have you stuffed up b4?

[PythonLegs]

I do everything right including stuffing up.

People (esp newbies) ask Q's on forums as sometimes they wouldnt have a clue were to look. People on forums love to express themselves. Human nature steps in and it is almost a scene from from childhood days,
OP- "How do I. . . ?"
respondent "Ever tried Google" (this will get a few likes).
OP- "yes but I wasnt sure what I needed to know"
respondent no 2 " obviously . . . isnt for you, you dont know what it's about and then you get on here and expect people to help you"
this last response will usually get a few agreed responses and a couple of likes, and then it begins.
Newbie is like ***, maybe even a little taken back especially as it takes some people to work up the courage.
Every body likes to express their opinions only some people can be quite righteously aggressive.They are often not helpfull but more like roosters strutting around the pen "look how good I am".

Awww...someone get kam a bandaid for his old wound, it hasn't healed yet.

Why are people so unkind.

[Serpentaria]

WHile I am no expert and have a few little follies, all I can add to the list is being lax with changing bedding every few months like I am supposed to, sometimes I've left it a little longer than that, occaisionally Ive left water to be changed for a week instead of changing it every 2nd or 3rd day. What else? Not heating enclosures enough, my Honey Jungle stopped eating for almost 2 months last year because her enclosure wasn't hot enough< I'm trying not to make the same mistake with my Darwins. Not wearing gloves when handling new snakes, had my hand mauled one time when I got my Diamond girl. I didn't blame her, she was new and hungry and could smell the feed tub before I could get her completely in there. Not taking animals to the vet as often as I should, two are sick at the moment, not my fault though. Not serious but I got them there in time I guess, not cheap either, especially when all 9 of my girls are due for checkups. People look at you weirdly when you are carrying a pile of tubs and get freaked out when they realise what you are carrying. Asking too many questions got me banned from another snake forum, God only knows why. Some douche there claimed to the admins I was someone else when I wasn't, even offered to show them my ID or have one of them call me to see I was definitely female and not some male troll. I've left enclosures open plenty of times, but for some reason my girls just stay in there, not that they could get far, they are all kept in a seperate room of the house, so if they do get out, can't wander. I've been told never to handle a snakes heads, but have done so many times to my girls to get them used to being touched there. Most of them let me do a light but firm hold with my fingers on the top of the head and under the bottom of the jaw with my forefinger and thumb. Most of my follies happened in the first few months or so, not much happening lately, but I am coming up on my first year of snake ownership. Cheers to no serious accidents!

[reptalica]

And here I was thinking the thread was about "have I stuffed up generally in day to day life?" (not herps)

Sheesh, where do I start............

[Kruger88]

A couple of things to mention already - sanosuke, most keepers who respect and value their animals would ensure that the first escape was the last. One day you will lose your Children's forever - you might even tread on it when it's on one of it's regular outings. Foolish indeed.

Secondly, junglelove... our animals cannot afford the costs of us learning "by trial and error." If you keep animals, you learn what you need to know before you get them... but this seems rare these days. Fundamental to the welfare of any animal is a secure enclosure or yard. If an animal escapes more than once, you are not being a responsible keeper/pet owner.

Jamie

As a zookeeper I would hate to think of the damage an escaped animal could cause (more so if it was a carnivore) however everyone will make mistakes we just have to make sure they never happen again. Always double check locks!!! and visually sight your animals when doing so.

[Defective]

the one and only mistake i've made was when i misjudged how much bearded dragons can flatten themselves out. mum bought a rabbit enclosure and after ensuring it was pretty much escape proof my beardie Yoda got out the front bars...i was devastated and was out looking for him til dark fell, luckily we caught him the next morning and he hasn't been in anything enclosure wise until i can afford a mesh exo terra that is secure and can't escape from

[Nilesh]

And this is me jumping in to join the "Forumite Mongol hoard" to swarm in and cut you down. . . and the hiten mitsurugi isnt going to save you. . nah just kidding. But this show's how easy this type of thing can happen. LOL. . . according to txt language the world has become a place of laughing lunatics, it's got so bad that i will email or txt and the only reply I get is LOL. . really, like really you think walking the dog etc is funny

i believe it will save me
Hiten misturugi style!!!

[scorps]

My biggest one was when I first started keeping herps, I got my first olive python (second snake) and didn't shut cage, found it two days later in my hatcho ackie enclosure,

No more ackies, fat hatchie olive though lol

Havent had a snake escape since lol

[Kam333]

Awww...someone get kam a bandaid for his old wound, it hasn't healed yet.

Why are people so unkind.

Nah, Im fine the battle keeps raging. . . just need to understand final goal

[mrs_davo]

Pythoninfinite.....I have to disagree with you somewhat....sometimes no matter how carefull you are - animals excape ( whether through not closing an enclosure properly or just plain having a houdini reptile ) - THIS DOES NOT MAKE PEOPLE IRRISPONSIBLE PET KEEPERS.....and I actually take offence at you suggesting this....
We did our research before getting our reptiles - but learning about them is a continual thing...
You cannot tell me that you know everything...I know we dont...

A couple of things to mention already - sanosuke, most keepers who respect and value their animals would ensure that the first escape was the last. One day you will lose your Children's forever - you might even tread on it when it's on one of it's regular outings. Foolish indeed.

Secondly, junglelove... our animals cannot afford the costs of us learning "by trial and error." If you keep animals, you learn what you need to know before you get them... but this seems rare these days. Fundamental to the welfare of any animal is a secure enclosure or yard. If an animal escapes more than once, you are not being a responsible keeper/pet owner.

Jamie

[pretzels]

Pythoninfinite.....I have to disagree with you somewhat....sometimes no matter how carefull you are - animals excape ( whether through not closing an enclosure properly or just plain having a houdini reptile ) - THIS DOES NOT MAKE PEOPLE IRRISPONSIBLE PET KEEPERS.....and I actually take offence at you suggesting this....
We did our research before getting our reptiles - but learning about them is a continual thing...
You cannot tell me that you know everything...I know we dont...

woohoo you tell them mrs davo! it is true. no one is perfect and no one knows everything! its really not fair to get up ppl for asking for help or for making mistakes because we're all human. we are bound to make mistakes. this is life!

[Chris1]

ive been incredibly lucky with some of my stuff ups,...

i had a sunning cage sitting on the bbq of my top floor unit with my 2 2 month old central beardies in it,...all was well, i was just inside making sure no birds harrassed them when a gust of wind came out of nowhere and blew it off,....i bolted down the 3 flights of stairs with my heart in my throat to find the 2 of them no worse for wear,...the sunning cage hit some trees on the way down, plus they were still really light,..the 2 factors i believe saved them. (i never put the sunning cage on the bbq after that, when the sun on the floor ran out, they came back inside_)

i also temporarily lost my first ever snake after i let him out for a supervised cruise one slightly drunken evening, and woke up 3 hours later,....i dont think ive ever panicked so much in my life, 2 hours of searching,...positive id never see him again,...i saw his nose poke out from the gap under the built in oven,...i grabbed the head and somehow managed to coax him out over a 20 min period,....needless to say if he dosent come out if im tired or tipsy, and if hes out and im getting tired he gets put away.

then there was a moonless night i had all 7 out for a supervised night time cruise in the backyard, all was going well, the back porch lights up the back yard beautifully,...and suddenly, blackout,.....i still dont know how i managed to find them all, but i did,...and the next time they got outside at night it was in their brand new safe aviary,....and i bought a bunch of torches so theres always one in easy reach,....

then the aviary stuffups,...after winter one year the grass had died and the soil under it sunk a bit,...i had checked for gaps, bbut obviously not well enough,..my boy diamond got out, i found him next door heading towards the bush,...now pavers cover the edges where the walls meet the ground,..

then my bf hit the aviary wire with the whipper snipper and i didnt notice the hole in the wire, i got home after being out for 3 hours to find one of my bredli (my fave at that) trying desperately to get in the back door, he went straight past the plum tree that leads to the neighbours roof,...

i dont think im careless when it comes to my critters,....but sometimes things go wrong,...

[Wrightpython]

no i havent stuffed up and i reserve the right to be obnoxious about it

[Skeptic]

I've never made a mistake in anything. I'm perfect in every way. I've also never been wrong. Except one time I thought I was wrong about something but it turned out I was right all along, so I guess I was wrong about being wrong.

Seriously though, the other day I was cleaning out all my snakes and I put one of my young Bredli's on the dining room chair while I was cleaning his cage out. I then realised I was all out of paper towel and the shops were about to close so I rushed out the door and drove about 3 k's before screaming **** and hitting the brakes. I got home and he was still chilling on the chair. Close call

[Red-Ink]

We all make mistakes... We are all continually learning

The same mistake that keeps happening several times is not learning... That is Bart and the cupcake, Hamster 1 Bart 0

[CaptainRatbag]

My biggest boo boo was putting a 60w IR heatlamp a bit too close to the glass on my spotteds enclosure.... I heard a 'crack' from my room and went in to find the glass broken luckily it wasnt hardened glass, so it didnt explode into marbles.... it just cracked and stayed in place.... although had I not been there at the time, clyde would have pushed out the broken triangle of glass and prolly would have got out.

The other mishap was when I took advice to feed my snakes out of thier enclosure.... I tried it, but on picking my (full) coastal up after his feed, the next morning he had chucked his rat That was the first ever chuck from my snakes, now I just feed back in enclosure and never a prob

I reckon the MAIN reason for ME having made so few mistakes so far, is from reading on here of others mistakes. By reading of other peoples mistakes, I think alot more about what CAN happen. For that, I am extremely gratefull

Newbs should be allowed to feel free to ask the simplest questions without being cremated by the 'all knowing'