Death by Drowning

[Classic]

What a loss. Those of you that use a lid on your water dish should take notice of this. I use tupperware or sandwich containers with a hole cut into the center of the lid for water for all my snakes. Well, a very nice grey banded king could not find her way out. I was using the Glad sandwich container for the water dish and had it approx half full with water. The grey band filled it to the top when she submerged in it and could not find her way out and drowned. boohoo!:( :(

Brian
hwh

[Wizer69er]

Sorry to hear that.

[Dani33]

Thats horrible, I am so sorry to hear about him. I'll definately remember that about the lids!

Danielle

[reptiguy123]

Holy crap! I'm so sorry.

[Andy_G]

Oh my god. That really sucks! Sorry for your loss. :(

[Stockwell]

Sorry to hear about that...

[Dom]

So sorry to hear Brian ..

I wish you the best :)

[CHRISANDBOIDS14]

My condolences(sp?). Hope it goes better.

[Classic]

Thanks folks. No need for condolences. I'm not upset about it. Its all a learning experience for me. I dont 't get personally attached to all my animals. Thing that sucks is, i just got her a month ago.

Brian

[BoaBoi]

You don't get personally attached?? Are they just for display or what dude? Every animal I have ever had felt like part of the family to me!

James~

[Bartman]

I feel the same way about my reptiles, i love them all so much, im guessing when you own like 100 snakes or someting you dont have time to know each one personally...maybe thats the position hes in. To bad it tied though, always sucks to lose an animal/pet

[Classic]

They are a hobby for me. I like learning their habits and traits. I esspecially like the colors and size of all my milks snakes and select king and corns. I do have one favorite pueblan milk snake but i wouldn't be to upset if it were to die. Don't get me wrong, i keep and care for my animals with a high standard of husbandry. I keep very strict records of all my animals. I breed quite a few rodents, hold a full time job and also have 3 kids. I handle the animals as much as possible but for their sake, not mine. My milks are eye candy for me, and i like them all mostly the same. I don't get attached to them. I only have a couple dozen snakes and i try to learn as much about them equally.
There isn't alot of time to get emotionally attached to all my animals.

Brian

[Removed_2815]

Originally posted by Classic
They are a hobby for me. I like learning their habits and traits. I esspecially like the colors and size of all my milks snakes and select king and corns. I do have one favorite pueblan milk snake but i wouldn't be to upset if it were to die. Don't get me wrong, i keep and care for my animals with a high standard of husbandry. I keep very strict records of all my animals. I breed quite a few rodents, hold a full time job and also have 3 kids. I handle the animals as much as possible but for their sake, not mine. My milks are eye candy for me, and i like them all mostly the same. I don't get attached to them. I only have a couple dozen snakes and i try to learn as much about them equally.
There isn't alot of time to get emotionally attached to all my animals.

Brian

I can appreciate and respect that kind of forthrightness, no sense kidding yourself. Well said....
R

[Auskan]

I have open water dishes for my snakes, but I guess my question would be - what is your advice?
a) Have open water dishes or,
b) Make sure the water dish is large enough that when the snake fills it up there is still enough air space at the surface that a snake won't drown

[mild]

What is the point of the lids anyways?

I saw someone near me use that for his colubrids and never understood why...

Is it so they wont spill the water? If so why not put two bowls in each other just like you would stack tubs and then glue the bottom bowl to the tub with some very sticky glue and when u need to change the water just pull the water bowl in the top out and replace it... This way it cant spill and your snakes wont die.

[BoidKeeper]

Well Brian I know one 13 yr old that was attached to it. I'm not looking forward to telling him this news.
Trevor

[C.m.pyrrhus]

I would use lids myself, it is just that I lost my soldering iron to cut the holes in the lids, so I go without. All that is left is more water spills to clean up, which in turn is a higher cost for subtrate.

I think that this death of the Grey-banded is a relatively rare occurance. I know many folks that use this method for literally thousands of snakes with never having any ill effects. It is just that a snake that cannot figure out a way out that has the misfortune or chance of drowning.

To those that made a big deal about it, realise this is a very rare problem. I know Kerby Ross (Lonesome Valley Reptiles) uses this method for his large collection, a buddy of mine in CO uses this method for hundreds of snakes, and many many others. This method has proven to work very well in husbandry over the years in many collections. Everything has risks if you take the time to find them.

[jfmoore]

Brian - I notice you said you used "tupperware or sandwich containers." I suspect these have tighter-fitting lids than do the deli cups that I use. Wonder if that might have been a contributing factor? Or maybe you cut an unusually small hole in the top?

I recently broke down and purchased the deli cup tops with the precut holes. Although I feel monetarily and environmentally wasteful for doing so, it sure is convenient. These have a 1-3/4” dia.. hole in a 4-1/2” dia. lid. I’d prefer a slightly larger hole but this arrangement seems to work okay.

Thanks for sharing your experience. I guess I won’t say “sorry for your loss” or anything like that. I, too, think it was a rare occurance, especially considering how long a snake can hold its breath.

-Joan

[Jeff_Favelle]

Sorry Brian, that sucks man. Hindsight is 20/20 I guess.

I use the deli-cup with the hole in the top. I can't believe they sell ones with pre-cut holes??!! Are you serious? It takes like 4 seconds to cut out a hole, ha ha! Oh well, probably looks neater than mine.

All my Pythons and Colubrids get water dishes with the "holy lids". When I was using aspen, water would spill out of the dishes and get the aspen wet, which would mold-up in like 5 hours. So I started using the lids. I never went back. But you do HAVE to use an appropriate-sized deli-cup with an APPROPRIATE-sized hole cut out. This eliminates the danger.

http://members.shaw.ca/jefffavelle/jf1_sale.jpg

[Classic]

I know Trev, I know. This is something that happens. My only thought is...this adult greyband was new to me and maybe it was used to an open water dish and got confused with the hole in the middle and circled itself to death. This was a very rare event. The water level was just high enough to come to the top.

Jeff: To tell you the truth, i have different size holes in every water dish lid. It depended on the cut with the blade. Some were big and some were smaller but not to small. The diameter of the hole was twice that of the grey band and i guess it should have been wider. Lesson learned. I also use aspen for all my colubrids and it soaks up the water good.

Mild: The lids are used mostly for rack systems where you pull the enclousure out of the rack. Water spills over the side of the water dish. The lid prevents the spillage.

jfmoore: I use a varity of containers for my water dishes. This one happened to ba a Glade Sandwich Container. The on with the see-through blue lid. It is tight fitting and the snake would not be able to push it off if that was what you were asking. It would not have any leverage i would think.

Brian
hwh

[Classic]

http://www.ssnakess.com/photopost/data/500/1478Picture_135-med.jpg

[Tim_Cranwill]

Too bad, Brian. That's a shame... :(

I also use the lid method and I'm kind of surprised an adult kingsnake could not find a way out. Was the snake in good health? My borther in-law had a seemingly healthy juvi corn die in a lidless water container a while back. I guess you'll never know what was the cause. Hmmmm... lots to ponder.

Thanks for sharing your experience with all of us though....

[Jeff_Favelle]

I agree with Tim, thanks for sharing. This kind of stuff even happens to the experienced keepers, and I applaud you for sharing with us. I immediately went to the reptile room and checked all the water dishes. I know for a fact that I made some holes smaller, and now I have the viewpoint that its better to be safe than sorry. All because of your post! Thanks bro!

And I hope you get a new Grey Band soon! ;)

[Stockwell]

Yup , weird things happen. If you keep enough herps for enough years, everyone has stories.
Two of my strangest, were losing an Arizona Mountain king, which tied itself in a knot while consticting a mouse... I found it and the mouse dead.
Also I had a 5 foot breeder Ball Python suffocate in a pillow case.
It had a bit of stuck shed so I moistened a pillow case, put the snake in and went to work.
When I cam home, the pillow case was inflated like a balloon and the snake was dead, presumably from asphyxia.....
Now I'd done the same thing prior to that, with no problem... I guess the fabric on this particlular pillow case, just sealed right up with water, and didn't allow any gas exchange.

I no longer put snakes in wet pillow cases