Well, this seems like a good time to throw the whole scenario out for opinions.



No, I have no idea what kind of snake this is, and I have no experience with giant snakes at all.



I run a small reptile rescue and this snake was abandoned and ended up as a stray at a local animal shelter. When his hold time was over, he came to me.



While I do have years of experience with smaller, more common pet snakes, I am at a bit of a loss here with what to do with this guy. My personal experience with bigger snakes stops with boas.



A few points for folks to consider or comment upon:



~normally, as a rescue, we only place snakes into non-breeding homes as pets. However, if this snake is something less common, perhaps it makes sense to actually look for a breeding home in this case?



~Is this snake something so uncommon that a zoo would perhaps want him?



~How is the lack of any history on this snake going to affect placement with a breeder who, presumably, would want to know the genetics of his breeding stock?



~Adoption fee: the snake "belongs" to my rescue, which is a 501c3 non-profit. Normally I assign adoption fees at about a third of the price the animal could be bought at a store. Although we rely solely on donations and fundraising, we are not out to make money, just out to make good, permanent placements. However, with a less-common snake, I don't want to adopt him out "cheap" and then have someone flip him and sell him to whoever offers the most money. Adoption fees are tax-deductible and our organization is 100% volunteer, so any money taken in goes to help the rest of the animals (we rescue reptiles and dogs).



~Another concern I have is finding an appropriate adopter. No matter what this snake is, it seems to be agreed upon that he will be huge. So, that narrows the field of appropriate owners. If he is something "special" I would love to see him go somewhere that he can be appreciated for what he is, perhaps bred, if appropriate, but I know no one who breeds giant snakes, so would love to rely on input from others out there since the reptile community seems to do such a decent job of "self policing" and generally co-operating.



So, there you have it. He can hang out with me until I figure out what to do with him (actually, I don't know if he is a male or female), but I have no intention of breeding him, or even keeping him myself. I would consider keeping him if he were a smaller species, because he is a handsome guy, and easy to handle. But, I sure don't need a 20 foot snake!



So, I welcome anyone and everyone to add their thoughts and opinions to this story!



Thanks,

Sonja

www.roxiesfund.org

sonja_pups@comcast.net





Here is Larry, a more typical type of rescue snake. : ) He needs a home, too.

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