New to Snakes

SnakeAunty · 10-18-13, 12:49 PM

Hey everyone! I'm new to this site and to snakes really but I have a couple of questions and I can't seem to find my answers anywhere else on the internet.

First of all, I would like to clarify that I did not go out and buy a snake on a whim. The snake in question is not mine, but for the next twenty days, Mr. Snakey is in my care. This leads me to my questions, but first a little background.

Mr. Snakey, we think it's a he anyway, is my roommates snake. I don't mind snakes, I think Mr. Snakey is really cool and he doesn't gross me out or anything. I've never owned a snake, my grandmother, who I grew up with, is terrified of snakes. Living out where we did I was always charged with picking up gardener snakes(or is it garter?..the little ones in the garden) and relocating them out of the garden or yard or where ever for my grandmothers sanity. So I'm fine with snakes. I've held Mr. Snakey a couple of times, I have to develop a relationship with him because my roommate and my husband are in the military and they will be gone at months at a time. However, we thought that the first time my roommate left wouldn't be for a while. He decided to go back home and Mr. Snakey is left with me and my husband.

So, we know that Mr. Snakey needs to be fed this weekend. Mr. Snakey is a red tailed boa, he is about 4 feet long, and my roommate said to get a rat and feed it to him, but I'm a little fuzzy about where? Just drop it in the tank? A rat? Like a RAT? I thought they ate mice? My roommate said the rat should be alive...really? -shudders-
Does Mr. Snakey need any other care over the next couple of weeks? My roommate will be back in the first part of Nov. I've always had animals and I know that they take a lot of care, so I feel like I should be caring for Mr. Snakey more than just feeding him and checking the water.

I think I covered everything you need to know about Mr. Snakey, um, if not please remember that this is the first time I've ever had to care for a snake other than putting it out of it's misery after being trampled by a horse or being terrorized by a cat/dog sooo I'm not up to date with the lingo.
Thank you so much for reading!

marvelfreak · 10-18-13, 03:00 PM

Could you post picture of the snake and the cage. This will make it easier for us to help you.

BTW Welcome to sSnakeSs.

ErikBush97 · 10-18-13, 03:12 PM

Look for a pet store that sells frozen rats. Buy one that's about the same size as Mr.Snakeys belly. Thaw it out in hot water, make sure it's very warm for him (NOT HOT), toss it in his cage, put the cage lid on, and leave it. If you have to buy a live rat, toss it in his cage, put the lid back on, and leave him be.

Sublimeballs · 10-18-13, 04:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GotsaQuestion

If you have to buy a live rat, toss it in his cage, put the lid back on, and leave him be.

But if you give him a live rat don't leave him unattended. Rats can kill snakes if left alone, so stay in the room and make sure the snake bites the rat and not the other way around. As chuck said it would help us tell you what needs to be done if you could post some pics.

SnakeAunty · 10-18-13, 03:40 PM

I would love to post pictures for you, but it keeps telling me that I can't post them because I'm too new :/ I also realized this is probably in the wrong thread lol...woops, sorry

Thanks for responding gotsaquestion, the only pet store we have is petsmart so I'll have to ask about food for Mr. Snakey when I go in
Hey marvelfreak, you are from my hometown

drumcrush · 10-18-13, 04:15 PM

If its a live rat, watch and make sure it doesn't bite and claw at the snake

SnakeAunty · 10-19-13, 10:42 AM

Grrrrr I forgot to click the remember me box and my previous post was erased!

ANYWAY
Since I can't post pictures I figured that a description would be better than nothing.

Mr. Snakey is tan on his head, and he has little spots on his skin that are dark brown all the way down to his tail. As you go further down his body, he gets darker until you reach his tail which is a muddy red color. He is about 4 feet long and he has a moustache on his little face. This is why he is Mr. Snakey and not Snakey

His tank, I'm guessing it's 20 gallons, I could be wrong, but that's what I'm going to guess. It has what look like wood chips in the bottom with some green stuff, it looks like moss, but it's not lol He has two water bowls, a bigger tan one, that I'm guessing is for him to get into, and a smaller one that is painted blue on the inside. On one side of the tank is a fake tree looking thing. It has a wide trunk with short, stumpy branches. It's 'leaves' are fake and look a little like small daisies. On one side of the tree there are steps kind of that are painted like a rock that the tree is growing next too. On the other side of the tank there is a fake tree branch. It's soft and it looks almost like a real branch but you can tell it's not. It has the knots on it, where it looks like other branches might have grown out from it. This is propped against the side of the tank and Mr. Snakey is usually found underneath it. On top of the tank there are two lamps, one has a regular light bulb in it and the other has a purple light bulb in it. These sit on top of a screen that snaps to the top of the tank. Making escape impossible for Mr. Snakey. Good thing too, he'd be dead in my house if he got out. That or seriously injured.

Also, my roommate has two bottles sitting near the tank, one is a spray bottle and the other one is white and the name has something to do with humidity, I'm not at the house or I would look. What the heck am I supposed to do with those?
How do you tell if a snake is sleeping? They don't have eyelids right?
What about the lamps? Am I supposed to leave them on? Or turn them off at certain times?

Oh, marvelfreak, after posting that I realized there is more than one Farmington in the USA soooo maybe you aren't from my hometown lol
Thank you everyone!

bigsnakegirl785 · 10-19-13, 03:28 PM

I get easily confused with so much detail, but he doesn't really need two water bowls. Wouldn't hurt, but isn't necessary. Also, 20 gal seems really small for a 4ft boa, but maybe that's because I don't have any visuals. He should have two places to hide, one on the hot side (where the bulbs are) and one on the cool side. The branch should be fine if there's room, as many like to climb. The white light should be turned off at night, and the purple on at night if it doesn't bother him, so wait an hour or two to see if he comes out to explore when you turn it on. I don't know what to say about the bottles, I don't really use them that often. The snake is most likely asleep if it isn't out in the open and is curled up and not moving or reacting to much. I'm really surprised your roommate didn't leave care instructions. If it was my snake, I'd leave everything the caretaker needed to know ahead of time. :/

Once you've posted 5 times, you can put photos in your post, so pictures would be most appreciated when you can.

EDIT: Also, try the f/t, you may not have trouble getting him to take it. It would certainly be safer to do so. If your Petsmart is anything like the Petsmart here, you won't find a proper-sized f/t rat. Here they require you to fill out a form to buy live rats, and become suspicious quickly if you buy too many live rats close together.

MDT · 10-19-13, 03:50 PM

I'm thinking that if I were you, I'd kick my room mate in the junk when he/she returned for leaving you in this position. But, hey, that's just me. You are indeed a good friend.

dbassa · 10-19-13, 05:22 PM

Welcome to sSNAKESs!

SnakeAunty · 10-20-13, 05:33 PM

Well I ended up getting frozen mice, medium sized for Mr. Snakey. I put them in a while ago and after checking I see he is working on one, I wasn't sure and they seemed kind of small so I put two in there for him. If he doesn't eat the other one I'll take it out after a while longer.

Thank you so much for the help bigsnakegirl, the lamp thing really helped, I could tell he was much happier this morning when I went to switch lights.

I feel so bad 'cause I don't know really how to take care of him, but he seems to be doing alright. He wasn't too happy with being messed with today, I think he was just hungry 'cause he attacked the first mouse pretty quickly.

Something that occurred to me, do snakes move around a lot? Mr. Snakey is in the same spot every day that I check on him...I don't know if he isn't moving or if he just moves around when I'm not in there...when my roommate has him out of his tank he moves around all the time. He'll lay on my roommates belly for a while and then move down to his lap and then maybe back to his belly and then he'll make his way down to my roommates shoes where he kind of perches himself and checks everything out for a while. It just seems like I would find him in different places when I go check on him.

Thank you everyone for the help!

SnakeAunty · 10-20-13, 05:43 PM

This is just to fill the post til I can post a picture for y'all...let's see if it works

SnakeAunty · 10-20-13, 05:45 PM

Yay it worked!!!

Here is Mr. Snakey's tank, I hope this an alright picture, If not let me know and I'll get in there and get a better one.
Mr. Snakey is curled up on the left hand side, I took a picture of him while he was in there but it's kind of hard to see so I'll see if I can get a better one a little later

SnakeAunty · 10-20-13, 06:12 PM

Here we are, two pictures of Mr. Snakey after a very satisfying meal of mice