Posted by:
Kel
at Thu Feb 23 09:45:16 2006 [ Email Message ] [ Show All Posts by Kel ]
Looking after wild caught rescue reptiles is a whole different ball game to looking after captive bred Corns.
For starters, most wild caughts are going to be terrified of humans, and aggressive/difficult to interact with. Captive bred Corns are more likely to be hand-tame when you get them (with the occasional exception), which makes routine maintenance and feeding a lot easier and faster.
Setting up the viv takes research and tinkering and I'd say that was the most high maintenance part of caring for a Corn.
Thereafter, there are a few regular chores that don't take too long in my view. I had a cat for a few years and even though she was out of the house all day, she was far more work than my 14 Corns put together.
Regular tasks:
- Visual check of vivs, a couple of minutes, two or three times a day.
- Spot clean, five minutes per viv once or twice a week (determined by visual check and how often the Corn is eating).
- Change water/clean water dish, ten minutes every other day (more often if they poop in it).
- Feeding, half an hour per snake, once every ten days to a fortnight for adults. I also combine feeding time with a thorough spot clean while they're out of the vivs.
- Full emptying/disinfecting of the viv - an hour or two (depending on size of fiv and how many hides/foliage etc), once every few weeks.
Did your friend say why they thought snakes were so high maintenance? Some organisations opposed to keeping reptiles as pets will tell you that they are difficult to care for, have a high mortality rate, are too time-consuming etc. Some of them pass on this misinformation in good faith, whilst not having any direct experience or knowledge themselves.
Not saying this is the case for your friends, but I expect they have a very different experience of caring for reptiles than the average pet Corn Snake owner.
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Wild vs captive bred? - Kel, Thu Feb 23 09:45:16 2006
