Reptile & Amphibian Forums

i woke up this morning, my bro said my snake was wailing around like crazy, i check my tank and my snake was up in a little spot i thought it could never get to. stuck in duct tape that was between the screen and the tank. he was completely stuck, and in some spots he tryed so hard to get free he ripped his skn off. at first i tried to get him free because i thought he could heal. i tried warm water and oil and everything. when i tried to just pull him from the tape it ripped more skin off. i was going to put the tape and him in the freezer, but i wasnt able to use the freezer, in the end i snipped his head off with the scissors. this is really unexpected, i was hoping to have this guy for along time with you guys help. i gave michael j. fox his burial and im workin on completely fixing his tank of all the problems it had in case i find another garter in my searches. i feel really bad about michael j. makes me feel like im a really bad snake keeper

Sorry to hear of you loss. As you are aware now, you should use tape in or even near your enclosures. Snakes escape and can get tangled in tape that is outside the enclosure also.

Be careful of objects with holes in them too, like flower pots. Snakes can get stuck half way through and then it is problematic to get them out without harming them.

Burns from heat lamps are a danger. Never put heavy objects in the tank that the snakes can possibly push over.

Another hazard for small snakes is the water dish. The water must be very shallow with next to no lip.

I killed a couple of my snakes when I was trying to take them out of brumation. I set them near a basement window to bring them slowly up to room temps. Well we had a extreme cold snap during the night with temps plunging way below freezing and the window was drafty. Can you say snakecicles?

michael j. fox was supposed to live for 15 years with me. really been sad all day every time i think about it. oh well, im totally rebuilding this tank. im using all of u guys advice in this new one and its gonna be simple. paper towel substrate wutg his bowl and plants. thats it. im taking all the tape off of this because that was so gruesome seeing him like that i definately am not taking any chances. hopefully ill find another little buddy tommorow when it heats up so (crosses fingers) wish me luck. poor michael j. hes got a little tombstone with his initials on it. wadda bad way to go

I know I'm going to be labeled a heretic for this but ... If I would you then I would consider a different type of snake. Garters are pretty messy compared to some other types of snakes. Their tanks need more cleaning to maintain a non-smelly environment.

Make sure the top to your tank is extremely secure. Snakes are escape artists.

Thats pretty morbid.

Yeah, I wouldn't have admitted to that one even if I had done it.

Mark
Please contact me at saseech64@aol.com
Thanks Brother
Mike

Damn. That's pretty bad.

One chick on another forum once cut her Xenopus laevis' head off with a kitchen knife. Don't remember why, though, but there was a reason for it.

Wow... What is wrong with you?

I've had snakes get accidentally stuck in tape, there is always a way to get them free, and I don't mean cutting their head off.
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Mike
KingPin Reptiles Inc.
www.freewebs.com/mikesnake
www.reptilebreederdirectory.com

next time that happens take tape and all and coat the rest of the tape with sand to keep the snake from getting more entangled then place it in warm water to loosen the glue(will take time trust me.i had a short headed garter snake that took hours to get loose from ducked tape.

The reason why this is a disturbing act to me, is that it keeps reminding me of what those Zarqawi/terrorist did to those hostages in Iraq. If I were given a choice, freeze me.

look guys, this really killed me to do that, he ripped most of his skin off, i thought he was dead until he started wriggling around again, i could see his guts, i dont think snakes recover from that, i had to do it its wat michael j. wanted, it was a quick solution to his pain