The Dangers of Irresponsible Roommates

So it's just recently come to my attention that my roommate somehow managed to "lose" my 3 ft long corn snake. I know it may have seemed a bad idea to leave my animals with her while I was gone for Christmas Break, but rest assured, I am not nearly that bad of a pet owner. I had planned to pack up my reptiles and bring them home with me for the month I was off, which I know causes animals some stress, but I had thought it would be better than leaving them. However, I was assured time and again by my roomie that she could handle their feeding and upkeep, and that I shouldn't worry, so me being the nice person that I am took her word, got the necessary food and supplies for them, and left them in her care. Not two weeks after I had left did I get the phone call...with her first words "now don't freak out but..." failing to reassure me that she had done the job she'd promised she could do. My 3 ft long corn snake "Shae" had dissappeared. The roommate didn't waste any time in telling me that she had accidentally let it out while feeding it, and it had gotten away to the far reaches of my bedroom. Now, you would think one could find such an animal in a relatively minimalistic bedroom as I maintain, although the poor-quality apartment I live in does have several decently-sized holes and cracks in various corners of every room, which I reckon a snake of that size could slip through. Now my roommate is tasked with checking daily at dusk and dawn (Corn Snakes are crepescular, meaning that these are the times they are most active), and has yet to find it.

Morale of the story? Take personal care and responsibility for your animals, don't let inexperienced family members, roommates, or friends take care of your pets no matter what assurances they give you. I wish I could say otherwise, but my christmas season has been slightly marred by this ill-fortune.

Holiday Hiatus

Forgive the lack of posting, I'm on a slight holiday hiatus since I'm working and dealing with various things at the current time, since college is off. 

Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas everybody. 

About the Author

Samuel W. Nolton, a.k.a. "Lucidum," is a beginning reptile breeder, owner of the soon-to-be company Lucidum Exotics and long time herpetocultural enthusiast. I, being him, currently own a total of five reptiles, and have had years of experience dealing with reptiles both in the wild and as pets. My first "pet" reptile was a garter snake that I caught when I was a child and kept for a few days. I've loved pretty much all animals with scales since I was very young, and still love them today. 

My current cavalcade of herps includes three desert reptiles- A Mali Uromastyx (Uromastyx Maliensis) named "Scute;" a Schneider's Skink (Eumeces Schneideri) named "Nuzzle;" and a Bearded Dragon (Pogona Vitticeps) named "Sola." The skink is about 2 years old, the uro is 15 months, and the beardie is 8 months old.

In addition to the lizards, I've recently acquired two Corn Snakes (Elaphe Guttata). The first, "Oro," is an Anerythristic morph and is less than 3 months old. The newest, "Shae," is just about a year old (born 11/08) and is a Flourescent Orange morph I believe. 

I care greatly about all of my animals, providing them ample space and large enclosures (not too large for the hatchling corn, as too large a cage stresses them out). All of them I feed regularly, the beardie and uro eat crickets every other day and vegetables (a mix of red and green lettuce, carrots, etc.) the days they don't eat insects. The skink eats pinkie mice (baby, newborn mice that are still pink and furless) every week or two, depending on her shedding cycle (often animals refuse to eat when shedding). Both of the Corn Snakes eat mice (pinkies for the baby, hoppers and fuzzies for the yearling), and eat regularly and well. I'll be providing care and husbandry articles for each animal presented here, and many others as well. 

In the future, once my business has taken off, I intend to breed the corn snakes, as well as the beardie and uro. Someday soon i'm going to add several other animals to my collection- most importantly an American Alligator and a monitor lizard of some kind, preferably a Nile or Water. I also wild-catch some animals from time to time on my herping (outdoor collecting) outings, come this summer I'll focus on captive-breeding Western Fence Lizards (Sceloporus Occidentalis), as well as, if I can locate any, Western Rattlesnakes (Crotalus Oreganus) and Common and Western Terrestrial Garter Snakes (Thamnophis Elegans and T. Sirtalis). While I don't normally recommend wild catching animals for conservation reasons (or, in the case of the rattlesnake, venom and aggressiveness reasons), I wild catch the animals only if they aren't vulnerable, endangered, or protected, and I always release my animals once they have laid eggs and the eggs have hatched. 

Keep a look out for new posts soon, we'll begin with our reptile care articles late this week or early next!