frustrating snake owners

[gmcclurelssu]

Just wanted to vent some frustration about one of my friends from back home. Last time I came home for a visit, went to one of my best friends houses to hang out for the weekend. One of the roommates, whom i am decent friends with, showed me his snake. Now, the guy doesn't know a whole lot and was just going off of a general care sheet. First off, the room is really cold and he didn't have nearly enough power in that tank to heat it properly. Second he had a crappy dial thermometer. Third, the heating elements he did have were completely uncontrolled.
So, in an effort to help, gave him some advice- insulate the tank, digital thermometer, control device of some sort, ect...
Fast forward to yesterday, he gives me a call to tell me that his little guy died. turns out, he did nothing to improve the tank. not one thing out of all the advice i gave him.

my guess, prolonged crappy temps, poor security and probably a whole range of things added up and a dead snake is the result. His justification for not trying to make improvements? not enough money. apparently, $10 for a thermometer is just too much, and that extra few bucks for a dimmer switch and UTH- oh man, big bucks there.

alright, rant complete.

[revxus]

I feel 'ya, brother.

People will never learn.

[joshn6805]

I guess some people choose to be uneducated, If I get into a hobby I try to learn as much as possible about that hobby, maybe thats just me though?

[gmcclurelssu]

Yeah, i always thought that was the smart thing to do.

I guess part of what bugs me is this isn't the first snake he's killed. I never saw the first one (back before I got addicted), but i have been told the tank was resting on top of a subwoofer in his room...... an active sub at that.

[GoingPostal]

Ugh., that would piss me off. I'll never grasp why people get pets they don't bother to learn anything about. I get asked for reptile advice a lot at my local pet store because I have herps and one time this lady was there looking for heat lamps for her snake and wanting to know which was best. She didn't know what kind of snake they had, what the current temps were (no thermometer), but she thought it seemed cold and was just going to make it hotter. Wow.

[Denial]

When I first started in reptiles I was a horrible keeper. I thought as long as the snake was warm it was fine. Well I put them almost to the roasting point. I would use those huge floodlights with nothing being controlled. But some people relize there not doing it right and change and some people just dont care. Im going to say your friend just didnt care especially after you told him what needed to be changed. I have old pics of when I first got into snakes and had aquariums EVERYWHERE.! And it makes me sick to even look at them. But I keep them around to remind me my animals come first if there not healthy and kicking I need to find a new hobby. Good work trying to help the snake but some people just dont care

[revxus]

Unfortunately, some people just wanna have a "cool pet" to talk about when their friends or gf come over. It's a shame.

[SGExotics]

Ya, these days, kids my age think that reptile pets only live a few months... Because every one they've had has only lived that long...

[STEW]

What kind of snake was it?

[gmcclurelssu]

i believe it was a corn snake