Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hello forum..Been a long time since i posted anything of any importance.Yesterday my 14 ft. male tiger named Tony died. He was in a large wooden cage with the inside lined with formica.His lights were on a timer in a heated room.I recently bought a "Zoo Med" large mat style heater and placed it on the back side of the cage {not the bottom} because it sits on an outside wall of my home and there is a slight draft.Yesterday I noticed a stange smell in the snake room.I moved the cage and the whole back of the cage was burned smoldering wood.It even burned clear down to the carpet.When I opened the cage enough oxygen rushed in to ignite the wood chip subsrtate to flames.With out even thinking I reach in and pulled my snakes limp body from the cage.I tried to resusitate him.He was gone.Smoke inhalation and noxious fomes from all the glue and caulking around the the formica.I lost my favorite pet and almost burned the house down.Hopefully if anything good can come from this please , please do not use this brand on your animals.This was a brand new out of the package heater that reached a degree of heat great enough to ignite wood.Please be careful. William Fravel Portland Oregon............. Lipripinbilly@aol.com

That sucks... Sorry for your loss....

Sorry to hear of your loss.I lost a 13' male burm last year to a fire that started in his cage.It did burn everthing in the room and cause major smoke damage.Fortunately,I was able to save my female yellowhead retic and my female burm.My insurance then dropped my policy saying they didn't want anything to do with an exotic pet.My fire started because my male burm somehow twisted the light fixture upward and the plexiglass got to hot and began to melt.Once again I'm sorry about your loss and that was a very good looking snake.Feel free to reply if you just need to vent I totally would understand.

That really sucks.

But it's very very fortunate that you caught the problem before you had a major fire and possible loss of human life and home!

How was the heat mat attached to the cage back? Was it on the outside of the cage back? Was there air space between the back of the cage and the wall?

Bill

The heat mat was centered in the middle of the back of the cage , on the outside of the cage. It has an adhesive tape on the one side. I figure it was maybe 5-6 inches away from the wall. This was not my primary source of heat for the cage. It was an attempt to keep the abeient (spelling?) heat level up because the wall the cage is next to is an outside wall of my home and we`ve had an unusually cold winter here in Oregon. Ive always just heated the intire room to about 80.I tied to reach Zoo Med Labrotories via phone and email but im thinking they took a 4day holiday weekend. Im not sure what to do (if anything) about this.Any ideas or help would be appreciated........................................W.Fravel

The cage, substrate, and heat mat. As much as I would dislike the idea, a pic of your snake would also be advised. The company may want to see it..and it may help depending on how you go about pursuing this.
Also check the fine print on the packaging for a statement about using the product with a heat controlling device (thermo/rheo). If its the pad Im thinking of I dont think there is one, but Im not sure.
Im sorry to hear about your baby, and hope my little bit of information can help you in some way. I would hate to lose one, in such a manner. Good luck and condolences.
Notah

I agree with notah photo document everything you might want to sue thats on your part. But accidents like this migh of been avoided cause it was on the company fault take them to court and show them all the photos and not for money but to show them what the are responsible for. Hopefully the will manufacture better heating equipment so this wont happen agian not only is it dangerouse for it being to high for it to catch on fire but deadly to the animal as well cause it might just lay on it and catch on fire lol not really but it could relly hurt the animal like i said this is my opnion and what you should probably do

Wow. Sounds like one hell of a defective product to me. Dangerous as hell. I would take a bunch of pictures of everything including how your cage was placed away from the wall.

Once again, you are very fortunate that you caught the problem in time. Had you not been there, things might have been a LOT worse.

Thanks for posting. I hope you'll post some pics, too.

Bill

I don't know what I would do if something like that ever happened to my lizards.

Don't let this go though. I have heard too many horror stories about zoomed's heat pads. Do everyone a favor and try to get them to do something about it.

At least you know it's not your fault. You were doing all of the right things for the snake. It's just a tragedy...plain and simple. I am currently working on getting a neglected Mali Uromastyx back to health. The owner had her in a tank filled with sawdust and dead grass, and he had a 125 watt heat light and from what I can put together from the mess, he had it duct taped to the upper inside corner of the tank (from what I can see...just judging by the duct tape residue on the light fixture and tank). We've concluded that the horribly secured lamp fell onto the poor uro and cause third degree burns that cover a rather large section of her back. This kind of thing is unnacceptable. Not only is it lucky that the defensless little uromastyx didn't die from burn and infection (terribly filthy tank)...it could have started a fire. There comes a point when you just can't comprehend what the hell some people must have been thinking. You probably don't want to hear me go on about this...the uro is recovering nicely by the way.

The point is, it's from zoomed's innability to produce a safe product that your beloved pet is now up somewhere in snake heaven.

I feel bad but angry at the same time. damn zoomed

-ryan

Attaching a heat mat to wood or anything else but glass will cause the mat to overheat and burn.Wood is an insulator and all the heat was staying in the mat.Im sorry for your loss but your lucky to be alive and unharmed.The directions on the heat mats i use all say for use on glass with proper ventilation.Once again im sorry for your loss.

Ihad a bad experience with a zoomed pad. it was attached to glass and had a couple of inches of ventilation, but the pad cracked my tank and melted.

Wal-Mart ANY day, they may not look the best put you can adjust the heat & I've NEVER heard of 1 starting a fire..........

Hindsights ALWAYS 20-20 isn't it?? Real sorry about you losing your Retic........... beautiful snake.

Dean