Warning, bit of a long story and a rant

I work as an animal tec at the colege i use to attend. So i went in today and the guy thats in charge of the animals was off sick so it was just me there to keep an eye on things. It looked like it would be a normal good day as a class had been in and seen to all the fish in the morning and the reptiles didnt need anything done today which olny left the avieries (birds, rabbits and guinea pigs) and the small mammel room (rats, mice, gerbils, chinchillas, hamsters ect) and a class was due down to do in the avieries so i only had to do the mammel room.

I was just about finished cleaning and handling the rodents when a student came running in saying a corn snake had escaped and was lose in the yard/car park (we share the area with equine's stables), so i run out there thinkits its proberly just a slow worm as there is no way a snake could get through a locked viv and a locked door. but as i got there i see a scaired young corn snake srounded by people, (with one of the equine lectures going nuts shouting and swearing from across the yard).

Of course i couldnt touch it as i smelt of its dinner, so i took off my jacket to put over it, compleatly forgetting i only had a tiny strappy top on under it lol. Got in in side and on a heat mat, called the guy up and checked how many corn snakes we had. Well heres the stranger bit, we had 9 corn snakes befor and now including the one from the car park we have 10! So this snake is defferntly not one of ours.

So some one dumpped a cold blooded animal outside in the middle of winter and just left it! How can people be so stupid and heartless?

i think its a pet someone got board of so dumpped it for us to find and keep. But the snake seems healthy and hopefully should be fine, we think its a female, so we now have a free snake poor little thing.

Aww, poor little mite.

Just wondering what the weather was like where you are today? If it was very cold, how did the snake manage to get into the stable yard from where it may have been dumped? Where I am, we had some very bright and spring-like sunshine, pretty warm for a couple of hours. Could the snake have been hibernating somewhere, and woken up today? Don't worry if my ideas aren't relevant, it's just I knew of a snake owner who was called by a panicking householder to collect a snake found in their conservatory - only to realise later it was one of theirs that had escaped two years previously from a supposedly escape-proof reptile shed!

To add, they can sometimes hide & disappear for long periods... there was something on my local news last week where a pet corn snake had disappeared when a house was being remodelled, only to re-emerge months later.

Wherever yours came from, I'm happy it's been taken in and will be cared for. I've never owned snakes myself but have had some experience of handling them including dealing with wild corn snakes in their native habitat, and wild rattlesnakes too. I have a bit of a soft spot for corn snakes :)

I have had a hatchling hognose escape out of a locked viv via the doors, she went missing for 9mths weighing only 9 gms.  She reappeared poking her head out of my decking by the back door, I collected her knew it was the same one as her markings are very distinct, weighed her and was amazed to see she was 112 gms despite a  very long snowy winter. 

I know of serveral fellow herp keepers who've had similar experiences, one had a corn go missing for 3 yrs only to be returned by his neighbour 4 doors down asking if he could take it in as they'd found it in their garden - needless to say he didn't tell them it was one he'd lost so long ago lol.

At present I have a hatchling escaped from a Really useful tub, via the tinies of ventilation hole, makes me sweat everytime I think about it as its an albino worth about £400! 

So to help & support Jo who had to rescue this corn snake today in a stable yard.... Do we think it was dumped, or just came out of hiding?
I guess it doesn't matter really.. best thing is Jo threw her coat over it - embarrassing herself in the meantime - and the snake got taken into proper care! Good on ya girl :)

Yep, well done Jo but I must say a lecturer shouting and swearing doesn't sound very professional - might have tried to help instead of being so useless (says she who had to leave her class 2 weeks ago cos there was a blue tit flying about - but, in my defence, it was moving a lot faster than a cold snake! and I did get a janitor while my students all laughed at me :-D :-D )

> says she who had to leave her class 2 weeks ago cos there was a blue tit flying about -

Hmmm I guess you took your coat off as well.....?

lol thanks guys.

the stables share a carpark/yard with the small animal bit and there are no houses next to it (well the horsy tecs have a house next to the stables but they dont like snakes), we have had bad weather latley snowing on and off, which is why i think it was dumped as if it had been living free why would it go out in the open in the cold instead is staying somewhere warm?, apperantly they had a hachling vanish last year befor they were moved to the new room, but a student the same day left and never came back so they think they stole it (its happened befor, which is why college payed out for a new room by the stables, much to equine's dislike lol)  and the snake apperantly looks about a year old so we think they decided to bring it back. But i guess we will never know it could of been either.

The equine lecture is terrifyed of snakes so i think she was freaking out so i just ingored her.
But today im making sure i where a bigger top (just incase) lol, When i go in toady ill see whats going to happen.

You know I just dont get how anyone can let an animal go that frankly will die. Just take it and get it euthanased. To let any animal free like that is damn cruel. Well done you for rescueing it. Im not a snake lover but i cant kill anything - we are the family that had to take a hamster to be put down as none of us could put it out of its misery!!

Im in danger of becoming a buddist and believing all things are sacred - or is that Hindu re cows!!! dont answer me im rambling!!

>we are the family that had to take a hamster to be put down as none of us could put it out of its misery!!
>Im in danger of becoming a buddist and believing all things are sacred

You can't both be a Buddhist and euthanase an animal ...

yep didnt think of that, it was when the kids were little there 25 & 23 now

Jains believe in not hurting any living creature - I think that is an offshoot of Hinduism - but don't quote me on that.

Sad update, got in to work to find out that it didnt recover form what happened and died this morning. :(

poor poor thing.

That's a shame after all your efforts.  Sorry to hear it.

Ah shame, here's something to cheer you up a little, my hatchling that's been on the run for 2 wks now turned up about a foot away from the snake rack this evening when I was cleaning out - just in time for dinner the little so n so.  Phew £400 back where he belongs, cold but stuffed his face with a lovely warm mouse fuzzie!

im glad he turned up.

im bringing quail eggs home to incubate tonight :)

Ah bumble bee babies yeahh been a while since I did those guys but loved watching them when they'd dried out used to have them hatching weekly all yr round at once time - think I must be mad lol good luck with them.

Phew £400 back where he belongs, cold but stuffed his face with a lovely warm mouse fuzzie!

I hope that was a dead warm fuzzie! & not one that was just taken away from its mother.

I hope that was a dead warm fuzzie! & not one that was just taken away from its mother.

Interesting that you choose to make the above your first and only reply to this thread lol.

> Interesting that you choose to make the above your first and only reply to this thread lol.

Well Schip i dont agree with feeding live food (with a backbone) to reptiles, as im a rodent lover.

>Well Schip i dont agree with feeding live food (with a backbone) to reptiles, as im a rodent lover.

It's illegal to feed live mammals to reptiles, isn't it?

> Well Schip i dont agree with feeding live food (with a backbone) to reptiles, as im a rodent lover.
> It's illegal to feed live mammals to reptiles, isn't it?

Who knows what people do in the privacy of their own home! Look on youtube under snake feeding, personally i find it shocking, and its not natural before someone says that, because at least in the wild they have a chance of getting away, but when a live tame animal is put in a snakes home there's no chance of escape!

If you look at it this way, how would you feel if a live puppy of say between 2 to 10 weeks was put in with a hungry large snake as snake food, the puppy might not know what is going on but wouldn't you find that shocking?

Why do people always jump to the worst conclusion 1 + 1 = 2 not 22?

For the record I DO NOT FEED LIVE to my snakes and it is LEGAL to feed live if the snakes life depends on it. Vets, ministers and Herp societies have agreed it is a natural behaviour and debates have been had re criteria for using this method of feeding with most herp folk being against it, there was grave concern in the hobby that it may have become illegal to feed defrosts under the Animal Welfare Act! 

We reptile keepers feed defrost rodents/chickens/rabbits etc that have been warmed in a tub of hot water, few snakes/reptiles will feed off carion so warming through and wiggling their meal in front of them stimulates a feeding response.  The risk to our snakes from feeding live are deadly and not a practise to be taken on lightly even if the snake will starve to death without it, many have lost their precious pets to a rat/mouse using the snake as dinner not the other way round.  We know this via overseas breeders where live feeding is the norm there are some horrific injuries caused by 'dinner'. 99% of snake owners in the UK will do everything in their power to avoid the practise, we have some very gifted skilled individuals who save the non feeders at deaths door without going to the live feeding risky protocols.

Youtube video footage is overseas, mostly american owners/breeders not UK ones.