Dumbass the snake

[giza]

So, I've been snake sitting for omnibahumut because his school didn't like him having a boa constrictor in the dorm. I've been trying to handle the snake on a regular basis so that it gets comfortable with human contact.

The snake has no name, but I've taking to calling him "dumbass", because he has a tendency to curl around anything within reach. Like the paper tray on the top of my file cabinet:



There were originally 3 more trays interlocked on top of that one, but I had to pull those off so I could try and coax him out of the bottommost tray.

What a dumbass.

Comments

[sirfox.livejournal.com]

Snakes make neat pets, (I have one of this same species, a red tailed boa, myself) but i'd encourage anybody looking at caring for them, long or short term, to do some good research first. There are plenty of good resources out there. Caring for snakes is 95% about caring for their environment. Depending on the breed, there can be very specific requirements for humidity, temperature, diet, objects in their environment to hide in, climb on, explore, etc.

For instance, ball pythons are often very curious, and love to explore... but they're really shitty climbers. if they get a big climbing tree, they'll try and climb it... but they're more likely to fall off and hurt themselves. Other breeds seldom hang out anywhere else but a treebranch, and if you gave them a little cave to occupy, they would stress out and get sick.

Since many breeds can live for a few dozen years, it's always a good idea to know what you're jumping into beforehand.

[sirfox.livejournal.com]

Oh, yeah, i forgot, one last bit of advice for anybody looking at caring for a snake, even for a day.

I try not to generalize... but snakes... Every one of the little bastards is an escape artist. They want nothing more than to get out and hide where they can do the most damage, or get the most hurt. Inside appliances, inside furniture mechanisms, into electrical connections... So having a secure enclosure for them is *essential*

Improper housing, escaped snakes, bad publicity when somebody's cat gets eaten... Irresponsible stuff like that gets legislation passed to ban keeping them as pets.

This ends tonight's homily