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Dark side of Herpetology

Uroboros

Uroboros

TheHerpinator
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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!
 
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.
 
Uroboros said:
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.
Click to expand...

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 :D 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 :D :D :D

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 :D 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
 
Mooing Tricycle said:
Exploded mouse guts within the coils of a constricting snake from overheating F/T Prey items and actually accidentally cooking the skin :D A joy to clean every time!!!
Click to expand...

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
Click to expand...

Thanks Seamus :thumbsup:
 
Twizted Paths said:
I'm quite sure some shrinks would have a field day explaining while we're not freaked out by this stuff.
Click to expand...

I hear that. Ever explain things to a non-herper? I remember saying something at work and this Black girl said, "what is up with you White people putting things in your freezer"? Of course this was right around the time Jeffery Dahmer was on trial.
 
DAND said:
Ever have a large burm die?

Ever have a large burm die on it's heat source?

Ever have a large burm die on it's heat source and become bloated?

Ever try to move the above mentioned?
Click to expand...

Ever had the person who was supposed to come by and feed and water things while you were on vacation choose instead to hide a frozen sheet of bloodworms underneath a 110 degree metal drum containing about sixty pounds of hot, activated carbon- leaving the package there for three weeks until the bloat from the rot finally made it split open along one seam?
 
How about picking up a 9 foot Blue Beauty for someone else at a show in another state.

How about picking up a 9 foot Blue Beauty for someone else at a show in another state from an idiot who fed her 4 medium rats 4 days ago.

How about picking up a 9 foot Blue Beauty for someone else at a show in another state from an idiot who fed her 4 medium rats 4 days ago and having it crap all over the place......

....and the whole way back home.
 
My brother & his pack moved down to Louisiana & I got their old frig, total score!

It's in the basement, all dead things and not for human consumption food goes in it. I hide my junk food stash in it too. :D

DAND, you win. :ack2:
 
I think everything I could have said has already been covered well, so I'll just say that I'm really enjoying others' experiences. It's nice to know we're not alone in our insanity, eh? :crazy03:
 
Yeah, well you just haven't LIVED till you've had a large Burmese puke up a rabbit and then crawl all through it, THOROUGLY smearing that stuff all over the inside of it's large cage and all over itself. I was about ready to toss my own cookies the entire time cleaning that mess up. :ack2:

That's when I kept snakes in the basement, and it stunk up the house for days afterwards. And was a deciding factor to stop playing with large constrictors.........
 
Yeah, I think this is great. People just don't know the act behind the curtain it takes to keep them going sometimes.

Like a master puppeteer. If you do it properly, it looks like it never happens.
 
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