So I got my first little baby girl Arctic Het Lavender about 3 weeks ago and i absolutely adore her. From the get go she was sweet and curious. Super active, loved digging tunnels in her substrate, and doing her “rounds” around her 6 qt tub. She would even stick her tongue out of the ventilation holes and slits… it was adorable. She ate a small pinky twice then a tragedy happened.
I was exhausted from work and accidentally didn’t close her tub correctly after changing her water that morning right before I went to bed (I work nights). Well, she got out and I found her that evening shortly after discovering she was gone, on a sticky trap that I had to catch spiders that may enter my apartment as I’m severely arachnophobic. I felt horrible!! I could see that she had tried to get off and a very thin layer of skin/shed had come off her belly. I quickly put some vegetable oil on and around her and she immediately came off with out any residue left on her. I tried to clean most of the oil off her with paper towel and put her back in her tub on the warm end as she was ICE COLD. Who knows how many hours she was on that trap and my apartment temp is set to 68 degrees. Well, I had to go to work and when I came back in the morning I found her on top of her substrate on the cold side of her tub and against the side wall. She wouldn’t move from that position. Just would barely raise her head then put it back down. She was ice cold again. I took her to the Vet that afternoon and she got a clean bill of health. Vet said she was probably exhausted and also her belly was probably sensitive to the heat pad. I put the heat pad on the side of her enclosure and put my apartment temp up to 73. The ambient temp in her tub stays at about 78 degrees on the cool end and 82 on the warm side with right next to the heating pad being 90. It has been about 10 days now and she is still refusing to eat and just sleeps all the time in her hide on the warm side. Her temp is usually around 86 degrees when I temp gun her. I’ve had minimal interaction with her/ haven’t held her since this happened. I change her water every other day and leave a pinky in her tub every 3 days to see if she will eat but she doesn’t. I will see her come out, pass the pinky, get a drink of water then return to her hide. She hasn’t dug any tunnels anymore either. She’s a completely different little snake than the curious energetic little girl I brought home and it breaks my heart.
My question to all of y’all more experienced people is, is this normal behavior? Can a snake be traumatized? Is she trying to brumate and it’s all just a coincidence? I know they can go without eating for a long time but she was such a good little eater before this. Even her breeder said she never refused a meal. Any suggestions on what I should do?
Please be kind in your comments, I know I messed up.
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Do get rid of any remaining sticky traps if you have them, in case there’s ever a repeat escape.
For future reference, it’s not suggested to put a cold snake directly onto heat, it’s better to let them warm up slowly. 68 degrees is a little chilly, but not the end of the world, they can easily tolerate that temp. Do remember their natural range goes quite far north. I agree with the vet, she likely exhausted herself and she may just be taking longer to readjust after her ordeal. Your heating pad does have a thermostat moderating it, with probe between the pad and the bin, correct?
I’d get the cool side down a bit if you can, 73ºF-75ºF to give her a larger temperature gradient.
You’re trying to feed too often, which could be stressing her out. Give her a solid week, up to two, with no handling, no feeding attempts, just fresh water, then try again. How long are you leaving the pinky in during feeding attempts?
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In a sense yes, everything this Hognose snake went through was incredibly stressing on her little body.
Some snakes can take quite a while to process these kinds of things especially if they may have been injured… some may even go through a shed cycle before they return to normal. If she had some skin come off with the glue trap I’d keep an eye on that area, even if she has already been deemed fine by your vet.
This is too often, you’ll want to aim for offering every 7-14 days until she starts eating again. Then continue with her regular feeding schedule unless she refuses again.
You’ve only had her 3 weeks, it can take a couple of days or weeks for them to recover from incredibly stressful incidents. Have patience, moniter her closely and get her back to the vet if you notice visible weight loss from refusing to eat or any signs of infection from any possible injuries she may have gotten when out of her enclosure.
Yes, absolutely yes. Pets and sticky traps or really anything with remotely strong adhesives should not be in the same area. Not trying to be mean but its something that I personally feel needs to be expressed.
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Also, since I forgot to say it in my original post, welcome to the forum. Don’t beat yourself up over this. You’re new to hoggies, you never meant for your girl to get out or stuck, and you’re doing everything you can to get her back to 100%. You’ll get there!
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I’m sorry this happened but please do not beat yourself up! You’ve already gotten a lot of great advice and I will reiterate that trying to feed too often can actually have the opposite effect and stress them into not eating.
How is her wound and did the vet recommend anything for care and/or antibiotics? Is it still open? If so I would highly recommend replacing any substrate with paper towels until healed.
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Yes I have the temperature probe taped to the bin on top of the heat pad. Thermostat to keep it at 90. I temp gunned it before I got her to make sure that it was accurate and it was.
I leave the mouse in about 12 hours then remove.
Thank you so much for the info. I will definitely give her more time and only open her tub to refresh water for a couple of weeks.
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It wasn’t really a visible wound. Almost like a thin layer of shed that came off. And yes the vet gave me antibiotic ointment to apply but ONLY if I notice any areas getting red or infected. I checked her briefly 2 days ago and everything looked good. Thank y’all so much for this info!!! I’m definitely going to follow all of y’all’s advice and not try to feed her again for at least another week. Thank you!
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Oh its good you have a precautionary antibiotic!
As everyone else has mentioned, don’t beat yourself up over it. It sounds like you are doing good for her outside of the hiccup with the escape, believe me mistakes happen to all of us at least once!
I recently had an escapee Ball Python who got out because I was sleep deprived and didn’t fully close her bin 
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Thank you! And thank you everyone for the kind words and guidance. I will definitely be applying the suggestions!
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