Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Yesterday our reptile room thrmostat went out and the room went to 120 degrees. Our little female Spider (My first morph) died.
My Hedgehog,Sonic, alos died. I have 3 Ball pythons (male Pastel, 06 normal female, and an oddball) that are dying. Im so sad. They just keep twisting their head. A vet we know said they might be in shock. One of them just leaves his tongue out. Im not a big keeper so a female Spider means alot to me. I was planning of breeding some this year, but this really set me back.

Josh
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Got Balls?
Josh Molone

hey Josh, i am sorry to hear about your situation. i have no idea what happened, or what kind of heater you were using, but this type of thing happens to us all, these kind of setbacks.

some are easier to recover from than others, but keep your head up and try and move forward. best of luck.
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robyn@proexotics.com

Pro Exotics Reptiles

for what its worth, i too am so sorry! i will all work out. just use it as a learning tool.

good luck
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Thanks
Chad Ramsey

It's not much of a consolation, but at least they weren't super high end animals. It still sucks! Did you try soaking the others in water? You'd have to keep the water warm so you don't shock them worse, but it might help rehydrate what you have left. Sorry.

I feel your pain. I am still saving for my first morph. That just sucks...no other way to put it. Can not imagine what you must be going thru. I'll keep my fingers crossed that your others pull through. Brenda

if you dont feel like talking about it I understand, but what exactly happened to your setup? You said it stopped working or shut off I think...I cant exactly remember. Do you live in a hot area that the room would go to such a high temp (120f) if the thermostat shut off? Or did the thermostat stop working or malfunction and this caused the heater element to peg out on full blast?

Some reasons to discuss this sad event:

1) I am sure you have alot of thoughts in retrospect on how you will do things differently moving forward, and alot of people can benefit by your observations and from hearing your corrective action plan.

2) If you had a controller or thermostat go bad, it could be a brand that many people on here use and a fatal malfunction of the device, or even if it was because of user error, this information could help others avoid the terrible thing that happened to you...

2) Aot of people may have suggestions on how you can improve things so this doesnt happen to you again. I am sure you are working on this, but maybe someone has an idea you are not thinking of. We all know thermostats are alot of cash, maybe by discussing things you can come up with a plan that will save you some bucks and may even work better?

I have alot of experience with electronics and heating elements, wiring, digital and analog controllers, etc.. and I will be moore than happy to help out if I can.

I run my rack and incubator thermostats through a Johnson Control's A19 that's set a few degrees higher than the proportional thermostat. The A19 acts as a safety in case the proportional thermostat sticks on.
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Astronomy Picture of the Day

this story has gotten me real worried! first off im sorry to hear what happened but thanks for sharing this with everyone so we can learn from this. my question is i have a animal plastics rack and i have a helix dbs 1000 if i had a power failure when power went back on that helix would just go back to its normal temp? i hope? well hopefully someone can tell me something about that? thanks and again sorry josh!

Hey, if it means anything, I run three Helix DBS-1000s, and the power went out on my entire half of town JUST THIS MORNING for about 3-4 hours (it got cold, but my snakes were fine, I didn't open the racks for anything to retain the heat they did have), and when the power came back on, the Helix turned back on as well and was at the SAME temperature they were set at before.

I recommend to have a generator of some sort, if they don't have thermostats with the back-up batteries that some come with. We have a small a generator for our incubator.

Hope that helps. My Helix didn't reset for me.
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Cheers!
• Chelsea Lynn Gardiner
(and Frank M. Wood)

thanks for that info! i was pretty confindent it would go back to its previous setting but still good to hear it from experience.

Dude, that really sucks. Stick with it though. I'd say you are prob one of the youngest members of our little community here, and I have always thought it was pretty cool that you are so dedicated and eager to learn. Learn from this too, and remember that we are all here for you!
Chin up bro, I know it may not seem like it now, but you will learn alot from this.
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James.....
"Curiosity killed the cat, but satisfaction brought the beast back."

Josh, I think you might just be the youngest one on here, last I heard you were 12, right? I know this is rough, but stick in there. Don't give it up now when you were just about to have a whole bunch of fun. You'll recover from this and be back on track in no time, although it might seem like ages to you. Good luck. By the way I know how it feels to lose a snake to extreme temps, however it was only a normal female, not a spider. I hope you don't give this all up.

Josh, I've had the same accident. My heater killed all the females from the first clutch I ever produced. It was very sad and unfortunate and I was really discouraged, but I made it through. You will too!
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-Diana
www.LunarBoids.com

Josh- I am so sorry to hear of your loss.

It is really frustrating when you think you have everything just right and then some unforseen malfunction happens... and a well loved animal is lost. We feel let down and dissapointd in ourselves. ( even if it was beyond our control)

It happens, even to experienced seasoned breeders. I had a friend who lost an entire rack due to a thermostat malfuction, not too long ago.

Sometimes I think we forget we are working with living breathing creatures. Though ball pythons are resillient they are not immortal. It saddens all dedicated keepers when one dies.

Chalk it up to a very hard lesson learned. At the very least you know what caused the demise of your animals, and can add precautions to prevent it in the future.

I hope your other guys some how pull through, and also that you don't let this set back dampen your enthusiasm for the hobby.

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"There is a fine line between a hobby and mental illness"
COLD BLOOD.........WARM HEART

don't kill the live ones yet.....

a friend had a heat tape go waaaay too high when he bumped the probe onto the floor......and one died and a female albino was head wobbling and all and he was going to kill it...it came back and is fine......

wait awhile......

.........good luck
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Thank You Monitor

Is this what they are doing. If so one of mine is doing it to. What does it mean?

She also does the tongue thing!

How long has that ball python been doing that? And who did You get it from? If You don't mind Me asking. Its noodle looks cooked to Me.

Van
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Forever Trust in what we are,and nothing else Matters

i just noticed her doing it yesterday and i got her from a petco (silly me). ive had her for over a year though.

Did she get really hot or somthing or did this just come about. It reminds Me of IBD or a cooked brain. If they have a constant air temp of 105 and up it doesn't take long to fry one. Thats a bummer.

Van
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Forever Trust in what we are,and nothing else Matters

I just checked the bottom of her cage where shes been in her hide and the glass was 101f. Not sure if that is hot enough to burn her. shes always been a hider so i have a hide on each side but since i last cleaned her cage i rearranged it and her normal hide is on the cool side where as the newest one is on the warm side. Im thinkin she couldnt find the cool side hide (maybe covered by substrate) and thats why she stayed on the warm side even though it was pretty hot. The ambient temp is usually around 82.

IF it had a cold side...it would have found it........usually the fried brain ones have no way to escape the heat .....they are dumb enough to set on a hot rock till they burn but usually they will flee from spaces too hot....hot rocks burn due to being the only heat source in a cold cage....

......fried brain does not go away all the time......

IBD can be tough to spot...you need to test......if you have more than one snake.....keep them well separated......?.

good luck.....
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i just got home. While i was at work i had my girl take her out of her cage and put her on the other side of the room in a small critter cage. with damp paper towels and she sprayed the cage with water. She also took the cage outside. Ill clean it really well.

When i got home she was wondering around maybe looking for heat. She hasnt been swaying since then. Although she isnt as strong as she normally is, shes's acting normal. Her body temp was cold to the touch so i put some heat on her and as of this moment she is acting normal but a litte weak. her tongue is still coming out and going in slowly though. Her mouth is closed unlike this morning.

What ya'll think?

or she may be doing the stargazing thing.

Terrible and sad. Do not beat yourself up or feel that you have done something to hurt your collection. You care very much for their welfare. Be disappointed, frustrated and sad for your loss but don’t be swayed from your enjoyment of caring for your animals. Learn and expand your knowledge from this experience.

Sincerely, Kyle
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Kyle
www.royalvariations.com

"be safe, be happy and dont let anyone make you afraid" David Coverdale