To rescue or NOT to rescue

vetstudent82 · #1 (**permalink**) 03-19-2003, 03:08 PM

Hey everyone!
I have a problem that's been bugging me for awhile, so I need some input:

My highschool biology teacher had an awsome BCsomething, that he bought the year before I graduated, ~ 98-99. This snake is awsome, very mellow and sweet.
Now, he's not exactly mistreated, he's well fed (altough live fed) and all in all looks pretty comfortable.
What bothers me is, this snake must be about 5 feet now, but I saw him coiled up so I'm just guessing. He's in too small of an enclosure, looks like the perimeter is aa long as he is. He has little/no substrate, only a heat lamp, with no temp or hum gauges, and only has a water bowl. Oh, I forgot to mention that he's in an aquarium.

Altough his living conditions are under-normal, he sheds fine (I saw one of the sheds).

My teracher will retire in 2 years, and I offered to take the snake in since he can't take it home with him. He said that he'll leave it in the school if anyone will say they'll take care of it. I'm worried about him. I think he deserves better, but I'm thinking how am I to go tell him stuff, I never even owned a snake before?

What do you think?
Tnx
Michi
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ChrisRezendes · #2 (**permalink**) 03-19-2003, 03:26 PM

How long exactly is the tank? A snake will do fine in a cage that's length is at least 2/3rd's of it's own. In other words, a 3 foot long snake will do fine in a 2 foot long and 1 foot wide.

What substrate IS he on? Is he on some type of wood chipping? Or newspaper? As long as the newpaper is evenly spread amongst the bottom of the cage, and is three papers thick, the substrate is fine. Of course, it would really help if we knew what the substrate was.

A heat lamp should suffice well in a school, because school's are heated anyway, so the ambient air temperature of the school should well replace any additional heating he may have needed. If you are really worried, just tell him maybe he should purchase an under tank heater. Whatever you do, do NOT encourage him to use heat rocks. They are very dangerous and are the #1 cause of burns amongst reptiles.

More people will be along who are more into boa constrictors than I am. Hang on.
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jpaulson · #3 (**permalink**) 03-19-2003, 03:38 PM

Have you tried maybe getting all the students to chip in a few bucks, then buy a bigger enclosure? OR, better yet, maybe suggest an assignment to build him a habitat, like in the wild. Might work...

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JuliusSqueezer · #4 (**permalink**) 03-19-2003, 03:53 PM

<TABLE BORDER=0 ALIGN=CENTER WIDTH=85%><TR><TD><font class="pn-sub">Quote:</font><HR></TD></TR><TR><TD><FONT class="pn-sub"><BLOCKQUOTE> How long exactly is the tank? A snake will do fine in a cage that's length is at least 2/3rd's of it's own. In other words, a 3 foot long snake will do fine in a 2 foot long and 1 foot wide.
</BLOCKQUOTE></FONT></TD></TR><TR><TD><HR></TD></TR></TABLE>

Actually, this is close but not accurate. MOST snakes need at least 1 sq foot of floor space per linear foot of snake. 2x1 =2 so a 3 foot snake would be about a foot too long for this hypothetical cage and would need at least 2x 1.5. If this snake is 5 feet, then he will need at least 5 sq feet of floor space to have room to thermoregulate and get comfortable but even that is a minimum. Also without a thermometer, who knows what is good enough? Depending on the bulb wattage, it could as easily be overheated as underheated....who knows? It really doesn't look as though much concern is in effect for this snake's well being. Sometimes we have to educate the educators too. Good Luck.
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trinitywolf · #5 (**permalink**) 03-19-2003, 04:04 PM

Great idea J...building a habitat would be both educational and efficient for the school. Getting the school to pay for the materials may be iffy, but you may be able to get some local businesses to donate some material for classroom use. If there is a wood shop in your high school, you may be able to get them involved. Either way it would be good exposure for snakes and an experience for the kids.

If none of that is possible, then try to educate your prior teacher about the proper care of his reptile. I find that most times, if you are respectful people are willing to listen to your input. Some people always think they are right no matter what you say, and there is nothing that you will be able to say. If he has water, is well fed, and not crammed into a tiny tank you may be able to get the teacher to make general changes for the better. It sounds like he may have some bad info but wants to take good care of the snake. Have you tried to get him to switch to p/k or f/t prey? I think that is the first thing that I would try to tackle.

Ted
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vetstudent82 · #6 (**permalink**) 03-19-2003, 04:47 PM

Unfortunately, I'm not going to highschool anymore, haven't been for 3 years now, so I'm not really into the system there.

I don't think he's on thinck newspaper, I think I remember him being on just class, and that classroom is kind of chilly, but not too bad.

I'll try to talk to the owner about a UTH, temp/hum gauge, and at least one hide, we'll see how it goes. I'm just worried that they won't take good care of the snake once he's retired, and then I don't know anyone anymore and I can't help the animal.
I don't know about the f/t food issue though. It might be king of hard, as I remember he used to just drop the mouse in there for over a day and wait for the snake to eat it. I know I was told to do that when the teacher went to a conference for a couple of weeks... ingnorance is dangerous, hu?

Thanks for the input everyone, I'll try to check on the snake again and see what I can do.
Maybe I'll convince him to give it to me after all [img]modules/Forum/images/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif[/img]

Michi
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