Poor Cornsnake (Sorry Long)

[Lady Python]

Just got a gorgeous Cornsnake. I work in direct selling. My upline told me one of her customers was looking for a new home for her Cornsnake. Phoned her up and she only wanted £10 (about $18) including the set up. Now, me being of a suspicious mind when someone sells an animal so cheap, duly went over and saw this gorgeous boy - in the most horrendous set up. A badly converted fish tank with a bare electric light bulb in one end, only separated from the snake by some pieces of perspex, no proper temperature control, just a household electric on/off switch. He had no hides, no greenery, just some aspen substrate which wasn't very clean. Even worse, his water bowl was dirty and bone dry

£10 exchanged hands very quickly and we left with the snake and tank. He was so cold, where he was sitting on my lap (in a pillowcase), left my legs cold. Because things happened in a hurry and it was Sunday, we put him in a temporary set up. The first thing he did was have a drink of fresh water. He was also in shed. I noticed he has a lot of scarring which looks to me like he'd managed to wrap himself round the naked light bulb at some time. The scars are well healed and look old, but he's lost a lot of flesh especially near his neck. He seems to be well fed. I was told he bites, but so far he hasn't even tried. He shed tonight and it was a perfect shed - all off in one piece. He has been sitting watching us from his hides. He seems to be quite content so far.

The people who had him were quite open that they'd sold him for beer money, so you can tell the type of environment he was living in He's now got a decent new home with hides, greenery, bark, a small log - and a clean water bowl with fresh water I have a friend who's a professional breeder and his speciality are Kingsnakes and Cornsnakes. I'm going to ring him and see if he can come over and have a look, especially at the scars on the Cornsnake (who we've named very originally, Jake).

Here's some pics of him I took tonight. He's really very pretty apart from the scars. We'll get him sexed as well and if he is a he, my female Anery Corn, Kai will have herself a very handsome boyfriend





This shows the scar on his neck


Which goes down his side intermittantly


One thing's for sure, nothing like that will ever happen to him again. It makes me mad when people mistreat their animals either through neglect or ignorance. There are plenty of books on the subject of keeping snakes and nearly everyone has access to the Internet now. Even if you don't have Internet access you can use the computers at the local library for free!!!

Mind you, in this case Jake's got a good home now and his previous owners will be quite happy as they've got some beer money which will now, of course, be spent

Oh, I forgot to add - the tank went out for the trash.

[Blu Mongoose]

Jake is very nice. From the scarring it looks like he suffered horribly. Glad he's safe now. Keep us posted. Hats off to you for caring.

[Vomitore]

Poor guy

[recycling goddess]

lucky guy if you ask me... if i was a snake i would love to live with lp

[Karma]

good find. I'm glad he has a better home now... He's VERY pretty

[frankykeno]

Oh Fiona I'm sorry I missed this thread! He (or she) is a lovely corn, scars or not. Our Orlah carries scars from explosure to an unprotected heat source too but she's just fine and I'm sure Jake will be too in time. A few scars is nothing really. He's in a wonderful home now and I know he'll be loved and cared for with you and your hubby.

I hope that beer gaves those idiots indigestion and a vicious hangover! Course if they didn't want their beer so bad they might not have sold off the snake so for Jake's sake, it's good his owners were booze hounds.

[lisa77]

What a sad story, but at least you have him now & he will be very well looked after. He is absolutley stunning...


Some people dont take owning pets very seriously do they..it breaks my heart..thank god for people like you..