Dark side of Herpetology

I had all 7 of my BPs refuse last Tuesday. So, I have 7 sm thawed rats go back into the freezer.

Ok, so when I rethawed them and tried again, they refused. Well, I wouldn't eat that, either.

What I do with uneaten f/t is to seal-a-meal it in the bag that's left (I seal-a-meal weekly sets) and throw it out. Keeps air out, doesn't reek. WTG.

SO, here, I have these 7 rats. Seal a meal pulled so much fluid out that it wouldn't seal.

Nice.

I sealed that bag 4 times. It finally took. What a gross job. After I got done cleaning rat "juices" out of the seal a meal, I put it away.

WHEN YOU ARE CONSIDERING BUYING A BABY BURM OR A RETIC OR AFRICAN ROCK. The size of the snake is not the only thing to consider.

Figure a snake that weighs half as much as you do lays a turd twice the size that you're humanly capable of.

There are the "behind the scenes" parts of this hobby that I never anticipated. I've dealt with them for some time now, but nobody ever seems to talk about them.

Have you ever put a rat pup into a blender? Yeah, I have.

Love the snakes, though.

I've never put a rat pup in the blender, but I have brained quite a few...and as for the turds? Yeah, a 13 ft burm can drop something you could use a shovel to pick up!
I'm glad it was you having to clean rat juices out of the seal-a-meal, though, don't know that my stomach could take that!

Erik,

You need to get yourself a living garbage disposal like a Monitor. I have (well actually he is over someone else's place getting some) my male Savanna as well as two snapping turtles in my pond that are very useful in disposing of uneaten juicy rodents.

You go to grab the f/t rat out of the thaw bag, all the skin slides off & you're left with rat ozze skin all under your nails & a dead zombie looking rat.

Lil' miss around 6 ft of I'd really like to eat your face & I'm not gonna poop for two months. Your landlord comes over and takes out a 3 x 12 section of your bathroom wall to fix a leaky pipe & doesn't patch the wall. Lil miss not only unleashes the load from Hades but decorates her entire cage & self in it. You're stuck trying to get her clean in a sterlite tub & Oh yeah, on top of her general attitude & dislike of being handled it's feeding day and she knows it.

You get a very sweet neglected anery from a guy that pity bought her. Feed it a rat pup plus a hopper mouse every feeding, notice it's weight/length proportionate and cut it down to just the rat pup.
It wants the second prey item.
Every fed that goes by with just one item makes her angrier. She has developed the most vicious stink eye ever. She just coils there, in the food spot, glaring, waiting. Her tank is next to your bed.

Wiping snake poo out of the corner, and the paper towel comes apart so you have poo and urates stuck under your nails.

Having to change your top notch vinyl surgerical gloves that are a pain to find FOUR times in one feeding session because every one of your balls is STARVING because it's been the normal week since they ate last, so they keep striking when you open the bin, instead of waiting for the nice juicy rat.

Worrying at the front of an incubator for 2 months(or in the case of monitors.. over 6 months) that the temps might shoot up and kill the eggs or go down and chill them.. for no reason, even if it's a perfectly good incubator that has never failed you before.

Walking into your reptile room to see over half the snakes have tipped over the water dishes and/or gone wee, or poo in the cage THE DAY AFTER YOU CLEANED THEM ALL.

Sigh, and I STILL love them and love keeping them!
edit: oh I forgot! Giving your beloved 5 ft long monitor a nice clean bowl of water, only to get tail whipped across the bridge of your nose for your trouble. OW friggin OW.

Originally Posted by Uroboros

There are the "behind the scenes" parts of this hobby that I never anticipated. I've dealt with them for some time now, but nobody ever seems to talk about them.

Have you ever put a rat pup into a blender? Yeah, I have.

The slurry blender in the animal room in the basement...

It's clearly labeled. If any guests choose to use it to make a fruit smoothy, I take no responsibility for the consequences should they find out that it's mostly used to make cubed chow for the monitors and some high-nutrient growth food mixes for cichlid fry.

Rats, roaches, lizards. earthworms and frogs blended into a chunky paste that meets the proportional dietary needs of the monitors, drained over an extremely fine mesh screen and then pushed into ice-cube trays until needed. Tasty stuff, although the fish tend to get a much finer and more watery mix of shellfish, bloodworms, blackworms, other fish, fish eggs that I didn't want to hatch out and insect larvae... with spirulina and phytoplankton tossed in for the few rift lake species.

Ah, the sweet smell of nutritional consistency. It smells a lot like that area between the butcher and the seafood counter in the supermarket if that spot was left out in the sun.

Exploded mouse guts within the coils of a constricting snake from overheating F/T Prey items and actually accidentally cooking the skin A joy to clean every time!!!

Eyeballs popping on live prey because snakey decided they really wanted to squeeze the life out of that rodent.... Delicious!

Tail skin on rodents falling off because, again, you heated prey food a bit too hot/fast.... Always fun!! BLEH!!!

Getting crapped on by one snake or another, or musked while trying to save one from your camera flash

Taking babies covered in egg goop out of the eggbox for a wash and some quick photos... Not really a BAD thing, but kinda slimy and funny.... hehe cant wait for boa birth! LOL

Man i love these animals..... but sometimes, i have to wonder why im not weirded out by this stuff at all.... LOL

Originally Posted by Mooing Tricycle

Eyeballs popping on live prey because snakey decided they really wanted to squeeze the life out of that rodent.... Delicious!

I was wondering where to post this picture.

The little bugger (pun intended) looks surprised.

Originally Posted by Mooing Tricycle

Exploded mouse guts within the coils of a constricting snake from overheating F/T Prey items and actually accidentally cooking the skin A joy to clean every time!!!

You come up short a large rat, know darn well you didn't miss count so you go searching. You find the counter surfing airedale pup happily disemboweling it on your brand new area rug. Your neat freak brother is due over with your toddler nieces in about half an hour.

Which leads to -

Feeding an overheated large rat to the boa that likes to drag it's food all around the cage (& through the water bowl) before swallowing it and having to clean up the intestinal garland from the rat's stomach tearing open.



I'm quite sure some shrinks would have a field day explaining while we're not freaked out by this stuff.

And why I have things like this saved in a recipe folder in my computer

Rats, roaches, lizards. earthworms and frogs blended into a chunky paste , drained over an extremely fine mesh screen and then pushed into ice-cube trays until needed. (S) Seamus/Fauna/Darkside

Thanks Seamus