*Room Temperature and Enclosure Temperature (What are the Limits for the Room?)

[LittleTreeGuy]

This is something that I have been thinking about quite a bit. As it stands I will most likely keep it in the classroom over the summer vacation. However, I will be teaching a summer school and pass by my school every day and come in regularly to work on my plans for the coming year.

Between this, the fact that the summers are pretty mild out here, and the fact that there will be summer school (though not in my room) and the temperatures will continue to be managed during the day made me think that this would work out.

That said if you think I've overlooked something I would love to hear about it.

One other thing I am considering is allowing students to take it home over the break. I am much less certain about this and I would have to feel extremely confident about both the student and their parents. I would also visit their house to set up all of the equipment. I don't really know whether this will end up happening there are some families that I would feel consider doing this with. For example one family has kept ball pythons before and the father of another student breeds woma pythons.

I would not leave it in the classroom over the summer. While most snakes would actually be okay in a good enclosure if checked on every couple of days, but face it... Summer will get here, Maybe you'll have a long weekend, you'll think "ah... I can check on it tomorrow".... then the hot water tank goes out at your house, and your focus changes. Before long, it's been 2 weeks and you think, Oh, I have to go feed that snake!. Unknown to you, they shut power off at the school for the past week to fix an electrical problem. Snake is a goner.

While that scenario is pretty unlikely (and I hope your hot water tank is fine), things do happen, and life happens. Personally, I'd take it home myself for summer break, or if you know of a family who is willing to take the time to learn, and be responsible snake owners for a few months, let them take it. Just because someone has or has had snakes, doesn't mean they're good at it. Also, if someone already has snakes, you need to make sure they can keep this snake and tank isolated from their others for a quarantine period. Some folks would suggest 90 days, others suggest 6 months. Just to prevent any illness or health issues from spreading. Really, it's not hard to keep a reptile once you have all of the husbandry issues in check. It is nice to be able to keep an eye on the animal, its enclosure (or messes it makes), and the electrical devices all daily, just to make sure things are all within limits.

This is just my 2 cents...