How long do you feel comfortable leaving your snake(s) unattended?

What is the longest span of time you would be willing to leave your snakes at home alone, assuming they have all eaten and have fresh water and clean substrate?

For me it's two weeks. If I'm gone for any longer than that I start calling friends to stop by my house to check on everybody and refill waters.

For me it's a week. unfortunately for my beardies its a day, two tops, so I have trained the neighborhood kids ;)

On several occasions I've left mine alone for a week with zero problems.

I have enough money invested in my snakes that I feel comfortable leaving for the day without anyone checking on them. I was gone all day today 4x4ing and shooting and I made sure to check them before I left and as soon as I got home. If I was going to be gone all night I would have my roommate check them or someone else close to me that I trusted.

Regards,

B

a week. more than that and I'll hire someone

My rule is this:

1-2 days- make sure they have fresh water before I go.
3-7 days- I add an extra water bowl to each enclosure.
8+ days- I have a friend stop by and change water, and scoop any poop or urates out, if needed.

good point - I do the two-water-bowl thing too if I am away for more than a day

I recently left my bp henry for 5 days, but i was getting very twitchy by the end of my holiday and even my girlfreind (now a bp convert :D) could not wait to get home to check on him.

I also do the two water bowl idea, if away for more than 3 days and use ones that are hard to knock over.
Living in Denmark we have some severe dry air, so i always put a humid hide in his tub so i dont have to worry about humidity drops.
I also give a good meal before i go so i know that he will be in his hot side for most of the time digesting.
I usually give a clean out with fresh apsen as well.

I do not worry about the temps as i have 2 heat pads working on thermostats, 1 cool 1 warm.
If you have the money and go away regulary i would reconmend having this set up as you dont have to worry about temp drops (extreme cold countries only).:banana:

If i was away longer i would get snake freinds to check, feed and water.

I have way too much time, money, and love invested in my BPs to leave them unattended for more than a day. And by a day, I mean morning through night, not 24 hours. It's not about the water... it's about the possibility of tstats, heat tape, or space heaters malfunctioning and destroying my collection and/or house. Besides, I use paper substrate. Can you imagine how miserable you'd be sitting in a puddle of your own urine and feces for a few days?

I'm somewhat of a homebody and have never taken a vacation, so this isn't really a problem for me. My wife can just go on a vacation by herself if she wants one :P

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Originally Posted by spitzu

Besides, I use paper substrate. Can you imagine how miserable you'd be sitting in a puddle of your own urine and feces for a few days?

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I agree, When i used aspen substrate, i was a little more comfortable with leaving for up to a week with an extra water bowl, but now that i've switched to paper I'll probably have to start finding someone to check on them if I'm gone for more than a couple days. I don't really feel like sitting in a tub full of excrement and wet would exactly be a preventative for scale rot.

I have left my collection for 2 weeks. I stopped feeding about 3 weeks prior to my departure, to minimize the amount of waste that the snakes excreted. I topped off the water bowls for the snakes with the large bowls. For any of the snakes with smaller bowls I added an additional bowl that was about 60% covered with a piece of plexiglass, to slow evaporation. Surprisingly, not all of the snakes knocked the plexiglass off of their bowls. When I arrived home, all of the snakes were fine and all had water available to them. Only a couple of cages needed to be cleaned.

John

I usually am comfortable with leaving them for a week, week and half, 2 weeks tops. But If I'm gone more than that than I call the house and have someone check their water, see how their doing, the usual.

If im going away for more than 3 days I don't feed for 5-7 days proior, everyone gets a full water dish. Most of my animals are geckos now though.

For my other snakes, the SITBs, if I didn't feel them for two months they'd be fine, but they love to soak and drink so I'd toss them an extra water bowl if I was going to be gone for more than a few days because the LOVE to poop in it..gross.

I'm comfortable for leaving for a couple days without checking on them. Any more than two days my mom comes by to check on the snakes and cats, she takes my dogs home with her. What would I do without my mommy? :P It's nice to have her because I can trust her not to play around with the snakes and leave tubs open. I mostly just have her check on temps and water and have her leave everything else. Most of my water dishes are visible from outside of the tub so that's nice. I'm nervous about having anyone else come check on them. I don't know who I would trust to do that...

Because I'm new at this, and still learning I'd say a few days (like three) tops before I'd have to send someone to check on them. Unfortunately everyone in my family and friends except for my husband is terrified of them, so I would have to hire a snake-sitter if I was going to be gone for longer.

I am going away in June and Im terrified!! Im going four days Im more worried about extreme temperature changes It can be hot and humid one day and cold the next The only person who I can have check on my BP is my mom and she is pretty scared of him! Ive started training her now how to check temps and adjust the dimmer accordingly She refuses to open the tank she is afraid fluffy will climb up her arm :O Im sure things will be fine extra water can be poured in through the screen top Im just concerned about Temps :(

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Originally Posted by fluffy3

I am going away in June and Im terrified!! Im going four days Im more worried about extreme temperature changes It can be hot and humid one day and cold the next The only person who I can have check on my BP is my mom and she is pretty scared of him! Ive started training her now how to check temps and adjust the dimmer accordingly She refuses to open the tank she is afraid fluffy will climb up her arm :O Im sure things will be fine extra water can be poured in through the screen top Im just concerned about Temps :(

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When I leave I usually don't feed my snakes for a while before I leave, then turn down all the t'stats and r'stats to 83* or so throughout the cage (which is fine as long as they aren't digesting food), so that if there is some electrical problem or the house temps get changed, temps can go up or down 10* or so without any terrible repercussions.

I hate leaving mine alone for more than a couple days. I'm sure they'd be perfectly fine, but I'm slightly obsessive about their cleanliness, so I like to change their water every other day to every two days and change their substrate each time they soil it. Plus, I'm constantly glancing at their temps/humidity levels (even though they're always stable). Maybe I'm just paranoid :P We'll call it concerned mother. :rolleyes:

I think the most I've left mine is a week. If it gets longer than that I have friends that would check on them for me.

I leave for as long as I want to. I have a cousin that comes by in the am and pm and checks on everyone. Mine really like to dump their water dishes, so they HAVE to be checked on twice a day, otherwise there could be horrible consequences. If I didn't have anyone to check on them, I would only leave for day/night

I would do a week but I am lucky my neighbor is a fellow herpster so she comes by and checks on them daily...

i'd never be comfortable leaving my snake unattended. if i know i'm gonna be out for more then a few hours doing errands i try to check & record temps & humidity first. i write everything down in a notebook. sounds neurotic i know but i can rest easy knowing i'm keeping everything logged for future reference if needed.
i couldn't live with myself if something happened to my snake during my absence where things were not being closely monitored and something happened like a short in the thermostat that resulted in the heat pad overheating and burning my snake or worse shutting down altogether and resulting in my snake dying from lack of heat.
in the case of an extended absence i'd leave my snake with someone with lots of snake-keeping experience (which where i live i'm almost sure to find no one willing or knowledgeable enough to care for my snake).

I only leave mine for about 4 days other ways I get my gf to look over them when I'm gone. . . There her kids too you know lol

Here in the Philippines where the weather is just perfecr for BPs, we worry less if we have to leave the snake. No heating is required that's why. Just water, clean substrate and your good to go :)


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I feel comfortable leaving my BP alone for about a day. She seems to drink, splash, or absorb copious amounts of water, and I have to replace it daily. If I am going on vacation, I take my snakes with me :)

The longest i have ever left my snake alone was for 5 months, when i went to california for boarding school... It broke my heart.:(

I won't leave for more than a day without having my roommates check up on her. Speaking of, I'm leaving tomorrow (Thursday) early, and won't be back till late Sunday night. That's too much for me... I'll be making sure the roommates check up on my girl while I'm gone, thats for sure.

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Originally Posted by mommanessy247

i'd never be comfortable leaving my snake unattended. if i know i'm gonna be out for more then a few hours doing errands i try to check & record temps & humidity first. i write everything down in a notebook. sounds neurotic i know but i can rest easy knowing i'm keeping everything logged for future reference if needed.

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Yeah, that's just a wee bit obsessive... LOL. :P I do keep iHerp records on everyone, but only when they poop, eat & shed. And since I work 8-10 hours/day, they're often alone for more than a few hours! So are my cats & dog, and everyone's just fine until I get home.

As for really leaving the snakes alone, I'm comfortable with that for 2-3 days maximum. The weather here is very mild, so it never gets hot or cold enough to kill them (in a few days)... the only thing that could go wrong is an overheating/thermostat malfunction, and that's rather unlikely. The times I've gone away for longer than 3 days, I had a friend or pet-sitter check on them. I used to work as a pet-sitter myself, so I'm probably less obsessive than most owners - since I've seen animals while their "parents" are away, and they generally care less than we do. ;)

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Originally Posted by wickedXjuggalo

The longest i have ever left my snake alone was for 5 months, when i went to california for boarding school... It broke my heart.:(

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Hopefully you didn't leave him ALONE for 5 months... hehe.

P.S. If my cats weren't always home WITH the snakes (on a 2-3 day trip), I would be comfortable leaving them alone for up to a week. But particularly with my youngest cat, I worry too much about her causing a disaster... like knocking over a rack, accidentally pulling out wires, etc. She's like a tornado sometimes! :cool: