I have some very sad news, and some happier news.
Earlier this month, I went on my dream vacation to Roatan, Honduras. My friend and coworker looked after Avatre while I was away. The day after I got back, I went to my friend's place to pick Avatre up and take her home. When I brought her viv into my apartment and took the towel off (viv was covered for warmth), I noticed that the lid was slightly askew, but didn't really think anything of it, I assumed it happened while I was carrying the viv in. I relatched the lid and plugged her heater back in, and left the viv alone, as I wanted to let her settle back in from the stress of moving. I didn't see her at all at this time, but wasn't concerned, I assumed she was hiding in her favourite hide. I left her alone for the next two days to settle back in, I didn't see her at all during this time, but again, that was not unusual, she spends a lot of time in her hide. After two days, I went to take her out for some handling, and she wasn't there! I searched all her hides, dug through the substrate, nothing! I contacted my friend, but she said the viv had never been opened except to change the water once, and they had seen her in the viv shortly after, and I believe her, she's incredibly responsible. At my place, she had at MOST 60 seconds after I set up the viv and while I ran out to the car to grab the heavy books I use to weigh down the lid, and while it's POSSIBLE that she could have left her hide, crawled up the glass, pushed up the lid and slithered down off my dresser and out of sight, it's just not at all likely. Which only leaves one other possibility, that she somehow managed to push the lid open during our drive home and got out into the car. If that's the case, she's gone. It was -40 celsius that night, and there's no way she could have survived. I have looked through the car and haven't seen her, but she could easily have gone into the crack in the seat cushions, and I have no idea how to get in there to check. I was, and still am, heartbroken. I feel like I failed her so badly. I thought I was doing the right thing by leaving her alone to settle in, but if I HAD checked on her, I would have realized she was missing right away, and would have had a chance at least to rescue her.
I was ready to give up on keeping reptiles all together, thinking I just wasn't cut out for reptile keeping, but a good friend and experienced reptile keeper of mine strongly encouraged me to not give up, and to try again, and so I decided to poke around on kijiji a bit, just to see what was there, and I discovered an ad by a college student with a baby corn snake that he desperately needed to rehome, and when I saw the pictures of his set up, I couldn't leave him there. The guy's heart was in the right place, but he had NO idea how to properly care for a snake, and everything about this poor little guy's set up was just wrong.
I decided to go take a look at the little guy, just to look, and when I got there, it was even worse. The poor little guy was on sand (big no no for snakes), he had only one hide, which meant he had no way to move back and forth in his viv to manage his temperature and still stay hidden, there were no thermometers in the viv, so no way to know if the temps were even correct, he was still being fed food that was about two sizes too small for his size, and being fed two or three times a week instead of moving him up to a more appropriate size food and feeding once a week. In addition to all this, the poor guy had several stuck sheds on his tail tip, to the point that the flesh was completely dead and on the verge of falling off.
The guy selling him really did care about his snake and wanted the best for him, but he just didn't have the finances or knowledge to care for him properly. I just couldn't leave him there, so ....
Meet Kaa, he's a lovely classic corn snake, even without his tail tip (actually fell off in his container on the trip home), and he is absolutely loving his comfy new digs, with proper substrate, multiple hides, and properly controlled temps! It does feel good to have a snake again, as my friend put it, I needed to "get back on the horse" and prove to myself that I really can raise a happy and healthy snake. He's got a lovely temperament, just super calm, confident and curious, so I think we will get on well together. I'm going to pick up some food for him tomorrow and start working on getting him on properly sized food.
I have some very sad news, and some happier news.
Earlier this month, I went on my dream vacation to Roatan, Honduras. My friend and coworker looked after Avatre while I was away. The day after I got back, I went to my friend's place to pick Avatre up and take her home. When I brought her viv into my apartment and took the towel off (viv was covered for warmth), I noticed that the lid was slightly askew, but didn't really think anything of it, I assumed it happened while I was carrying the viv in. I relatched the lid and plugged her heater back in, and left the viv alone, as I wanted to let her settle back in from the stress of moving. I didn't see her at all at this time, but wasn't concerned, I assumed she was hiding in her favourite hide. I left her alone for the next two days to settle back in, I didn't see her at all during this time, but again, that was not unusual, she spends a lot of time in her hide. After two days, I went to take her out for some handling, and she wasn't there! I searched all her hides, dug through the substrate, nothing! I contacted my friend, but she said the viv had never been opened except to change the water once, and they had seen her in the viv shortly after, and I believe her, she's incredibly responsible. At my place, she had at MOST 60 seconds after I set up the viv and while I ran out to the car to grab the heavy books I use to weigh down the lid, and while it's POSSIBLE that she could have left her hide, crawled up the glass, pushed up the lid and slithered down off my dresser and out of sight, it's just not at all likely. Which only leaves one other possibility, that she somehow managed to push the lid open during our drive home and got out into the car. If that's the case, she's gone. It was -40 celsius that night, and there's no way she could have survived. I have looked through the car and haven't seen her, but she could easily have gone into the crack in the seat cushions, and I have no idea how to get in there to check. I was, and still am, heartbroken. I feel like I failed her so badly. I thought I was doing the right thing by leaving her alone to settle in, but if I HAD checked on her, I would have realized she was missing right away, and would have had a chance at least to rescue her. :(
I was ready to give up on keeping reptiles all together, thinking I just wasn't cut out for reptile keeping, but a good friend and experienced reptile keeper of mine strongly encouraged me to not give up, and to try again, and so I decided to poke around on kijiji a bit, just to see what was there, and I discovered an ad by a college student with a baby corn snake that he desperately needed to rehome, and when I saw the pictures of his set up, I couldn't leave him there. The guy's heart was in the right place, but he had NO idea how to properly care for a snake, and everything about this poor little guy's set up was just wrong.
I decided to go take a look at the little guy, just to look, and when I got there, it was even worse. The poor little guy was on sand (big no no for snakes), he had only one hide, which meant he had no way to move back and forth in his viv to manage his temperature and still stay hidden, there were no thermometers in the viv, so no way to know if the temps were even correct, he was still being fed food that was about two sizes too small for his size, and being fed two or three times a week, which really isn't all that healthy for a snake. He should have been fed once a week with appropriately sized food. In addition to all this, the poor guy had several stuck sheds on his tail tip, to the point that the flesh was completely dead and on the verge of falling off.
The guy selling him really did care about his snake and wanted the best for him, but he just didn't have the finances or knowledge to care for him properly. I just couldn't leave him there, so ....
Meet Kaa, he's a lovely classic corn snake, even without his tail tip (actually fell off in his container on the trip home), and he is absolutely loving his comfy new digs, with proper substrate, multiple hides, and properly controlled temps! He's four months old and a solid 42 grams, in spite of his rough start in life. It does feel good to have a snake again, as my friend put it, I needed to "get back on the horse" and prove to myself that I really can raise a happy and healthy snake. He's got a lovely temperment, just super calm, confident and curious, so I think we will get on well together. I'm going to pick up some food for him tomorrow and start working on getting him on properly sized food.
[IMG]http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o150/LittleFrog_01/Kaa/Kaa_zps716674b1.jpg
