Dark side of Herpetology

A friend of mine has had similar troubles with ball pythons. The last three that she has bought have "let go" on her. One of which was when she had it under her shirt (she has since learned not to do that).

I have 18+ snakes while feeding them all on the same day or the vast majority anyway I usually thaw 18-20 rat/ rat pups at a clip. My wife usually helps in feeding the snakes. So when all were fed, we had confusion over the where abouts of one rat pup, thinking it was possible one snake was fed twice we let it go. WELL 2-3 days go by and the snake room is starting to develop a rather foul odor. So I go through all the cages checking and cleaning as i go along. All cages are clean yet the smell remains. Another day passes and the smell is more prominent and quite fierce to say the least. I tear the whole room apart to discover the missing rat pup. Somehow it fell between one of our snake racks and was definitely the source of the disgusting stench. She blames me and I blame her but needless to say even a small rat packs a big punch!!

What do you guys do to your frozen feeders that these horrible things happen to them?
Lol
I've yet to have one fall apart. I've never had to clean guts up either... just a little blood on the paper towels. (I bet tonight when I feed, someone shreds one all over the place )
I don't thaw them in a bag though, I drop them right in the water in the thaw bucket and then I blow dry the heads with an old hair dryer to make them reallly warm when I'm about to hand them over.
Maybe the steam in the bags is what "melts" them?

I don't know about you guys but..it takes a A LOT to make me gag or barf. I mean...I use to clean up ppl for a living and take care of them, all personal care...so when you have a grown person who wears briefs...and the stomach bug goes threw out the group home, you seem to gain a whole strong approach to everything. I mean..I can look at dead things...help animals have babies (I think it's an amazing thing)..and nothing bothers me. Baby booger suckers use to, but not any more, since I became a mom.

I'm in college to get my RN degree, so I gotta have some stomach.

Now for my..gross story...

The only time I ever really had any trouble with smells, or anything gross was when I was preg (most of us are this way) and I was fighting with my ex, because he was just being the jerk that he is..and of course the doctor told me I didn't need to be touching the reptiles. Well...I had rescued a savannah Moniter from a very bad situation..and at the time I was about 9 months preg, about to pop. I was sitting here on the phone with the soon to be new owner of the rescued savannah and as I'm talking to him..the savannah props it's self up on it's tail and take the most MASSIVE poo...EVER!...and at the time..I had the weakest stomach ever...LOL..and the ex was being a jerk and made me clean it..even though he knew the doc told me not to be touching that kind of stuff..I did it neways...

Like a week before that...the savannah had major MBD, as well as major impaction due to the horrid care it had recieved from the guy neglecting his pets because he discovered girls...the savannah took its first poo which was NICE TIMES the size of the one he took in front of me..we were in the living room watching tv..and I was like..omg..what's that smell....and sure enough..it had finally crapped and not only did it crap RIGHT under the heat lamp..it decided to walk threw it...smear it on the class....smear it on it's hide...smear it on the water dish..in a very short period of time. Talk about super gross...Now..the ex did clean that one..cause Of the weak stomach and I jumped up and went and made dinner haha...it's sad when the poo is twice the size of the lizard. Poor guy..not telling how long it had been before I got him..considering I know for a fact he went without heat for about 4 days before I got him.

ok...I had some major typos and thought I got them all. I need sleep...

Nine*...Glass*....

i can relate to all these pretty much. i agree i prefer if the go to the bathroom in thier bowls, so much easier especially when you have 34 boas.

I'm late, I know. I still wanted to add my favorite gross me out story.

I live in Phoenix, AZ and if you didn't already know it, it gets effing out out here in the summer. I mean realllly hot.

A couple of summers ago I forgot I had purchased a number of f/t rat pups to feed to the gang and left them in my car overnight and then all the next day - in the middle of August. Needless to say, they got wet and gooey... all over my car seat. I had to park my car at the end of the lot because people complained about the smell. I thought I'd be smooth and pour bleach on it and buy a ton of strawberry airfresheners. Yeah.. rat goo mixed with bleach and strawberries.. yum.

Thanks for posting late, I'd missed this earlier. Some wonderful stories, and makes me see I have so much to look forward to....

Originally Posted by Helenthereef

Thanks for posting late, I'd missed this earlier. Some wonderful stories, and makes me see I have so much to look forward to....

Or at least a few things to try and avoid.