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Excuse the fit I'm about to throw...

Pitbullgirl16

Pitbullgirl16

New member
So I met some people who are in to snake keeping. They talked about their snakes all the time, and seemed to pride themselves in their knowledge. They sure had me fooled. They seemed quite knowledgeable. They have all the facts and care right. So I thought...
I decided to make a drive over to their house mainly for the purpose of seeing their snakes they had been talking about. Said they had a king snake, a ball python, and a few others.
When I got there we went to the living room where they told me the snakes were kept at. I looked around and didn't see any sign of them. I asked where they were and they pointed and told me the snakes were 'right behind me.' I turned and looked down, and to my disgust there were two tanks. Sitting on the floor. The first one was housing a couple year old king snake that was probably about four and a half feet long. It was curled up in the corner of a ten gallon fish aquarium, with a small water bowl that took up the rest of the room in there. This poor thing was piled on top of itself with nowhere to go. Next to it was a four foot ball python in a twenty gallon fish aquarium, with a water bowl and a poor excuse for a hide. They said they had UTH's, and they weren't even regulated. It's bad enough these snakes were housed in enclosures so small they couldn't even move, but to not even have their heat controlled!! I have absolutely no clue how those snakes have survived that long in those conditions. They said they have other snakes. I didn't see them, but I really couldn't bear to take anymore after that. I asked why they weren't housed correctly and they basically said it was due to not enough space, and didn't have money to waste on proper enclosures.
That's a prime example of people who do NOT need to be owning snakes, or reptiles in general for that matter, and people I hope karma comes back to haunt. Made me so disgusted. It took everything I had not to just go ballistic on them. :twoguns:
Sorry for this long rant...
 
Its funny how if I (or nearly everyone else here) took the time to even join a forum to get all of the proper information about snakes and their care and im here freaking out that onyx is growing out of his 10 gallon and he's only just a year. The fact they said they didn't 'have the money to waste on proper enclosures' just proves that they should not own snakes. I'd contact someone about that like your animal welfare society or something.. because so many people leave this kinda thing unnoticed and the people think they can get away with it.
 
Providing proper enclosures is not "wasting" money, as we all know. As you said, these kinds of people should not be responsible for other living beings - they don't get it, and probably never will. :headbang:

Any chance of your offering to buy them to get them into a proper environment? Or get local animal control involved? Of course, if animal control gets involved and they see the poor conditions, they jump to the conclusion that no one should keep reptiles. What a mess, and I feel so sorry for the animals.

Kathy
 
You know, a lot of people say to not keep baby snakes in big enclosures because it causes them undue stress. I do believe this if the big enclosure isn't jammed packed with hides. I have Sarabi, who's close to 18 inches now in a 40 gallon breeder. I've had her in there since I first got it. There isn't a space in that tank that isn't covered in foliage or snug places for her to hide. She loves it. She's out and about exploring all the time and uses every square inch.
If animal control got involved it would get messy, quickly. As horrible conditions as these snakes are being housed in, they're on routine feeding schedules and somehow always eat, they have good weight on them, and are taken out to be handled all the time. The animal control here would most likely say if they weren't starved, or appeared sickly, everything was left up to the owner to do as they wished. And then get a long spill about not owning reptiles most likely.
It took five calls just to get animal control out to claim a horse that was tied up in someone's back yard, on a chain, and it was starved and had nothing to eat. So skinny you could see its ribs and spine sticking up. Animal control FINALLY came and got it after three months!
 
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