What happened to my little garter :(

[XXxxXXxx]

Ok so i look in my garters enclosure this morning and he is pretty much curled up
with his mouth about 40% open , so i quickly opened the enclosure up and well
yeah you guessed it He was dead , Completely limp body and no breathing that i can see...

Yesterday it was a very hot day (27C) and both of my snakes enclosures reached high temps (at one point 29C) so of course i turned there heat mats off and opened the enclosures up and let cooler air blow in from a fan which really only got it down to maybe 28c - 27c and the temps were like that for a few hours (maybe 12 noon till 10 at night ) and then i went to sleep at around 12 and the temps were 26-27 but i left the fan pointed at the enclosures to try and keep temps down as it was still hot in the house and then turned the heat mats on (which are on thermostats anyway so wouldn't have made the enclosures hot)

So this "morning" i turned the light on at 11 (like usual, but didn't actually look for my snake as i had to do something for 10 minutes) and then at 11.20 went to have a look at him and found him dead , I checked the temp and it was around 25-26 (air temp)

A little about my snake / enclosure ...

Actual enclosure - Vivexotic Modx36 (3ft x 3ft x 3ft)
Substrate - coconut fibre ( mostly dried out , some damp / moist)
Lighting - exo terra 2.0 compact UVA/B
Heating - small heat mat at the back of enclosure , 11w
Plants - 1 "large" fern and 2 spider plants , live moss (damp)

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Feeding / water -
Has been feeding on lance fish , 2 around every 5-7 days (1 Covered in vitamin supplement , the other in the water 100%)

Water is always available to my snakes , bowl is cleaned about twice a week .

Also the enclosure was sprayed with about 500-1000ml of water every week or so and he really loved it...




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He is a lively snake and moves around pretty much all day and is VERY friendly and when i opened the enclosure up to do something he would come up to me and crawl on to my hand and come out for a few minutes ..

But yeah i've just lost the nicest snake i will ever have had and i don't know why I'm incredibly upset about this

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Oh and a little about me ,
I have been an animal lover my whole life ...
Started off with dogs , cats and mice and then when i was 12 i got 2 turtles and then moved on to fish keeping also and have done very well with both turtles and fish ( now have 9 turtles of different species in 3 different tanks , 8ft tank and 2 4ft tanks and then have 2 coldwater fish tanks and 3 warm water tanks and a warm water pond..

This little garter was my first snake and have had him around 6 months with no problems with his health , I had been doing research on many different reptiles and then this garter was the best choice so i got him and really was the best choice ...
I also got a corn snake which i took from a bad owner and then fixed all the problems in his enclosure and he is now in great health also



I have probably forgot to mention a lot , also i will upload pictures or the enclosure or the snake if needed


So any idea's on why my snake went away ?

[snakehill]

Soooo Sorry!!! I lost my baby red sided recently and I feel like I lost a child!!! Don't be discouraged! Snakes (Garters are the best!) are one of the most AMAZING creatures on this planet!!!!!

[Mix]

I'm so sorry to hear that. It sounds almost exactly like the losses I have recently suffered - no obvious reasons, unexpected death.
I don't know what happened to mine, but my best guess was the fish they were eating. Even though they were all from 'safe' sources, there must have been something off.

Don't be put off, though. My new snakes really help to remind me every day of why I love keeping these little guys so much.

[BLUESIRTALIS]

Sorry for your losses.

[RedSidedSPR]

Me too. Unexplained deaths suck.

[guidofatherof5]

Very sorry to hear about your loss.
Those surprise deaths are always the hardest to take and understand.

The only question I have is on the fish you are feeding.
Was it on a fish diet only?
I was unable to find out if Lance fish contain Thiaminase, which would be a concern.
What part of the country/world do you live in. I'm guessing not the U.S. since you list temps. in Celsius.
Thiamin - Caresheets,
http://www.thamnophis.com/forum/husb...fish-list.html
Sand lance - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[RdubSnider]

Very sorry for your loss. Could be the fish could be from the high heat. But sometimes they Just pass and its nothing you could have done different. Hope you get another

[RedSidedSPR]

Anyone else see that he supplemented ever time he fed? Would that do something?

[ConcinusMan]

Anyone else see that he supplemented ever time he fed?

You don't want to do that. If you're talking about frozen lance fish packaged as fish food, I believe it's already supplemented.

[RedSidedSPR]

Yeah. Not sure if that's the problem, just pointing it out