Things that go bump in the night.

[scales.jp]

My python lives in his vivarium just across the room from my bed, so now and again I hear him moving around in the night but nothing out of the ordinary. However, last night I was woken by a loud bang against the glass doors, and jumped out of bed to find that he had somehow completely unattached his UV tube from its fittings and was lying still on top of it on the floor. Amazingly, nothing was broken and no harm was done! (The light had been off for over 5 hours and was completely cool. I won't put it back until I work out a way to prevent it happening again.)

I had intended to put a safety guard around the whole lighting unit, but have so far been unable to find a suitable material. As it doesn't get very hot and is in the least accessible part of the viv, I didn't really think it posed much danger. Also, to attach the tube, you have to push it into the mount and then turn it 90 degrees to lock it into place. There is a space of about only 1cm between the tube and the mount.

All I can think is that my snake crawled up the side of the viv and pushed his snout into the gap between the tube and the mount, and when he decided he couldn't get in any further and pulled back out, there was enough friction to turn the tube 90 degrees and unlock it. He then lost balance as the tube moved and brought the whole thing crashing down. Whatever happened, it was certainly nothing I had ever imagined possible. I'm just glad there was a soft coconut fibre bedding to cushion the landing. That was when the next unexpected thing happened.

Having switched on a small amber night light in my room so that I could see just enough to safely remove the tube from the viv, I opened the viv door and nudged my snake to make him move. As he did, the tube started to glow wherever his body came into contact with it. Yes, I'm being serious. At first I thought I was seeing things, but there's over 4 foot of snake that travelled over the tube, and it glowed wherever he touched it. Once I had the tube in my hands I tried rubbing it to see if anything happened, but nothing. Does my snake have supernatural powers, or am I just going crazy?