Puget girl, dead.

[adamanteus]

I have had a disaster! My beautiful female Red Phase pickeringii has died.
After such a slow start, having to assist feed her because she wouldn't eat, then gradually getting her onto a varied diet. Since then she had gone from strength to strength and was almost 30 inches long, and one of my most reliable feeders. I was planning to breed from her next year, as I believe my pair to be the only red phase in the UK.

I came home from work tonight and noticed an unpleasant smell..... I recognised it straight away. She had (somehow!) managed to force her way inside the strip light fitting, where she then became wedged. The heat of the transformer killed her, and slowly cooked her all day until I came home.

I'm gutted.:(

http://www.thamnophis.com/thamphotos/data//539/medium/pickeringi.jpg

Thamnophis sirtalis pickeringii, Red Phase, sub-adult female.

[Mommy2many]

I'm so sorry for your loss.

[ssssnakeluvr]

oh man, sorry for your loss!!! what a beautiful snake

[Stefan-A]

Damn. I'm so sorry to hear that. :(

[Sputnik]

Oh, James, I'm so sorry! She was so beautiful!

[drache]

oh damn, James, what a horrible way to loose your snake too
I am so sorry
she was lovely and you must be ripped up over this

[Zephyr]

Oh man.
I'm so sorry James. ):
It sucks losing one of those fighters. :/

[prattypus]

James, that sucks! I am sorry to hear of her passing.

[adamanteus]

My fault of course. I guess I failed to seal up all the possible entry holes into the fitting.

[count dewclaw]

Oh no! What a beautiful girl, so sorry she's gone.

[bkhuff1s]

Sorry to hear that!

[gregmonsta]

Gutted for you mate :(. She was beautiful.

[ScimitarX]

Sorry for your loss. She was indeed special. :(

[jitami]

So very sorry James... what a gorgeous girl she was...

[guidofatherof5]

That's terrible. What a tragedy.
Sorry for your loss.

[adamanteus]

http://www.thamnophis.com/thamphotos/data//539/medium/puget-girl.jpg

My Puget girl. I never did name her.... I might do so, posthumously.

[MoJo]

I'm so sorry for your loss.

[Josh]

I'm really sorry for your loss James. :(

[guidofatherof5]

She was beautiful. Thanks for posting that last picture.

[aSnakeLovinBabe]

awe James that is absolutely heartbreaking. I'm so sorry to hear that... that's so horrible I don't even know what to say! I know how hard it can be to lose a snake because of human error. I lost a female wandering because the door on her cage wasn't tight enough, she wedged her head into the top of it, got stuck, and I came home to her hanging limp across the glass in the front of the cage. Try to stay positive, there must be a way to find more of them!

[Snaky]

That's so sad, she was a real nice one. Sorry for your loss :(

[reptileparadise]

So sorry for your loss James, she was a stunner!

[Snake lover 3-25]

so sorry for your loss!:(

[adamanteus]

I found how the poor thing got into the light fitting...... one of the plastic thumb-turns that secues the front plate to the strip light case had sheared through and fallen out, leaving a hole thicker than a pencil.

http://www.thamnophis.com/thamphotos/data//537/medium/2009_0703striplight0005.jpg

Here's how it should look.

http://www.thamnophis.com/thamphotos/data//537/medium/2009_0703striplight0004.jpg

It's no real consolation, because she's still dead, but at least I don't feel so guilty now thinking that I'd left an entry point unsealed.

[drache]

damn!
not something you could have anticipated

[mustang]

waaa sad :eek: story sad sad sad...i know what ur going through...before i had checker i had a little flathead snake named dusty ... it was my first pet...one morning i played with him and put him back in his tank and a few hours later i found him dead...the area around the anal plate was green...it looked like an internal problem...just a few days earlier i noticed him slowing down but my parents didnt want to take him to the vet...but he was also 9 or 10 inches when he died which is very big for its species... he was an old snake when i caught him(3 or 4 months earlier) and he grew a few cm...RIP all thees wonderfull creatures even the coachwhips my uncles neighboors killed because they were becoming a hazard