Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Looking for the safest method to clean up a young 2' black rat snake that was brought in stuck in a glue trap. I got him off the trap no problem, but don't want to use any harsh chemcials trying to get the glue off his body. Any suggestions?
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PHWyvern

I'm thinking a few baths with warm water and a wash cloth might work a bit.
Michael
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www.freewebs.com/mikesnake
Michael_Fedzen@hotmail.com

>>I'm thinking a few baths with warm water and a wash cloth might work a bit.
>>Michael
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Water is basically useless with this kind of glue.
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PHWyvern

is supposed to be the easiest solvent to get them off the trap. Now if you've already removed the trap from the snake I'm not sure what's still attached but try getting the snake to wriggle through a cloth soaked in vegetable oil and see if that does the trick. After you've gotten the glue off wipe the snake down with a soapy washcloth.

Good luck
John

soap will do next to nothing for petroilum based glue. check out my multiple posts on the snakes-general forum.
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The reason mainstream thought is thought of as a stream is because it's so shallow. -Unknown

has already been removed.

>>is supposed to be the easiest solvent to get them off the trap. Now if you've already removed the trap from the snake I'm not sure what's still attached but try getting the snake to wriggle through a cloth soaked in vegetable oil and see if that does the trick. After you've gotten the glue off wipe the snake down with a soapy washcloth.
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>>Good luck
>>John

The snake was already pulled off the glue trap and soaking in warm water when I got around to posting the message. It was apparent that he had portions of his body stuck then unstuck and restuck in the glue as he was essentially just sticky all over from his own attempts at escaping. There was 3 points of contact where he was majorly stuck.

After I got him calmed down I greased the snake up on a safe vit. e cream made for using on horse hoofs (I like to use it for box turtle's when their shells are really dry looking in the winter). Early results seem that maybe the cream may have loosened up some of the glue clumps... I know afterwards the residual stickiness of my own hands from having removed the snake from the trap disappeared. I figure either the cream will keep the snake slippery enough that he doesn't get seriously stuck to anything until he can shed his skin or the process of rubbing the cream on him will continue to loosen and remove the glue.

All in all the snake handled the whole situation pretty well. At no time did he even try to bite, musk, or flail around in a panic. I did check to make sure his mouth was clear of any visible signs of the glue and it was...just some under his chin. When I left work he was settled in a temporary cage curled up around a hide box flicking his tounge at me.

Tomorrow I'll be going back in and greasing him up again on the cream and seeing if it really is helping to remove the gunk.

A couple of years ago I had to deal with someone bringing in a glue trap with a small bird (wren) trapped in it... by the time we got done it had several feathers missing or partially cut off. thankfully none were blood feathers and there were enough flight feathers remaining that it was able to fly away.
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PHWyvern

NT

Someone else I know online rescue a snake that was stuck in a glue trap in someones barn.. After using veggie oil to get him off the trap, he pretty much wiped as much of the glue off as he could with the oil, and the rest came off just fine with the next shed.. Is doing great today...
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DarkWave Exotics

Currently keeping:
1.2 southern scrub pythons
1.0 reticulated python
1.0 albino burmese python
1.2 jungle carpet pythons
1.0 irian jaya carpet python
0.1 sumatran blood python
1.0 ball pythons
0.1 green anaconda
1.1 emerald tree boas
2.2 colombian redtail boas
1.0 sonoran boa
1.0 cancun boa
1.2 normal and albino whitewater rosy boas
1.1 false water cobras
1.1 greyband kingsnakes
1.1 albino and het chinese beauty snakes
1.2 taiwan beauties
2.1 cornsnakes(Opal, okeetee, anery, stripes)
1.1 albino and multi het emory ratsnakes
0.1 albino checkered gartersnake
1.1 california kingsnakes
0.0.2 tiger leg monkey tree frogs
1.0 paddle tailed newt
0.1 foam nest tree frog
2 bearded dragons
9 leopard geckos
1.1 central american banded geckos
0.1 nile monitor
1.0 savannah monitor
0.1 russian tortoise

and lots of bugs, furry critters, fish and birds

Sounds weird, but the oils in peanut butter dissolves adhesives. I had a young Pine Snake get stuck in a glue trap many years ago. When a friend told me about peanut butter, I thought he was joking. I rubbed the snake with it, and the glue soon began disolving. By morning, the snake was free.

Bart Bruno