Mari
New member
I got a call from a friend who said his friend needed help with a snake. My friend's friend has been taking care of his ex-roomates bunny - she apparently just left three weeks ago and didn't really say where she was going and they seem to believe she had no intention of returning, and she made no accommodations for her bunny. Welp... while they were cleaning out her room they found a snake tank with an adult snake in it! None of them have any snake experience (or bunny experience!) but they didn't want to just let the snake go (thank god). My friend called me up and... wow. The bedroom that snake was in was ATROCIOUS. Cigarette butts covered the floor, bugs, roaches, moths, rat poop, garbage EVERYWHERE .... and then this poor milksnake. She had no heat (there was a dead bulb next to her cage with no cover over it), no hides her size... I honestly wasn't sure she was going to make it, and I could tell by her cage and her attitude that it had been much longer than 3 weeks that she had been taken care of....
I got her out of her cage and wrangled her into a clean travel box - she was feisty but lethargic probably from the lack of water/food/etc for at least 3 weeks, probably longer. I also took her cage because I don't have any cages big enough for an adult snake. I brought it home and sprayblasted it with bleach and scrubbed until I could get the reek out. It was littered with feces, urates, and parts of at least 3 different sheds buried in the dirt. There were also 30-75 little moth cocoons, spider webs, etc - all sorts of bugs living in there that I had to bleach out. I threw out almost all of the things that were actually in the tank except for the water bowl which I soaked for a few hours, and one plastic hide that she seems to favor.
I looked her over - she has a small but noticeable kink towards the end of her tail, a few lumpy looking spots, but clear nostrils & eyes. She also is pretty strong considering what she's been going through. She has a decent amount of a shake/wobble when she is awake and paying attention to you..
After I had her home, she went dormant while laying on her UTH. Wouldn't move for the world. First I gave her a bath - she reeked of all sorts of things.... I set her up in her tank with paper towels, a humid hide, fresh distilled water and a nice warm side. She didn't move for over 24 hours and when she finally did it was just to drink and drink and drink. I also fed her a single pinkie to see if she'd take F/T and she did. I also didn't want to shock her system if it had been as long as I thought it might have been since she was fed. I also asked the friend to figure out what the snake had been eating - apparently when it had been fed it was getting 2 adult mice a week, live, in the tank with her. That surely explains the feisty attitude!
Anyway, I waited another 5 days after the pinkie and just gave her a fuzzy. I figure I'll build her up to eating (and also, I don't have enough money to order feeders until Friday
) She ate the fuzzy like a champ! A little confused though. She couldn't figure out how to get the darned thing in her mouth. She's darn cute tough. :3oke: Please read! oke: Now, I'm not exactly in a place right now to support another snake, but I couldn't say no to her because there really was no one else. If anyone who lives near Sarasota, FL would like her, please let me know! I could even meet someone halfway if needed. There's no charge obviously, I just want to see her taken care of. I don't know her age or weight yet - she's really aggressive and cage shy and I don't have a scale big enough for her. Hopefully when her belly is full and happy she might tame down, she's really a sweet thing just in a bad situation.
Also, I'm not super familiar with milksnakes in general - it's a honduran, right?
