Any College Freshman?

I'll be attending Rutgers New Brunswick starting September 1st and I'm incredibly excited. However, I'm uncertain what will come of my snakes. I'm hoping I get to meet my roommate soon to see how he feels about having a rack in the room. Just curious if anyone else is living in a dorm and keeping snakes? I'm going to need to figure something out as far as a freezer for rodents and small things I overlook now.

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Originally Posted by Tainted Glory

I'll be attending Rutgers New Brunswick starting September 1st and I'm incredibly excited. However, I'm uncertain what will come of my snakes. I'm hoping I get to meet my roommate soon to see how he feels about having a rack in the room. Just curious if anyone else is living in a dorm and keeping snakes? I'm going to need to figure something out as far as a freezer for rodents and small things I overlook now.

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You need to find out your school's policies towards snakes in dormrooms first.

If you keep the animals against school policies, be prepared to face the consequences.

Agreed. Most schools strictly prohibit having ANY animals in the dorms (I wasn't even allowed to keep baby red-ear turtles).

You may be able to get away with it by checking with your RA and seeing if they're cool with it... but if the hall director catches you, you'll be toast.

Think about the welfare of the critters...

I'll be a junior in college next semester, and I still live in the dorms. I got my girl last year. We are allowed to have pets if they are able to hold thier breath for 30 mins. :rolleyes: Which basically means you can only have fish or turtles. And we are allowed one 20g tank per person. Well, when Kasi brough her BP up to the dorms (she lives just down the hall) she just didn't tell many ppl about it. The RA foudn out eventually, but she was pretty cool about it. She just didn't want to see her. :P So when I got my girl, I just didn't ever let the RA see her. She never even knew I had her, b/c we don't have room checks or anything. But Kasi and I both have somewhere we could take the animals if we got in enough trouble that we had to move them. As long as we don't get any complaints about them (don't run around freaking ppl out and such) than we are safe. I'm not saying to sneak your bp in or anything, but there are cases where it will work. I would talk to your RA and see where they stand on that kind of thing.

P.S. It's easier to ask forgiveness than permission. :halohorn: As long as you have a backup if you have to move it out, I think it would be ok.

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Originally Posted by tweets_4611

We are allowed to have pets if they are able to hold thier breath for 30 mins.

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Huh? :confused:

Yeah, I'm at NCSU and there ain't nothin' allowed in the dorms to my understanding, I live in an apartment, so no problamo. :)

It's a round about way of saying that you can only have fish, some sorts of turtles and frogs.

Yeah, when I was at OSU, we had the same policy. And I had turtles... definately frowned upon, but no one said too much.


RA's are usually pretty cool about things. But you have to be careful with Hall Directors and such... they catch you, you're hosed (and your RA will play dumb).

If you do keep them in the dorms, make sure you have someplace to take them if you get caught.

We are allowed to have a maximum of a 10g fishtank, but if my roommate is OKAY with the idea of having some snakes in what appears to be a file cabinet, who's to make a fuss?

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Originally Posted by ladywhipple02

Yeah, when I was at OSU...

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Go Bucks!

I apologize if I'm coming off as immature or arrogant or anything like that. I'm just having a tough time taking this rule seriously. But the fact that its "out of my hands" at this point makes me uneasy. If my roommate is deathly afraid of snakes, I have no choice but to leave my babies at home (45min drive, granted).

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Originally Posted by Tainted Glory

I apologize if I'm coming off as immature or arrogant or anything like that. I'm just having a tough time taking this rule seriously. But the fact that its "out of my hands" at this point makes me uneasy. If my roommate is deathly afraid of snakes, I have no choice but to leave my babies at home (45min drive, granted).

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Also, you must have a plan on how to deal with the issues if the situation were to get 'out of hand'....

For example.....if you are technically violating a school policy, be prepared to have a home for both you and your snakes if you get put out of the dorms.

Stuff happens and people are ignorant when snake are concerned. There are several on this site that have been given trouble for living with snakes and either forced to move out of their dorms/homes/apartments or get rid of the animals.

I've been in this situation before, and it's no easy choice. When I decided to move to Orlando to go back to college, I was going to be in a school housing plan, and they were very strict on 'no pets'. I had no choice but to sell my small collection at the time. As things started straightening out, I ended up getting away from school housing and found my own place where I had a little bit of privacy and could keep animals. I got back into the hobby and haven't looked back.

My :2cent:...if you're in a dorm room, or any sort of 'student housing'...don't get a snake or bring a snake until you know your roommates and the situation. If you can get your own apt or rent a house for cheap, do that....

Well I just finished my freshman year. About half way through the year I got my BP. As long as you don't tell anybody you should be ok. You have to be very careful about it. You can never say anything about going to get mice or rats or anything. I am living in the dorms again next year and now I have two snakes. You just have to be very careful to not let anybody here about it and keep them out of sight of the door when it is open. I do have a plan for a home for my snakes or me if I were to get kicked out. Just keep it on the DL and you should be ok.

When I was a freshman at WVU we were only allowed to have aquariums. I'm not exactly sure what you were allowed to have in them because I never needed to check as I didn't have my snake at the time. I'm pretty sure however it was only fish and turtles you were allowed to have. I would talk with your RA/hall coordinator to see what they have to say about it.

Well I meet my roommate next week. I'm going to keep my snakes at home for the first month or two while I get adjusted to the whole college life. My younger brother and dad don't mind taking care of them, so I'm set there. And I'm only 45 minutes away so I'll be home often.

At my university we were allowed to have a ten gal. aquarium. The books didnt say what could go in the aquarium, and I didnt ask. -lol- In the end, my roommate and I got along really well and our RA was awesome. I was able to keep a fishtank, two cockatiels, AND a parrot in there and no one said anything.

Obviously, results not typical...-lol- However, as long as your roommate isnt afraid of snakes I dont see why you couldnt keep them in tubs under the bed. Every college kid has those under their bed for books and stuff. No one would have any idea.

Yeah, your roommate has alot to do with it. I didn't have a roomie (thankfully!) and Kasi's roommate she knew from high school, so she knew she was cool with it. I think this next year I am going to try to build a rack that will fit under my other desk (there's 2 of everything in the room since there are ususally two people in there) And if you build it yourself, you can make it look more like just a storage rack instead of a snake rack hehe ;) but good luck with the roomie and figuring this out! ^_^