Welp, lesson learned

This probably the craziest thing that’s happened to me as a reptile keeper. I was turning off the heat lamp on my hognose’s enclosure, and after I turned it off, it fell perfectly into a glass of water I was drinking that I had placed down near the enclosure. The lamp then rapidly cooled and the bulb exploded with the glass shooting off towards the wall like a cannon. Now I’m definitely gonna have to buy a new bulb and maybe even a new lamp holder. This certainly taught me to be more careful where I place my water when I’m dealing with my reptiles. Also, all of the animals are fine, I’m fine, no one was injured, the whole situation turned out alright, it was just something that I’d never anticipate to happen.

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Wow! You certainly are extremely fortunate you or your hoggies were not injured! I bet that you couldn’t recreate that incident if you tried! (Not that you would want to!). Good reason to drink bottled water going forward! :blush::heart::snake:

Here’s another handy dandy tip! When you shut AND LOCK your car door, be sure all of your fingers are clear of the door. Otherwise you could end up with a broken finger. :face_with_spiral_eyes:

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I got another one for you. Never wear tight shoes on wet tile floors. I once thought that if I walked carefully, I wouldn’t slip. Well, I did slip and because the shoes were so tight I ended up tearing a ligament when I fell. There were multiple surgeries and almost a year of recovery after that all because of tight dress shoes.

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I’ve got another one. Don’t be stupid and wiggle your finger in front of a hungry blue tongue skink right after feeding him some superworms. I have no clue why I did it but I did and I was lucky he was still small. It still hurt pretty bad and I am lucky he wasn’t the size he is now. Also this has happened separate 3 times :laughing: . After the third time I think I learned my lesson (no promises)

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Sounds almost like a final destination situation you avoided :see_no_evil:

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Yep! Bottled water and “sneakers” for you from now on! :joy:

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Hmmmm. Finger in locked car door or finger in a skink’s mouth? Tough choice…….:thinking::face_with_spiral_eyes:

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Never move a pinkie with your fingers when the snake is in hunting mode. He can’t tell one pink sausage shape from another if they’re both live and warm, and he will look at you offended when his perfect strike did NOT result in dinner.
HOW DARE. Stay out of his way!

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I had a similar experience. Shortly after I got my sand boa, I was getting ready to feed her and realised I’d left my feeding tongs downstairs. I thought, “I don’t need to go all the way back down to get them, she never takes the mouse off the tongs anyway, I’ll just use my hand to set it on her log.” That was the first and only time she’s bitten me. :joy:

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Sangfroid, my house snake, was so offended. “I wanted the MOUSE, not that!”

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Everything was in line when this happened, and it would probably never happen again the same way.
While feeding I always open and look to see where the snakes are.
This time, I opened one and it was in the back of the tub. I decided that the rat was to large, so I closed it and gave it to another, then went on feeding until I came across one a little smaller. I upended the bin, went to place it in (this time I did not look, as I previously seen it was in the back). When I reached over to drop it, the snake cought me wrist, just below my thumb. Yep you guessed it, he moved to the front. Well, it happen to hit a nurve that runs up through my thumb. I had Sharp pains for a few weeks every time I moved it or my wrist. To this day, my thumb is still numb on one side, but the sharp pains have gone away. Maybe one day I will get full feeling back in it.
Lesson learned

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Ouch that’s terrible! At least you still have your thumb! And a good story to tell as well!!!:rofl:

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I hate to say it, but every single one of these sounds like something I could - or maybe actually - have done.

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Ugh, so guys, it’s good to make sure you have a good grip on the rat in the tongs before you start dangling it for your snake to strike. Last night I accidentally dropped a rat on my blood python when it slipped out of the tongs. :person_facepalming: Poor thing. (But don’t worry, she’s fine, just got a bit startled to find the rat colliding with her before she struck it.) I was worried that the unexpected shock might make her lose her appetite, as she didn’t seem keen to strike it after it fell on her. I left it on a tray in her enclosure, and checked back about 10 minutes later to find that the rat had vanished. She’s such a champ. :heart:

I did, however, go and order myself some hemostats, as I no longer trust the tweezer-style tongs I’ve been using. I’ve struggled with getting a good grip with them in the past, though this is the first time I’ve actually dropped a rodent on a snake. Never again!

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Oh yeah, know where your snake is. That’s an important one.

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Never feed your big boas while on the phone.
Kinda obvious lol, but i was in an important phone call for an hour and a half longer than i was supposed to, i already had my rats thawed for that entire duration at that point, and i was starting to get frustrated with being on and off hold, so i figured I’ll just feed him anyway next time he puts me on hold.

Eros had been looking at the big black feeding bucket with hungry eyes for a bit at that point. He came right out the moment i opened the door. And just as i was holding the rat to him with my hemostats, the guy came back from hold and was like “hello? Hello?” And Eros struck just as i looked away to reply, but he missed and landed on my sleeve and immediately started wrapping my arm. Rat drops on my floor, i say some choice words in surprise, the guy on the phone is hearing all of this not knowing what’s going on except that there’s a whole lot of racket all of a sudden. I quickly reposses my arm and sleeve, and swap it for the rat, pick up the phone, rat bucket tipped over, rat water and rat blood all over my floor and all over me (i was fine, thankfully) and pick up the phone and say quite honestly (because i was too taken by surprise to think about fibbing) “sorry yes I’m here! I was trying to feed my boa and he struck me instead of the rat, haha. Snakes, am i right??”
This poor guy was just like:

Surprised Pink GIF

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Oh my goodness :rofl::rofl::rofl:

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Thank you for that lmao

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That’s crazy OP, I guess I’m glad I use timers lol. They are cheap, I trust the analogue dial ones maybe more than digital even. Glad you and you’re animals are ok :slight_smile:

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