It astonishes me how persistent the "grow to the size of the enclosure" idea really is -- despite the fact that it was clearly a myth made up long ago by shady pet store employees trying to sell snakes to unwitting buyers ...Originally Posted by sarahlovesmiike
Oh and she was saying by keeping it in a large tank that it would grow faster... All I could think about was that thread about the bonsai kitten
Two years ago I was riding with a veterinarian who asked my if it was true. Now, in his defense, he is a large animal veterinarian who knows NOTHING about exotics ... But still.
Then last year at a party one of my classmates (veterinary student) asked me the same thing. To her, I demanded how on earth she thought that would work (we've just done two years of physiology, for goodness' sake) and she said she didn't know ... It was just something she'd always heard.
Amazingly, I do exotic animal presentations for the "veterinary summer camp" type of thing at my school, and I haven't yet had a middle-schooler ask me about that myth ... But I'm sure it's only a matter of time.
So, take home message: A. commonly-held beliefs will persist no matter HOW stupid and illogical, and B. don't assume that your average (non-exotic specialist) veterinarian knows diddly about snakes.
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