my christmas snake (fell on me)

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Hey guys,

Ok i know that i have that thread out about me wanting a large snake for christmas but now im almost sure I cant afford one. Last night I came upon a man from around my area who had a 5 foot regular burm, now this is the bad part, He told me it was 4 years old!!!! I said 5 feet??? no way you have got to be wayyy mistaken on the age for him to be 5 feet. And he said no its the only snake we have ever owned and we bought it for our sons 16th birthday (they had pictures) and our son is 20 now. He said his son moved out 3 years ago and they have been in charge of it since, so basically it was left upstairs to rot and die. he is hissing and striking now because other then me last night he has not been even touched in about 2 years or the sad part... gotten out of the 20 gallon glass tank! He had no humidity device and get this A HEAT STONE, Those damm things should have been recalled YEARS ago. This poor snake really got to me, When i went upstairs to see him he hid in the corner and staired at me like he has never seen a human. He is soooo thin its heart breaking and extremely week. Now if all this wasent enough the husband only fed him wild mice and rats!!!! They had mouse traps in there house and if/when they caught something they would take the dead mouse off the trap and throw it in threw the hole in the lid. I told the man immediatly that i wanted that snake!!! He said ok he would sell it to me for what its worth.. ( i was thinking well in that case u pay me 400 and we will be even) the price of that snake was 400.00!!! that is completely crazy but i could not get him to come down. I wasent about to leave the poor thing there so i bought it for that price. I know u all probably think im very dumb and i probably am but it was something i just had to do ya know. I know that this snake is most likly past the point of return and wont live very long considering the state he is in...but i want to make the last few weeks or months but hopefully years of this guys life worth living. He is going to have the best of everything (even though he bit me this morning, but when he did he was to weak to throw coils on me, he got one over my arm and couldnt even squeeze very hard, after a couple seconds his coil just fell off) I know this was a long thread but im so upset about all this i had to get itoff my chest! So to make a long story less long Im sorry and thanx for everyones great value offers but i am not going to be able to afford a big snake this year! Sorry about waisting ya'lls time sendin me pics and info last week.. thanx again for everything... why does it say im 21??? im 18.. hmmm o well..

kyle

Doing a good deed is never dumb, and this Burm may just surprise you. They're pretty hardy snakes. If he's made it this far under lousy conditions, he's likely to thrive under good care.

I'd start out by feeding him small prey items every few days -- from what you've described, nothing larger than a weanling rat and maybe even rat pinks or large mice. Once you've got a little bit of weight on him you can increase the size of his prey items but for now you don't want to shock the little fellow's system.

Originally Posted by clarinet45

You should get your money back to spend on vet bills and bring the police over there. That is blantent animal neglict and/or cruelty. NEVER pay for rescue animals, or else what has that couple learned?

It's difficult-to-impossible to get animal welfare or police interested in snake cruelty cases. The original owners don't need to let police see the setup without a warrant -- and good luck getting a judge to sign a search warrant based on "I heard they were keeping a skinny snake and feeding it wild rats."

If they were running a huge breeder operation or dealing with an endangered species that would be something else, but by and large the police don't really care about reptiles. If they enforced reptile neglect laws, how many iguana owners would be behind bars right now?

I would generally advise against buying rescue animals, but in this case it was Christmas and Kyle may just have saved this little guy's life. So let's grant a one-time-only "Santa Claus exemption" on this one and hope he can turn things around for him.

im sorry, i mean i thought about the fact that it was rewarding them for there carelessness and cruelness but when it went threw my mind in the 10 seconds i had to decide i thought they are an older couple and they dont do this for a living its the first and last animal they will ever own.. they didnt want anything to do with it. if it was a gross breeder then i wouldnt have done it but with them i figured they diudnt learn from it in fact they made out well but o well who cares.. i rescued there first and last victum

Whatever the circumstances, you have him at home now. The important thing is getting him back to good health. How are you currently keeping him? What size is his cage, what are his current high and low temperatures, and what substrate are you using?

You may want to consider giving him a warm bath to get him hydrated: a good soak in lukewarm water will probably do him good. After that you may want to feed him a mouse (at least you know he's taking prekilled). Then leave him alone for a couple days before giving him another mouse. I'd say try feeding him every three or four days and don't be surprised if he passes up food for a while.

You probably should get him to a vet as soon as possible, but if you spent all the money you had on him this may help keep him alive and put some weight on him until you can afford a vet visit.

Generally I would agree to not pay for rescues, but being it was a pet (and they didn't have more), they weren't going to get it any help and you were willing to pay what they wanted you are fine. It doesn't sound like they are going to use the money to buy more pets to neglect like pet stores would. I don't think your purchase is encouraging the owners to go buy more animals. Hope it does well for you.

This thread should be in the python's forum or the sound off forum.

Is thread moving a function that still happens around here ?

he got a hot bath this morning for about 30 minutes... thats how i got bit haha,, i was trying to pick him up to put him in the tub but owell he needs to let out some frustration.. rafter the bath i drove him to our lake house and put him in the care of my brother, its a 7foot by 7 foot homemade cage that he is in. his temp is between 93 and 98 degrees i think he said right now. He said something about really cranking the humidity to help with the resperatory system but he was going to call his vet and clarify first. And yes i am taking him to the vet. I am saving to do that now. I was going to Branson again with my cousin for a weekend getaway in 2 weekends but i took all my money i was saving for that to cover vet bills haha.. i think i about got enough already

whats moving a thread?? is that something i should do? did i mess this up or put it in the wrong spot or something haha??? im sorry