No proof; but here's my tale

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Posted by Iguanamomma on December 04, 1998 at 10:44:52:

In Reply to: Zoomed posted by Roman on December 02, 1998 at 20:56:45:

This spring we purchased our 1st snake (a baby ball python) and bought a Zoo Med undertank heater. After settling in, etc. Alf was eating well and cage set up was perfect. Then one morning while vacuuming near tank I turned and said to Alf, "Boy, your cage stinks!" I opened the lid and proceeded to pick him up....you can imagine my horror when I realized Alf was stone cold dead thus the stench from his tank!!! Broken hearted family, tears, funeral.....then the massive guilt for me and trying to figure out what the heck happened. Mystery remained.

Then this summer we needed to set up an incubator. My husband decided he'd use Alf's old tank and put 2" of water in it and plugged in the heater. (We would set a smaller tank with eggs inside the bigger tank. Water would help heat & fend off any ants.)

A few days went by and he checked the water. It was not heated at all. The undertank heater was not working! We finally had an answer, in our opinion, of what happened to Alf. As you may know, ball pythons have to have belly heat to properly digest their food. We don't have a clue as to when the heater had malfunctioned, but I truly believe it went out at some point when Alf occupied the tank and he was unable to digest his food which caused his death.

The lesson we learned from this was 1) check the heating element weekly EVEN if it is new and 2) don't trust something completely EVEN if it is a NAMEBRAND product. You may also conclude that I'm not happy with ZooMed!

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: : This spring we purchased our 1st snake (a baby ball python) and bought a Zoo Med undertank heater. After settling in, etc. Alf was eating well and cage set up was perfect. Then one morning while vacuuming near tank I turned and said to Alf, "Boy, your cage stinks!" I opened the lid and proceeded to pick him up....you can imagine my horror when I realized Alf was stone cold dead thus the stench from his tank!!! Broken hearted family, tears, funeral.....then the massive guilt for me and trying to figure out what the heck happened. Mystery remained. : Then this summer we needed to set up an incubator. My husband decided he'd use Alf's old tank and put 2" of water in it and plugged in the heater. (We would set a smaller tank with eggs inside the bigger tank. Water would help heat & fend off any ants.) : A few days went by and he checked the water. It was not heated at all. The undertank heater was not working! We finally had an answer, in our opinion, of what happened to Alf. As you may know, ball pythons have to have belly heat to properly digest their food. We don't have a clue as to when the heater had malfunctioned, but I truly believe it went out at some point when Alf occupied the tank and he was unable to digest his food which caused his death. : The lesson we learned from this was 1) check the heating element weekly EVEN if it is new and 2) don't trust something completely EVEN if it is a NAMEBRAND product. You may also conclude that I'm not happy with ZooMed!

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