Scary story involving tree-style Cage Decor from PetSmart!!

[evanescent]

The scary story involves this tree specifically,
(yes, this is the same tree. It just has all its foliage, and the shot is taken from the front rather than the back)
but I suppose the warning should pertain to ANY cage decor that has holes as well as wide-open spaces in it.


This nasty cage belongs to my newest CL rescue, Sharkie.
Sharkie is currently UFA, but that's beside the point.

key points:
-sand
-UTH
-heat rock
-THE TREE.

I was cleaning out the tank in my driveway..
-tossed the heat rock
-peeled off and set aside the UTH for my dubia
-scooped out the sand
-decided to wash the sand off of the bowl and tree before disinfecting them; maybe a friend would want the bowl for a snake or something? And I thought that the tree looked relatively nice. Several friends of mine have it, and I think it's kinda cute.

Well, the bowl washed off easily. But the tree.. even after the outside was clean, it STANK.
I noticed that there was something inside it, so I shook it bit..expecting a little sand.
WELL, out fell several cricket heads/body parts, and dead supers. Disgusted, I directed the blast of my hose to the holes..
Maybe I could get some of this out?
The more holes I tried blasting, the more carcuses came out. It never stopped!
So, being the curious+destructive person I am, I broke the tree open against a rock.
Keep in mind, this is maybe a little less than half of what was in there originally..... oh, and flies flew out of it!
At least I know now that she was feeding him lots of bugs. :/
But who knows how many of them he actually got to eat..

Umm, barf?! Some of the supers were still alive... -w-
Quote from the lady, semi-relevant:

Did spike get settled in OK? He was a bit agitated after the car ride. He likes everything, there were still crickets in his tank.

I was curious as to the lack of crix in the tank, But I suppose I know where they went now.......

Oh, and here's the boy who lived in there.

isn't he handsome? ;3


The morals of this I guess are:
-Seal the holes in any cage decour you might have...
-Don't feed your beardie in their tank...

 

[EccentricME]

Rea that's disgusting!!!! ! glad he is not living in that anymore!!

 

[evanescent]

Rea that's disgusting!!!! ! glad he is not living in that anymore!!

Ikr?!
Poor baby! D:
The sand and bowl also smelled like..eww.
He's a year old, so I suppose all of this is a year's worth of filth.

Well, half of a year's worth of filth. The other half was already washed out before the pic..

I wish that my first instinct had been to bash the thing open;
I wasted like half an hour trying to get the stuff out through the holes. XD
but after The Great Smashing, I see that that would have been virtually impossible..

The thing was literally crammed full of dead bugs..

 

[Dooter]

Oh that is absolutely FOUL!!!!

 

[Jess]

Thats just... horrifying. :shock: * shudders*

 

[zoiesmom]

Bluuurrggghhh!!!

Poor baby!

 

[evanescent]

What I really don't understand is why bugs kept crawling int there.
Surely they noticed the stench of Death?
Maybe they were eating the carcuses..?
The surviving supers were pretty fat..

 

[Evergreen]

Ew. Ew. EW! I had a fake rock with a little hole on the side and I swear every living bug purposefully escaped from it's dish for the sole purpose of climbing into that rock and dying. Clearly these trees/hides/rocks aren't made for reptiles that eat live food

 

[bonnie]

OMGGGGGGG gross!!! i don't have anything like that in rocky's tank, but even so, when i feed him his crickets i drop them in one at a time. and he doesn't get the next one till he's eaten the other one. that way i can keep an eye on things and how much he's eaten etc. plus i also heard that if they are left in the tank (crickets) that they will bite / chew on the beardie while it's sleeping? not sure how true this is, but not taking any chances

 

[evanescent]

not sure how true this is, but not taking any chances

sadly that's completely true.
I've had rescues covered in cricket bites..
They kinda gnaw off the scales, usually on the belly or arms, and sometimes they get infected.. crickets are disgusting, and their bites reallyyy hurt.. have you ever been bitten? It hurts, and then stings for like 5 minutes after.

But if you're carefully watching to make sure he eats all of them, there shouldn't be an issue.

Rea

 

[bunnyrut]

-Seal the holes in any cage decour you might have...

i learned that early on with driftwood. when he was a baby, we would watch Mr Dargon eat to make sure he got everything, and violently shake out his decor just to make sure, and sure enough some always found a space to get into! So we sealed up any cracks.

I feed my dragons in their tanks, but i just find it easier to remove the decor before i do.

 

[evanescent]

I've never had any decorations with holes, and I do not usually feed bugs inside the viv. XD the concept of bugs crawling into decorations was foreign to me.

Rea

 

[bonnie]

UGH i still can't believe how disgusting that is!! that poor beardie living in that! no way in heck is my boy gonna be eaten / bitten up by crickets! i think he enjoyed when i fed him out of tank last night for the first time....i dumped the cricket on the floor and he had to go catch it, was more "natural" than just dropping it in his bowl in the tank....plus, gives him positive reinforcement of being taken out of his tank since am still working on training him

 

[evanescent]

I know, right....?
And what about the fact that he not only had a UTH, but also a heat rock?!
That's horrible. X.x

I have an extra 40g I feed by guys in, and then slick bowls(I feed dubia, not crix) if I'm tired/busy/lazy..

 

[Kalyn876]

Ick! I always check my new decor for holes before it goes in the tank just for this reason. I recently purchased All Living Things gnarled wood (plastic) and found a cricket size hole in it, sealed it with silicone and good to go. But really? why would there be a hole in it? Baffles me..

Here is a link to the plastic gnarled wood in case anyone wants to see it.
http://www.petsmart.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2752665