Mystery Deaths of Herps.......

[AudreyElizabeth]

The same winter that I got a brand new gas heater, a wall unit, ALL of my herps and one invert perished within three days of turning it on....

I had a baby corn snake, a savannah monitor, a veiled chameleon, and a 'moon crab', some sort of African species of land crab that was orange and purple, and they all died within three days of each other....

The ones that died last were farther away from the heater....
I got a carbon monoxide detector, and the levels tested normal...
What gives?? I mean, all of the animals were healthy and doing great until I turned on this heater!!

Since then, I decided to buy one tarantula.... That one made it through the winter, no problems at all, and so have the other two....

It makes me think that it is safe to buy herps again, but what caused this??

Can anyone answer this?? This heater has an element that glows bright red when turned on.... A mystery. Could it have been some sort of coating on the element that was burning off that was toxic to them?

Any opinions would be appreciated!!

 

[Code Monkey]

It is a possibility that the heating element did release some sort of compound like you describe. That the inverts fared better is not surprising because of their much slower respiration rate. Also, since 3/4 of the casualties were vertebrates, the hypothetical toxin may not affect inverts (or at least most) at all (can't rule out a coincidental death for the crab while your herps were succumbing).

Since it seemed to affect vertebrates I'd be more worried about *your* exposure than anything else at this point. Of course, that you are typing this is indicative that the risk has probably passed. What I would do is go out and get a $5 anole or something similar and put it near the heater and see what happens (sort of like using damsel fish as the tester guinea pig in a new salt water aquarium). If you can't replicate the exposure deaths you'll have to assume it was something like you suspect and move on and be careful in the future if you find yourself in a similar situation. If you can replicate the exposure death with a vertebrate, though, stop using the heater and contact the manufacture because something is very wrong.

 

[Buspirone]

Unvented gas heaters will also emit nitrogen dioxide but I don't know if reptiles are THAT sensitive to it that they will up and die.

Off topic but this thread brought it to mind. If you have any pet birds be careful with using teflon coated cookware that's relatively new. Raw teflon and the new coatings on cookware emit a gas when heated that has some kind of neurological effect on birds and can cause death. It doesn't effect most other animals. I don't know if it would effect reptiles though. I thought I'd add it as a side note anyway.

 

[Phillip]

I would be curious as to the type of heater involved as in non vented 5 brick etc. I have never had a problem with mine but i do know from experience that when it kicks on the building gets pretty hot close to it and I cant help but wonder if overheating had anything to do with it as corns can't really take the high 90s for too long at a time.

Not saying this was the cause of course but it is a possibility.

Myself I use a 5 brick unvented Atlanta Stove brand heater and the emmisions are so low as to be pretty much non existant. Also with the higher end brands such as this they have a sensor that shuts them off if oxygen levels drop or any kind of fumes are being thrown out by it.

Phil

 

[AudreyElizabeth]

The brand name of the heater is glow- warm. Just a wall mounted natural gas heater.

This happened in the winter of 2001. It put an understandable damper on my hobby but here is a bright spot......
As Code Monkey suggested I bought three anole lizards two days ago and they are doing fine except for the stress of being taken from their smelly, over crowded heat rock in the pet store (go figure). But I suspect that will pass as they are eating and drinking well.

Thanks for the replies, just really wanted to see if anyone could offer any insight into this matter!