Any corrections?

Well my science teacher got a new pet today from a friend in my section.

It's a little corn snake, but I feel bad for the little fella because he's in a kritter keeper, with NO hides, and a heat rock :(


SO! I am going to send her an email that looks like this. (Correct anything that needs correction.)

" Dear Mrs. (Her Name, I'm not going to make it public.),
I am a student in your class that is concerned for the well being of the corn snake and I have a few suggestions on keeping it, because I keep a corn snake, too.

First of all, the heat rock is not good for a corn snake or any snake for that matter. Those are very dangerous to have with any animal because they are notorious for burning reptiles. I would suggest to buy a heat pad (Pet Store) and a lamp dimmer (Lowes). With the dimmer, you can at least keep the temperature at the levels they should be. Around 86 degrees on one side, and 75 on the other. You need two different temperatures so the snake can choose if it wants to go to the warm side, or cool side.

I would also buy a thermometer with the dimmer and heat pad. You can get those Accu-Rite thermometers from Walmart/Lowes/Home Depot. You would need just an indoor/outdoor thermometer. The ones from Petco are junk.

I would dump that Kritter Keeper cage he is in, and get a ten gallon tank, don't forget the lid!! :) You wouldn't want him to escape!
The kritter keeper is WAY to small for him.
I would also buy 2 hiding caves for him, because all snakes need to hide to not be stressed.

Tubs are good too! Like the rubbermaid and sterlite shoeboxes. Same setup, but much more better for the snake because it keeps temperature in and can be easy to clean. I would recommend a 15qt shoebox.


I PROMISE you that if you do all these things, the snake will live a happy life in your class. Please do not disregard this, it is very important. Here is a care sheet to reference to whenever you want. http://www.anapsid.org/corn.html

Shaun"

i would include why the snake needs two hides, why it needs a temperature gradient and also tell her about tub set-up's. i dont know if she will want to keep it in a tub since it is a class pet but give her the option and explain that tubs are much easier to maintain heat and humidity.

other then that, it sounds great.

Edited it :)

Corn snakes really do great in glass. They have lower heat needs than bp's (as already noted) and humidity really isn't an issue for them, so far as I know.



bpkid....what I would change about your letter is the anonymous signature. You should be ready to stand up for what you believe to be true and for the facts you set forth. Your words will carry a LOT more weight if she can put a face to them and know the conversation can be continued. If I were given a note like that and saw the "anonymous" sig at the bottom...it would end up in the trash pail without much thought at all.

Signing it also gives you the chance to follow up on it. If she doesn't seem to be taking any of your advice, then you can't keep hitting her with anonymous notes. It would only anger her. But if you sign it...then you can follow up later with "Did you think about buying that glass tank? I'd be willing to buy it for the class for you, if you'd like." ....or something along those lines.

Ok, I think you are right. She's really nice though, and I think she would listen.

I put my name in there.

You may want to also consider just approaching her and talking to her about it and offering your help in setting it up correctly instead of writing a letter. It just seems more personal than writing a letter.

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Originally Posted by brainman1000

You may want to also consider just approaching her and talking to her about it and offering your help in setting it up correctly instead of writing a letter. It just seems more personal than writing a letter.

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I think this is a good approach as well. You could even hint at offering to pay for setting it up properly...which would shame any good teacher into providing whatever is needed before letting one of her students pay! ;)

Idiotic teacher said that she didn't know the heat rock could do anything, but LEFT IT IN THERE!!!

She did give him hides and a bigger tank though :)

I liked my 7th grade science teacher, thank God I have a chance to stop by her class everyday! She has a bearded dragon that she lets me help out with, and 3 Ball Pythons! (Housed seperately!!!! )

i wish my school had class pets. the only herp that i know of on my campus is a red-eared slider in the preschool building.

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Originally Posted by mr~python

i wish my school had class pets. the only herp that i know of on my campus is a red-eared slider in the preschool building.

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How old are you? I thought you were pretty young, usually you don't see a lot of class pets until High School. When I was in high school one of our biology teachers had a HUGE Iguana, a couple corns, a couple kings, and a Western Diamondback. I don't know how they got away with the rattler, but it was fun to look at!

EDIT: My bad, I guess you are in High School, freshman where I went to school were in the Junior High.

Wow this thread got me thinking back to my biology days. I remember when we got into the punnet squares, how much i hated them...i was the first to think "when am i going to use this crap?"

If i had a teacher that said, "if you put these snakes together, morph A, and morph B, you will get this morph"...i would have been more into that.

Are any teachers breeding snakes at school? That would be an impressive project for students to see.

sorry to hi-jack your thread...what is the latest on this letter you wrote her?

I would also mention as well as give the address for this wonderful forum as well....

When i was in highschool, my science teach was asking me for help for as she put them "American chemelions" i was like ummmmm noooo they are Green anoles. Then she would refuse to take advice when i said the right way to set it up. Then the year after i graduated she became a coordinator for this like classroom critters thing where they had a bunch of boas corns and bps. SHe didn't know any more and i went back to visit her told her she had a major mite situation and needed to change their husbadry techniques. She didn't so i descided to not pop in and say hello any more. Then this summer my neighbor who is still in high school took 2 small (2.5ft) rtb home for the summer and she wanted to show me. I went over and it was in a tub with a screen top (no locking mechanism), the teacher told her they didn't need a water bowl or even a substrate, the girl at least threw a pillow case in that they would hide under, no heat light or anything in an air conditioned house. I walked in and was like uhhhhhhhh. SO i gave her some extra substrate, and told her to throw a water bowl of some type in there. She atleast put them in a un-air conditioned room that is roughly the right temp. So i dunno i feel bad when a person wants to do good but isn't willing to put in the effort into learning and really teaching whats right and wrong.


I don't mean to knock all science teacher for you younger guys, but don't be afraid to tell them what is wrong, alot know alot about herps but some don't know all that much. So just try to be as nice about it as possible and i agree offer to help set up or even take it worse case scinerio.

wildilfewarrior

It escaped :(

I hope I can find it and give it a better home.

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Originally Posted by bpkid

It escaped :(

I hope I can find it and give it a better home.

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eww.. hate that!!!:snake: Maybe it's a form of fate.....:cool:

Hope you find the little guy. :rockon:

So do I! Everyone in the school is freaking out over it and I'm trying to dispell all the myths about snakes so they don't get scared.