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Sticky snake!

Hail_Britannia

Hail_Britannia

Animals > People.
I'm a total idiot. When I cleaned Cornwallis' viv the last time, I used a piece of duct tape to stick his thermostat probe to the bottom of his tank. As I probably could have predicted if I had half a brain, I came home tonight to find him all wrapped up in the tape! He writhing and twisted around and totally stuck! he could have died and it would have been all my fault. I used peanut oil to loosen the tape and gently worked him out of it. He seems fine, but is there anything else I should do for him? We're skipping his feeding tonight, obviously...someone please tell me peanut oil isn't toxic to snakes!

What makes me worst, besides this being all my fault, is that throughout the whole ordeal he never tried to bite me, even once. Poor sweetheart! Does anyone have any advice?
 
Yeah ...let him chill out for a day then you should be ok to feed.
But ...you might want to check him out for damage first before you feed.

You fine with the peanut oil.
Lesson learned.
 
I checked him over very carefully. he doesn't seem to have lost any scales, and he has no tears that I can see. I'll keep an eye on him. Thank you so much for your response, I feel like a total moron here.
 
Aww, poor baby! Well, lessons have to be learned either the easy way or the hard way... unfortunately for Cornwallis, you two learned the hard way. But if he seems ok, obviously keep a close eye on him, and things should work out. He might have minor tears or scales missing and were I you, I'd wait to see if he goes into a shed cycle before trying to feed.
 
Hail_Britannia said:
I checked him over very carefully. he doesn't seem to have lost any scales, and he has no tears that I can see. I'll keep an eye on him. Thank you so much for your response, I feel like a total moron here.
Click to expand...

I'm sorry but the moron postion is already taken here.
The knucklehead job might be open tho. :sidestep:
 
Most long term keepers I know had to learn the hard way about tape at one time or another - including me. In the "old days" (before the Internet and the plethora of books now available), most of us learned by trial and error. And tape was one of the common errors, lol!

But vegetable oil is the savior of "taped snakes". Also, cutting away any tape not already stuck to the snake, before using the oil, sometimes helps. But a healthy snake is pretty resilient, and will often go into one shed after another until the skin is completely healed.

For those lucky enough to avoid this lesson SO FAR - note that no matter HOW HARD you press that tape down, snakes will SOMEHOW manage to get stuck to it when used inside the cage! If you really, really need to use tape (I don't recommend it!), then use masking tape instead of duct tape - it is a lot easier to remove!
 
What about hot gluing the probe before moving the snake into the viv? Right now I have the probes weighted down with heavy objects but I was thinking about glue. Should be OK once completely dry as long as I choose something completely waterproof, right?
 
Actually, hot glue is fine for herps. Aquarium sealant is too, of course, but there's no problem with using hot glue. Just be sure it's cooled before you add the animals! lol\

I'm glad the snake/tape mishap had a happy ending. These stories don't always end so well.
 
I use aquarium silicone and its perfect... I've never tried hot glue, but if carol says its fine i'm sure it is. either way, just make sure the stuff is totally set before putting the snake or substrate anywhere near it. :)
 
RosieReal said:
I use aquarium silicone and its perfect... I've never tried hot glue, but if carol says its fine i'm sure it is. either way, just make sure the stuff is totally set before putting the snake or substrate anywhere near it. :)
Click to expand...

Caryl, i see i read your name far too fast and i appologise for that. I'm not a contributing member (yet) so i cant edit...so this is my correction.
Sorry about that! :eek:
 
oo3menace said:
IMO if you want to keep it reptile safe I would use aquarium silicone over hot glue.
Click to expand...

Hot glue is good.

I would think that aquarium silicone would be use with a fish tank and not a reptile tank. Just cause it's glass I don't thing you need aquarium silicone. Good old silicone would do for water spills.

But...hot glue has less flumes and drys quicker.
 
RosieReal said:
Caryl, i see i read your name far too fast and i appologise for that. I'm not a contributing member (yet) so i cant edit...so this is my correction.
Sorry about that! :eek:
Click to expand...

Not a problem. I've been misspelled, mispronounced, and mistaken for male for most of my life. :shrugs: Thanks, Mom! (It's pronounced like Carol, and yes, I'm female. :D )

There's nothing wrong with aquarium sealant; it's just more expensive and unnecessary.

By the by, a dab of hot glue is also useful for smoothing off pointy places on variety-store artificial plants for the vivs. They're cheaper from a hobby shop or dollar store than from a pet store. Glue guns take care of any potentially sharp places.
 
Thanks for all the help and good wishes, guys. Cornwallis seems to be doing fine. Hot glue is a great idea, I never thought of that. I'll have to pick some up tomorrow.
 
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