen.....that's what zoos are for.:D