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28-06-2008, 11:46 PM
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I despair sometimes!
A week or so ago I got an e-mail cos I’m the webmaster for the wildlife sanctuary where I work. It was from a lady whose child had had a birthday party, asking if we would like another corn snake - quote: My older daughter and I were wondering on the way home whether you would consider giving a home to her pet snake, Marmelade, as an extra for jungle parties!
 The corn snake is my older daughters pet but with GCSE's looming next summer she is not paying it much attention which we feel is cruel. It was very kind of them to think it would be useful for us to have an 'extra' snake  - like we take animals to suit our convenience but we don’t and we haven't the room for another viv indoors!Anyway one of the volunteers had been quizzing me about what was involved in getting a corn snake for her 9 year old son (who fell in love with Monty when he came to our wildlife club last year) so they were thinking of getting him a snake for his birthday. When this e-mail came in I thought it might be an ideal solution for her, because I thought her son would be better starting with an adult snake rather than a wriggly baby and they would get all the equipment. So I e-mailed this woman back with Alison's phone number and left them to it, telling Alison if I could go with them when they went to look at it I would. Well I couldn't go, but told them if they got it I would go around to their house and check up that everything was OK. Well it transpired that the people got it as an adult from someone else, so this is at least it's third home! Alison rang me when she got home and I discovered that it had a heat mat, but no thermostat, no cover on the heatmat and she’d been told to feed it a mouse every 3 weeks! So I thought I’d better go round and check things out yesterday. Well, when I got there I thought it was as well that I didn't go with them when they went to look at it, cos I would have found myself saying too much!!  He's a lovely Amel corn, fabulous temperament, extremely calm, excellent handler, but neglected was right!! He is at least 2½ year old, but I thought a bit small and I could see his spine, so he's too thin. The only good thing about his conditions was the viv which was the right size and the substrate which was Aspen - the rest was crap! His hide was a large, heavy upside down earthenware plant pot, balanced on a piece of bark so he could get under it, but he could also have knocked it off onto himself! Apparently his original owners told Alison that he'd originally had a proper plant pot like this but with a drainage hole in the bottom, which he went in and out of, but he got stuck in the hole and they had to break the pot to get him out! His other hide was a small piece of bark in the middle of the viv and a large water dish at the cold end. The heat mat wasn't taped down and so was moving, there was no cover over the heat mat, no thermostat and no thermometer! So they had no idea what temperature they were keeping him at! When I took him out from under his plant pot he was quite cold, which I thought was quite strange given he was sitting on his mat. I explained about the importance of safe hides in the hot and cold end, covering the heat mat and having both thermostats and thermometers, and she told me that they'd switched the heat mat off! When I asked why, she said that they'd told her to do that because they switched it off every day cos it was warm enough without it! They also told her that they admitted he had been neglected and that last year his viv had been allowed to get very wet and he'd ended up with problems and the vet had said there was some scale damage near the vent, but it would probably be OK after a few sloughs! So the daughter had only had it for a year before she started to neglect it, yet they kept it another year and who knows, if they hadn't come to the Sanctuary, seen our corn and seen an opportunity to offload him, they'd probably still have him and still be neglecting him. I know by comparison with some reps that are rescued he’s not in a bad way, but it just gets me so riled that people do this!  Rant over – feel happier now!!
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  Snakes: Monty - 10 yo anery corn & Calleigh, 4yo miami zig zag corn. Cats: 4 Somalis - Harry, Roscoe, Cadbury & Purrdy (9 - 13 yo) and 1 Siamese - Luna (10yo) - all bred by me Fish: 15 pond fish www.feorag.freeservers.com 
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28-06-2008, 11:56 PM
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shit isnt it, how people buy a pet and take good care of it that is until the novelty wears off. but at least they admitted they were in the wrong and wanted better for it and freely gave it to you.
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all hail the greats  Siman Biglad52002 Andy B 1 
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29-06-2008, 12:48 AM
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Quote:
yeah youd think due to the bed housing and very likly very little handling that they would be vicious or at the very least skettish
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all hail the greats Siman Biglad52002 Andy B 1
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29-06-2008, 03:51 AM
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So sad.
 But at least he will get a better life now. Tara xxx
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29-06-2008, 09:19 AM
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oh no its a wonder he didn't suffer some serious burns, bless him! no wonder you needed to rant!!!
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1.0.0 corn 1.0.0 hognose 1.0.0 jack russel 1.0.0 kitty
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29-06-2008, 09:46 AM
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Its quite frighting how many of these stories people hear, theres so many ill-advised and ignorant people out there keeping pets its shocking. No wonder people in with 'exotic pets' get a bad name. Either way, well done Feorag, at least now, with your advice, that corn should have a chance of having a comfortable and suitable home for the future
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29-06-2008, 09:49 AM
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Poor baby, probably calm because its so weak!
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My Wii Friend-code: 8173-5158-1649-2653. My Mario Kart Code is: 2535-6301-1515 My Dragons! ~
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