What to do? Leaving Town for 2 weeks.

[daniel1983]

I figured I would get ya'll to give me your input on what I should do. I will be leaving my home in Ruston, LA for 2 weeks for my wedding and honeymoon in late August and I have been trying to figure out what to do with my bps. I pretty much have two options.

Option 1: Leave the bps here and let my fiance's friend's boyfriend(he is a good guy and I trust him to come in my apt. unattended) check in on them about 2-3 times a week while I am gone. He has no experience with reptiles so I would show him how to give them water and such. If he had reptiles of his own, this would be a great choice....but he does not.

Option 2: Take the bps on the 5 hour drive to my house in south louisiana where my brother can take care of them. He knows what he is doing so I will not have to worry about them being cared for. This would be my first choice if it would not require the bps being in the car for 10+ hours within a two week time frame.

Neither of these options are ideal. So, I have to go with the one that will put the least amount of stress on the animals. Maybe some of you guys that have some experence with leaving animals behind can help me out here Other suggestions are welcome.

[Razaiel]

Hi

How about your local reptile centre if you have one? Or maybe one of their (trustworthy) employees might pop in a couple times a week to check all is OK (you could pay him). We did this last year and it worked out OK - especially as he knew what a sick reptile looks like and can check temps etc are correct.

This year he can't do it so we're taking our two (BP & Bearded Dragon) in to the store we got BP from and they board there - it's a bit expensive but they are there all day every day to make sure everything's alright.

If you're like me you do anything for peace of mind knowing they're in safe hands - and will STILL ring up a couple times a week to make sure

I'll be travelling 2 hours to get to our parrot minder too, this year, figure I'll need a holiday after all the travelling.

Sue

[Nate]

u could send them to me in Pine Bluff, Ar....be glad to watch them for a few weeks. I'm only a few hours away.

[Ken]

I went to Africa for 10 days this spring and just laid in lots of water and fed them right before I left. Came home to healthy, happy-to-be-left-alone, herps.

[daniel1983]

Those are pretty much my only two options. I just moved my rack setup and snakes to my new apartment today....not fun. I might just go with option 1 to keep from moving everything again(and I figure moving can be the most stressful thing for a bp also). I will most likely feed right before I leave and skip feeding during those two weeks so the guy that will be dropping will not have to worry about anything but water and cleaning up possible poop. My temps and stuff are right on so no fear there. Still let me know if you have any suggestions. Thanks

[frankykeno]

Hey Daniel congrats on the upcoming marriage! Just a thought but how about making sure the snake sitter has an i.d. here so if anything comes up and he can't get hold of you right away, he could post questions here. Also, if this person doesn't know snakes well, do you have anyone local he could phone rather than bug you on your honeymoon if he had a question about anything.


~~Joanna~~

[daniel1983]

Thats an awesome idea Joanna....I would have never thought of that. No one local that I can get in touch with...that is what has created this problem. I really doubt that something could go wrong, but you never know. I am getting married between quarters (we dont do semesters here) of school so all my friends will be home during that time. I have not had any luck with vets and pet stores in the area either.

[jotay]

Congrats on the upcoming wedding!

I had the same problem last year when I went on Vacation for 8 days.
I had my friend who would come in and feed the cat and spend a little time with her but he really knew nothing about snakes.
I feed a few days before I left as my bp will usually UR a few days after eating and BM also if he is due. A bp not eating for 2-3 weeks isn't going to hurt them so don't worry about the feeding issue.
I left mine with a big bowl of water filled to the brim and instructions on what the temp read outs should be and how to know if the Helix was working ok.
I use lights w/ red bulbs also to keep temps up so I left two extra new bulbs just in case. I wrote all these things down w/ little drawings of how t-stats, helix etc looks when working correct along w/ temp/humidity ranges.
I didn't want him to open the cage for fear he may not close well etc and Ozzy would escape. I figured if the water dried up a day or two before I got home again he would be ok.
The big thing for me was to make sure heat sources where working. I also set the a/c so the house wouldn't get below 80 just in case of a summer storm and power failure.
He had my cell phone number just in case and the Vets phone number.
Everything worked out fine and Ozzy looked like he never missed a beat while I was gone.
I will be doing this again come July16-23 for my vacation this year.
He also took care of Ozzy during Christmas which had me a little more worried due to a power failure would mean no heat in Dec in DC
And actually he watched Ozzy and Osiris both times. This year just one as Adam adopted my Osiris when I had to give him up.
Just have him over run thru things and leave notes and go over those along w/ a vets number and things should be fine.

[smellati]

What's wrong with just leaving them? As long as water is plentiful and that they have pooped recently, I see nothing wrong with just leaving them by themselves. No bp is going to starve if fed within a couple of months, but hopefully, you will be able to feed him before you leave.

[daniel1983]

Not checking in on the ANY animal for 14 days is not good. What if one of my heat lamp lights goes out? What happens if one tips a water bowl over?....I just don't think leaving them all alone for 2 weeks is not a good idea. Starving is definately not a problem, but I would still like someone to check in to see how things are.