Reptile & Amphibian Forums

since there hasnt bn very much exitment on here the last few days or so, i figured now wouldnt be a bad time 2 tell a little story about an unfortunate little incident that has recently a been major part of my life and maybe a horror story that may be talked about for one reason or another.

so i've been collecting reptiles and critters my whole life and i would like to consider myself very passionate about my true feelings and love for reptiles. i have always practiced good husbandry and have always had a what i'd like to consider a happy hearty collection. Like many of you, every one considers me the crazy guy thats got all those snakes and always has. i was born in raised in a pretty small place so every one knows every one for the most part. when i was a kid i remember the population being 30,000; now there's around 60,000-65,000 and growing like crazy!! so things are changing around me but one thing never changes; my love for snakes!!!

i've been collecting hogs seriously now for 3-4 years and am having so much fun with them. That just goes to show, no matter how good you are or how much knowledge you have, the smallest little mistake or short cut can really crush your dreams.

so i work at a tattoo shop here where i live and i'm always in and out and somtimes out for a long period of time.

Just like every Wednesday i fed my hogs. My first mistake that i rutinely made a part of my feeding regimine; i like to turn the heat up in my snake room a few degrees for an hour or so prior to feeding. I've done this manually for years; problem free. i had a great feeding day and went on with my business like normal. When i got home that night i noticed my house reeks of melted plastic and i immediately ran up to the snake room to find it full of smoke and the heater grinding and running full blast; needless to say, i unplug the heater and start running through my tubs ripping off lid after lid to find they're all dead.
After i ran through about 20 or so tubs and having one survivor (0.1 poss het hypo), i turned over to the albinos that were sitting on the floor still and they were all alive sitting in there water bowls. At this point, it's very late in the evening and having done all i could do, I go 2 bed. i wake up first thing in the morning, check on whats left of my snakes (5 2.2 albinos n the poss het) to find them all ok. i grab my bag of dead snakes and go to give them a proper burial out on my granpa's ranch. While heading home i feel very sad and keep on telling myself it's over and can't get any worse. I walk straight up stairs, to check my survivors, and what else could be wrong the poss het and my 70 gram extreme red albino female dead! That was the icing on the cake.

Wrapping it all up, in case any one was wondering after reading all that, what i lost 2.6 het and poss het hypos 2.3 poss p.p.a. 0.2 poss dbl het snows 2.4 het albinos 0.6 poss hets and norms. and not but 5 or 6 were under 100 or so grams with to big gravid het albinos that were so close to layin me some eggs. What made it through were 1.1 red albinos and 1.0 poss het snow albino little babys though 15-20 grams. On the bright side, 2 weeks before all this happened i sent a my biggest/best breeder albino male and 3 good size normal females to a close friend for one reason or another.

I'd like to think I've learnd a very valuable lesson and hope no one has to learn like that, if you haven't yet. I really hope that no one looks down on me for this mistake and thinks im an idiot. It was a very stupid simple mistake, that i will be kicking my self over and over for life.

Thanks everyone for taking the time to read this it feels good to get off of my chest.

Hope everyone has a great hatch out this year!

Much Love
Joe Schmidt

And rest in piece my babys im sorry and i love you very very much!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So sorry for your loss. I'm glad a few made it.

Was it a space heater that malfunctioned?

Dan

it was a space heater that malfunctiond that or the thermostat. it all happened so fast with so much confusion i didn't take the time to check and to be honest i didn't want to know. i just replaced every thing that i thought could have went wrong and called it a wrap at that.

the red albinos

poss het snow

extreme red female n the poss snow

I took these pics a few days before it all happened

Joe, I am terribly sorry for your loss! Hopefully you don't lose hope and you decide to rebuild your collection.

I have a question for you. Did you find that increasing the temps before feeding helped improve the feed response, or was this just something you've done out of habit for a while?
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Robert Charvat
1.1 het albino Western Hognose

thanks robert,its been a couple months now since that and i'de like 2 think that if i gave up then i should have never started,and thanks to a few close friends being good friends and coming off there own personal animals,and keeping me focused, my collection is a coming along very nicley.and a lot more solid!!

as far as feeding responce turning up the temp in my opinion is awsome. you kinda get a feeling on who wants 2 jam for you.you'll go in not see a single snake turn up the heat and they will all know what time it is and be lookin for that next meal.it honestly works great i feed my hogs on wednesdays and sundays and they always eat with out falure. and just a few tips when i scent my food item i always put the scent on the back half of the item and put blood from the mouse on the head(not braining actual blood)once thy get a taste for the blood its hard to get them away from it. making it that much easier and safer for us. and somtime it just takes a simple car ride believe or not it it works.

Thanks for your story, I to have also just recently had a space heater malfunction. I did not have a large collection of animals to begin with; I lost all of my breeder females 1 albino 2 het albinos and 1 normal, My 2 males survived. My snakes were three weeks out of brumation. I had been manually controlling room temperature with a space heater. So I set my thermostat in the morning for day time temperatures went about my day. In approximately 4 hours my heater had malfunctioned and the room had become deadly. I was in complete shock as I opened cages and there was nothing to do they were dead. I had heard stories of such things happening. I think I'm still in shock. I know my mistakes and am humiliated. I was so arrogant believing that no misfortune could befall me. I still keep very careful watch over my two male charges that have new thermostats and heat sources. My poor little widowers with no mates this year. I have not found suitable replacement females for them.

Stephanie

hey steph,
sorry to here that.What a bummer, and i know the feeling of not being able to find good replacements. if it was'nt for justin m.
I would only have a small hand full of babys, and nothing to breed this year but i also took on a few new species to keep my mind on track.good luck in your serch for the lovely ladys i'll let you know if i here of anything that might be up your alley.

thanks 4 sharing
Joe

this is a pic of the one i miss the most my first hog ever ~videl~

Hey Joe,
Dont be too hard on yourself, I have seen this happen to many an experienced herper.
I lost the most awesome Eastern last summer from an equipment failure. I almost cried when I felt how hot it was in the room. My girlfriend and I have been searching for a replacement ever since with no luck. At least you are getting back on track.
Good Luck

sorry to hear about your loss. i have 2.2 normal c.b 07 that i want you to have if your interested so contact me and dont be shy. i think the most imporant think about this hobby is the comrodery we share as well as the love of the animals.
mike

wow thanks mike that would be so cool of you!!I really dont know what to say. drop me an e-mail and we'll work out some details thanks so much!! what comes around goes around.

joseph-schmidt@hotmail.com

Hey Joe,

Sorry to hear about the loss. I actually had the opposite happen feb of 2006. I run a summer camp in illinois for kids with disabilties. I was just going through a divorce so I was temporarily staying at the camp. I kept my collection in one of the heated dorm buildings. I left for a week to go on a staff recruitment trip and when I got back I found carnage. The furnace in the building had gone out at the building froze up. As I open up the cages I found all my snakes frozen solid. I had 6 pairs of western hognose (included a pair of pink pastels and regular albinos), 1 pair of albino nelsons milks, 2 pair of tricolor hogs, and a pair of childrens pythons. Only one of the regular western hognose and the pair of nelsons made it. The funny thing is I had a 10 gallon tank with 4 baby turtles in the dorm as well. The tank was frozen solid but when I thawed it out the turtles were still alive. Resilient little suckers. I was completely devastated by the loss of my snakes. I recently bought a house in Indiana and have contemplated rebuilding my collection. I have 4 baby hogs and that pair of Nelsons now and hope some day to get a few more hogs. Good luck with rebuilding yours!

Scott