"Mistakes" you have made.

[cagey]

Given we see the admonishment of newbies on here for ignorance, I am throwing it open to admit a mistake you have made re your reptiles over the years.

I will start the ball rolling by admitting my mistake in understanding the size of a mouse or rat a python can eat. Even after weighing the snake and the food option I kept going "there is no way it can eat that, it will choke" and time and time again I am proved wrong. They can eat the food item and they did not choke. Always amazes me and I love sitting there, not moving, watching them consume a food item that looks like it should not fit.

 

[PythonLegs]

I'll just move the water bowl before I put this rat on..Bam. Still do it every now n then.

 

[Pythoninfinite]

Been keeping for well over 50 years... far too many mistakes and misunderstandings, some of them proving fatal for the animals over the years, to mention here...

Jamie

 

[onelife]

i have been very lucky with my mistakes tho i hope i dont do it often - it's not fully closing the doors and i have found once the python asleep under my bed and the other was woken up by the other one knocking things over in my room, they have to go past 3 rooms and a hall way but always seem to head there even when they are let out for exercise.

 

[getarealdog]

Trying to breed-with 2 males lol!

 

[Umbral]

They were talking about reptiles not what you do in your spare time

 

[Wally]

Having an opinion on an open forum.

 

[longqi]

I woke up one day

 

[arevenant]

Saying I'd only get one...

 

[MesseNoire]

Saying I'd only get one...

Saying I'd stop after 5.....

 

[morants]

taking advice from idiots

 

[getarealdog]

They were talking about reptiles not what you do in your spare time

lol! you left your socks here.

 

[Rainbow-Serpent]

Been keeping for well over 50 years... far too many mistakes and misunderstandings, some of them proving fatal for the animals over the years, to mention here...

Jamie

I second that.

The reason I really like helping new reptile keepers is probably because I've made so many mistakes myself, some, like Jamie, proving fatal to the animals. I was maybe 10 (possibly 11) when I got my first snake and I didn't have any help in keeping it, so I made a lot of silly mistakes, for example; I was too impatient to wait for a rat to defrost in warm water, so I had a stroke of "genius" and decided to microwave it. It exploded, naturally.

Most of them weren't harmful to the snakes, except for one particular mistake I made when I was about 13. I left my thermostat on the bench next to the enclosure, instead of taping it up on the wall or leaving it on top of the enclosure and out of the reach of small children. When I was away for a weekend during a heatwave, someone brought their preschool-aged kid over to the house, and completely failed to be a responsible parent and supervise their child. The child then proceeded to turn on the heat lamps (like I said, it was an awful heatwave, so I had all my snakes heating turned off), and play with the funny looking thing I had labelled "thermostat: do not touch". To put it simply, because nobody checked on the snakes but me, we didn't find out what had happened until I got home to find my two beloved snakes dead.

These days I'm very pedantic about keeping everything child proof and up out of the way. I'm also quite critical of lazy, irresponsible parents who aren't willing to keep an eye on their young children when visiting somebody's house. :evil:

On a lighter note, the other day after cleaning the enclosures, I made the silly mistake of forgetting to weigh down my male BHP's water bowl properly with substrate, and he then turned half of his enclosure into a lagoon :lol:

 

[Yogi]

I know alot wont admit it but when I first started out I did, the offer the rat to the snake using large thongs drop the rat from the thongs oh ****, oh well ill just pick it up a wack you ve been bitten.

 

[Umbral]

lol! you left your socks here.

That's ok, I used the money you paid me to buy more.

 

[eipper]

The only bad mistakes are the ones you repeat when you don't learn from your failure.

Personally, I tend to not listen as much as I should- I prefer to find out for myself and test the variables rather than listen carte Blanche.

cheers

 

[getarealdog]

That's ok, I used the money you paid me to buy more.

Best dollar I ever spent!

 

[ben_smith2000]

Buying things like heat fittings without measuring to see if they fit in the enclosure where I need them to, then having to go out and spend more money on something that I could have bought in the first place if I took the time. haha

 

[Pythoninfinite]

I know alot wont admit it but when I first started out I did, the offer the rat to the snake using large thongs drop the rat from the thongs oh ****, oh well ill just pick it up a wack you ve been bitten.

Hmm... I've used tongs, but never thongs... do you mean the flip-flop variety, or the other sort - I guess you could use them as a sort of slingshot !

Seriously, in the early days before the internet, so little info was available, that even things like mites, RI, canker (infectious stomatitis) could be fatal conditions. Breeding was unheard of (unless a gravid female was collected) until thermal cycling was understood, so I've been through all that, often with mixed success. These days you can find just about whatever you need to know on the internet, but of course, the internet is not censored, so a new keeper still needs to be very cautious about the information they absorb and act on, so there is still nothing better than good & experienced mentor. The scourge of the 5 minute expert is alive and well on the net...

Jamie

Jamie

 

[DeanoCFE]

Buying with excitement and not looking at the snake properly! Brought a snake that was very dehydrated and with mites!
Very bad mistake and then even after getting rid of the mites and attempting to rehydrate him unfortunately he past away! lesson learnt!