A word of caution!

[grankin01]

Hello all! It's been months since I have been on here and it is good to be back. I got a 3000GT and it has been taking most of my time. PS3 has been taking the rest lol. Anyway, I have a story to tell that might help someone else down the road.

Saturday the 10th of March my wife, the kids, and I decided to go one town over (about 15 to 20 miles) and do some shopping at the pet stores there. We decided to take the corn snake and my hypo red tail. The corn is about a year and a half old and about three (or a little more) feet long. The red tail is still a baby and maybe two feet long. So we get them out of their enclosures and off to town we go. Now my wife likes to let the corn roam around in her shirt (he likes the warmth). He rode all the way up there no problem. She dug him out and we went into the pet store. After that we stopped by Liquor Barn and she handed him off to me. I don't usually do it but he went in my shirt so that the yuppies in Liquor Barn didn't have a cow. We dashed in and dashed out. When we got to the car I handed him back to my wife. With me so far lol. Homeward bound. We get to the house and as my wife gets out of the car she asks our son if he can see Orion (the corn snake) poking out from the bottom of the back of her shirt. As soon as we get in the house my wife says, "OH MY GOD GUY! ORION ISN'T IN MY SHIRT!" We searched for hours and couldn't find him. It got down to 40 degrees that night also. I put his hide with a thawed mouse on the floor next to our fireplace (after dragging the mouse down the baseboards a ways) but we honestly weren't sure whether she dropped him in the car, outside, or in the house. Well, we got our answer yesterday around 2200 (10PM). As my wife was driving home (I was at work) he decided to poke his head out of the corner of the dash by the windshield. She said he was a little pale but wasn't acting sluggish. I was worried about dehydration but knew it was about time for him to go into ecdysis (shed) also. So this morning (about 2 1/2 hours ago) I started tearing the dash on her car apart. We tried putting his hide with another thawed mouse in there but he didn't come out overnight. I pulled the dash cover off (the big thing that most people think is actually the dash that goes from window to window) after pulling several other panels and switches and bleh! As I pulled the passengers side of the dash cover off I instantly noticed our boy camping out by the airbag module. I was able to get him before he dove further into the dash (thank god cause my back is killing).

WHEW! Long story huh? We're just glad it had a happy ending. Moral of this: NO MORE OUTINGS UNLESS THEY ARE IN THERE CARRIERS OR ARE BIG ENOUGH THAT WE WON'T LOSE THEM!

He actually is in shed and while he is probably hungry and thirsty it doesn't seem to have harmed him in any way. His tongue goes a mile a minute like it always has and he is very alert and active. It probably got over a hundred degrees in her car multiple times during his ... "vacation" so I'm overjoyed that he seems ok and is already back to his old habits of staring at us from under his rock. We had little signs along the way as well. Something kept telling me he was VERY close to us and that she didn't drop him outside (I stilled looked every night though). She asked me to pack his tank up because it hurt to look at it but I told her I didn't want to give up hope yet and that is what that would be doing. The last sign (and probably the most significant) was my daughter dropping a bracelet next to his hide (the one I left by the fire place) that looked like some of his coloring. My wife saw it and thought it was him. It hurt her feelings when it wasn't but the writing on the bracelet eased some of that and renewed our faith that we would find him. It said ... HOPE!

I hope whoever reads this and is thinking about outings for their snakes will take the proper precautions for the animal's and their sakes. We got lucky ... very lucky!

 

[diamondlil]

May I ask why you take the snakes out for trips in any case? As well as the risk of escaping it means disturbing them, taking them away from their temperature controlled enclosures, I just can't for the life of me understand the reasoning behind it.

 

[grankin01]

We never took them out unless the temperature outside met somewhere inside their temperature gradient inside their enclosure and it was our way of "handling" them on those days. We are always very careful with our animals and take care to treat them right. I have notebooks to log feedings, sheddings, etc that we keep records of everything of note in (just in case a Vet visit is warranted and the info is needed for a diagnosis or what-have-you). We didn't do it often and it won't be happening again unless it needs to (i.e. Vet visit). I understand your questioning of it though and guess I deserve a reaming for it. I feel like a complete idiot (and I know most of you are saying this in your head as you read the first post) as this is one of those mistakes you just shouldn't make but rest assured, as I know how badly it could have ended, ... lesson learned.

As I said I posted for the benefit of someone else who may be thinking of making the mistake my wife and I just made. As fun as it seems to be ... DON'T DO IT!

 

[diamondlil]

I'm so glad you got him back! It takes a big person to admit mistakes and you could well save some other keepers from heartache by telling what happened. (I'm far from perfect, I've made big mistakes along the way too!)

 

[grankin01]

Thank you very much! He's my wife's baby and our first snake. I thought she was going to come through the phone when I told her I got him out of her car!

 

[AliCat37]

I take my snakes all over the place when the temps are nice. However, they are ALWAYS in pillowcases and in a cooler until we get to where we are going.

 

[grankin01]

A little update ... my wife fed him and he didn't argue a bit. So he's back home fed, fat, and happy.

 

[Lyion]

I don't let the snakes go in my shirt unless they are heavy enough for me to feel 'em

 

[WingedSweetheart]

I never take my snakes anywhere unless it's somewhere where someone wants to see them lol. I sure wouldn't take them to a pet shop though. I'd be worried sick of them catching something from the pet shop reptiles (mainly mites). If I did take them I would stay far far away from the reptile section.

I have taken one of my snakes to a vet and another to the newspaper office to be photographed for a calendar contest she won. But I always take them in their feeding bins and keep the air conditioner on even if it's cold outside. If the sun shines on the container even a little, it gets pretty hot inside.

So, when you do take them out again even if in their container make sure they don't cook in those containers!

 

[Floof]

A hard way to learn an important lesson! I'm so glad it ended happily, though!

I'll admit, I've taken the snakes along on (not too long) car trips "for fun" before--most notably, there was a couple times I took my big corn gal to work (at the time, a pet store) to, well, show off. Like grankin, when I DO do these things, which isn't often, it's my way of handling/enjoying the snake that day. Probably not the smartest thing in the world, but it's not the most dangerous thing to them, either.

I do always make sure they are in *secure* tubs, pillowcases, and/or in my hands, where I can see them, and I only take snakes that are relaxed and comfortable with that kind of heavy interaction (in other words, it's usually only the big corn). I don't see any problem with taking a snake out, so long as the appropriate precautions and considerations are taken into account.

On that same note, funny story: The one time I DID have a snake escape in the car, was one of the few times it was a 100% unavoidable, necessary car trip. I was moving cross-country, which means, of course, the pets had to move cross-country, too. Mallie escaped her tub before we even got out of Washington! Luckily, she showed up some time the next day, around the Oregon/Idaho border, poking her little nose out of the glovebox... So, fortunately, it was a happy ending, and we didn't even have to rip up the dash.

 

[grankin01]

Another little update and then I'd say this thread is done.

He shed last night and it took care of all the little spots he had on him from the inside of her dash. It also brought his color back plus some and he has slipped back into his old routine of staring at us while we watch TV or watching it with us (at least that's what it looks like lol).