Hello-

I am an animal lover and owner of dogs, a cat, a rosy boa, and two redfooted tortoises. I have just started my student teaching in 7-8th grade science. The teacher I am working with has a ball python, Julius Squeezer, that is in really rough shape. Apparently the snake was handled regularly until several years ago when he went on sabatical to get his PhD. When he came back, it tried to bite him so he stopped handling it. His former student teacher who was really into snakes got him into it in the first place and when she came back for a visit,it also bit her. The poor thing is miserable! He said he feeds it a live mouse every couple of weeks, but it looks starving to me. I can see it's spine and it is all slack like it has no muscle tone. The cage looks like it hasn't been cleaned in a year or more, turds everywhere, almost like substrate. The water dish has an inch of algae like build-up, though it seems to be kept full. The snake appears to be shedding, but not in one whole peice like my rosy. It's all patchy and its eyes are scaled over. It makes me sick to see it and I don't know what to do. If it can't be handled, how can I clean its cage out? Does a body that would be triangular in cross section indicate starvation? I am counting on this experience to get me into the job market here so I can't really be rude, but something needs to be done! Any suggestions on what I can do?

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