Hey all,
Well I had a horrible mishap with my collection tihs past weekend and I am completely distraught. I run a not for profit summer camp in Illinois for people with disabilties. I recently bought a house and havce been keeping muy snakes at thw ca,mp in one of our heated dorms until I could save up the money to build my snake room. Well, I had to go away for the weekend (3days) and made sure everybody was watered before I left. Furnace was set on 65 nice and comfy. Well, I got back on Sunday and checked on the critters. I walked in the building and it was freezing. Ilooked at the thermostat and found it was not working. The damn furnace was only 2 years old. The pipes, toilets, and sinks were all frozen. I ran to the room with my snakes fearing that I might find absolute carnage, I was right. Every shoebox I opened had a frozen water bowl and equally frozen snake. I was in shock. I ran to another room where I kept the snakes I did not hibernate (pair of spotted pythons and pair of adult tricolor hogs). They were equally as frozen. I also had a 10 gallon tank with a couple of turtles (painted and musk) that was frozen solid with the turtles in the middle! After calling the furnace guy out to fix the furnace, I cranked up the heat and left for home......almost in tears. 30 snakes all dead. I returned the next day to begin the chore of cleaning out all the mini tombs. To my surprise a few of the snakes were still alive. It was a great surprise even though the majority of my collection had perished. The dead included:
Adult breeders
1:1 spotted pythons
1:1 tri hogs
2:2 southern hogs
3:2 Eastern Hogs
1:1 100% Het Albino Nelsons
1:1 100% Het PPA western hogs
1:1 100% Het Albino western hogs
1:1 Green phase western hogs
1:1 Red phase western
:1 Albino western hog
Those that survived were a adult male spotted python, 1:1 hatchling eastern hogs, 1:3 normal phase western hogs, and a adult nelsons milk. I am happy that some made it, but 10 years of compiling my collection only took 3 days to wipe it out. It is really hard to believe any survived seeing that the temp was well below zero wth the windchill. I have seen other stories posted on collection disasters over the years but never thought it would happen to me. One happy part of this story is that when the 10 gallon tank unthawed (remember it was frozen solid with the turtles in the middle.) The little turtles sprung back to life! They were in a solid block of ice! Amazing how resilient the little buggers are. Anywho, just though I would share my not so happy x-mas story with everyone. Plus I needed to vent a bit.
Scott
