My Snake Almost Died Today

[Pinto2]

Before i start let me say that Zeus is ok, and as of now there is no permanint damage that i can see.

So i come up stairs to my room today after the first period ends in the leafs game. I look in my cage to see what he's doing b/c zeus denied the rat i gave him (first time ever) and i decided to just leave it in the cage today. When i see him i see that he is completly covered in the duct tape that i use to cover up the holes between the cage top and the cage itself. His tail is also rapped around a branch in his cage. So to get him out i break the branch and rip the rest of the tap from the cage and bring him out into his feeding container. I see that the duct tape is also rapped around his face, on his eye, over his nose, and his jaw is completly out of place. Just then my mom gets home and i yell at her to come here. So while she holds the body so he stops squiming, i start getting the tape off. At first the tape was coming of ok, but around the face is was stuck on really well b/c of the rolling around he was doing to get it off. I was forced to pull some of the tape off in the opposite direction of his scales. When i was an inch from his head, i noticed that he gave one final squirm and then went really limp and i heard him hiss twice (never heard him hiss b/4, i didn't even think kingsnakes could). Right about know i thought he was dead, and my non-snake mom decided that saying "he's probably just hibernating" would calm me down, needless to say it succesfully succeded in making me freak out. I gently got the tape of his head, eys, jaw, and finally the nostrils, and he still didn't move. It wasn't untill about 25 seconds latter that he almost instantly got to life and struck at my finger and then decided to explore my fingers. Other then some pigment that the tape litterly took of his head, i'm pretty sure he is 100% ok.

So let this be a warning, no tape of anysort, because i believe that if i had been 1 minute later, he would of died from lack of air.
Thanks for leting me vent, Daniel.

[BOAS_N_PYTHONS]

I won' t get into the rat issue as I think you originally wrote it was a live rat, I could be wrong but if yes then there are enough people that can talk you down on feeding live issues.

As for the duct tape issue, I totally agree.........a cage should not have another that can harm an animal (snake) of any sort. In constructing, decorating or just repair issues...the safety of the animal must come first in any decision. A snake will test every inch of its cage for a flaw or escape tactic. And duct tape or any adhesive tape should never be inside a cage. I prefer heavy duty staples with no room or give at all so the snake can pull them out, but even more I prefer anything that requires adhesion of any type to be installed outside the cage if possible.

Oh well, sorry if it sounds like I am telling you what to do, but hope this situation has gained you some experience to avoid harm to your boa.

Goodluck.

[emilsmee]

i had that happen once with a cornsnake i used duct tape to hold something up at the top of the tank and i found my snake attached to it the next day. i used WD-40 and it worked like a charm, i had to give him a bath after but he was fine the next day...

[Pinto2]

Yup, no tape ever again. And i feed hime f/t. Thanks