Sad Day

**Taceas** · 04-13-07, 07:14 PM

I came downstairs today to the unmistakable smell of death. I followed my nose over to my hatchling rack and my stomach sank to my feet...

I started frantically opening tubs and out of 12 shoe boxes, I found 3 dead snakes.

- 2006 Hypo Blood female

- 2006 Motley het Strawberry male

- 2006 Whiteside Ratsnake male (was already on deathbed from recurrent regurge issues)

It seems my Helix DBS 100 thermostat decided to have a bad day (not the first time) and cook the occupants of the hatchling rack. Amazingly everyone else seems to be fine, thankfully.

The three dead were in the bottom most slots, and the one across from the Hypo Blood, Ra my Sunglow Motley, was quite warm and had immersed himself in his water bowl up to his nostrils. I quickly unplugged the thermostat and changed out his water with room temp stuff and he seems to be acting more lively.

The last time this particular thermostat spiked was when it was being used upstairs and the AC apparently confused it and it decided to get things hotter than what I had it set as. Thankfully I caught it in time and nothing was any worse for the wear. I just thought it didn't work well in an air conditioned room and never thought anything of it, especially in a more constant temperature room such as the basement.

This time I had the rack set at 80* since it usually ran a tad bit warmer from being in the basement and my little thermometer I had in a middle tub generally ran at around 83* in the middle of the tub.

When I checked on it, it was 93*. Unfortunately its non a max/min thermometer so no telling how high it may have been. Just two days ago I removed the max/min thermometer from the unit because I have a shortage of them and needed it in the room where I'm incubating eggs.

While normally a fan of Friday the 13th's...this one truly bites. Not only do I lose three precious snakes, but I have to shell out some serious money for a new and more dependable thermostat. This is going to be my first AND last Helix. I'll relegate it to something not so temperature sensitive or chuck it altogether.

**midnightline** · 04-13-07, 07:27 PM

Awww man, Misty, that sucks bigtime. :/

**HanneysCorns** · 04-13-07, 07:29 PM

Oh Misty...that's horrible. I'd be distraught about now. I am happy to hear that the others were caught in time.

One of the reasons I use the old method...above tank heating rather than UTH is my biggest fear of malfunction.

I'm so sorry this happened to you...

Ruth

**Caroline** · 04-13-07, 08:46 PM

So sorry Misty.

That sucks really hard. 3 snakes... A good thing the others seems ok.

**nwheat** · 04-13-07, 10:13 PM

oh no - that's aweful! I'm so sorry!

**Taceas** · 04-13-07, 10:28 PM

Thanks guys, I'm still pretty upset. I just feel like there's more I could of done and feel helpless. So far the others are still doing fine. *sigh*

**Dionythicus** · 04-13-07, 10:46 PM

That's terrible news! I'm so sorry. I'm glad the others survived the global warming.

**CornCrazy** · 04-13-07, 11:05 PM

Misty...I am very sorry to hear your news. My bad Friday the 13th seems quite petty compared to yours. You are in my thoughts!

**Hurley** · 04-13-07, 11:45 PM

So sorry to hear, Misty. That's a hard one to take. Glad to hear the rest are recouping OK.

Joni Garcia · 04-14-07, 12:13 AM

Oh, no! I'm so sorry to hear about what happened. That's terrible to lose three snakes like that. I'm glad that the rest are doing okay.