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He spent the first week at my house, getting acquainted with his new surroundings. He was in a small rubbermaid with locking lid so that Tyler doesn't lose him. Well low and behold, no sooner than he gets him to his house, he gets loose. Not once but twice! Both times he was lucky and found the lil bitty guy under his bed. So now he's back at my house taking it easy. I think I'm going to have to place him in my other enclosure, He's not liking the rubbermaid and doesn't want to be in there, that says to me, something is wrong, so I'm going to place him in Frosty's terrerium instead. I know that's proper and it's got an UTH and is perfect size for a tiny corn. Now how on earth do I teach this child about the responsibility of owning one of these animals. He's been taken away, but he was also told that since he begged and begged, he would have to still do the chores and work to earn the food for Pepper and he'll still be responsible for cleaning the tank and taking care of him. I don't mind taking care of the little guy, I'm rather enjoying having another baby around. Oh well, if you got this far, thanks for listening, any suggestions?

Izora

.. How old is the nephew?

For the most part I think there is always hope for getting a kid/person in the habit of taking proper care of the animal but it takes being able to instill the discipline.

Do you know how the snake got out in your nephews care? It makes a bit of a difference if the snake merely managed to escape as opposed to your newphew maybee getting distracted while handling it and it just wandering off.

Sounds like you're on the right track though. You want there to be negative consequences to not taking proper care but at the same time you want him to still want the snake and to learn to take good care of it(knowledge and habit).

One thing you may do is let him comeover and visit it(especially since he is "working" to feed it) to reinforce that it is still his and that he can get it back once he shows he'll take proper care of it. Not that he should get to everyday(doen't want him to think you'll do the work for him) but often enough to keep him interested in his snake.

Also you might(assuming you didn't already) put together a overkill secure/snakeproof and proper enclosure for the snake but do it with you're nephew explaining all the reasons for every aspect. This may help him better appreciate the snakes needs and to be more3 knowledgeable/interested in his pet.

In a similar vein you might think of any things you two coul put together to make caring for the snake as convenient for your nephew as possible(with him still doing the work). This would give further knowledge/potential interest as well as making it possibly easier for him to meet the challenge of properly caring for the snake. This would be especially true the younger he is as some young kids may have the best of intentions but simply never remember everything.

Many other options but key thing is to keep his desire to raise the snake high, raise his awareness of his snakes requirements/ways to meet them, and still develope the discipline necesary to carry through with those needs.

Good luck and let us know if you have any specific problems or with more details as to how it's going.

Sean.

I really appreciate your advice. For now, I had him come over today and set up the enclosure that pepper is in now. He had to set it up and he also got to decorate the outside of it with a couple little rubber snakes we found at work. He's bought him a new hide with his allowance. It's one of those little coconuts, which he thinks is just so cool.

The reason the snake escaped is the first cage we had is a small 2.5 gallon and to keep the lid from raising enough for pepper to get out, we had to tape the edges down. He didn't do that and didn't properly latch it, the snake got loose. The next enclosure was a rubbermaid and he didnt secure it either. Now the poor thing has had three different enclosures and this one I KNOW he wont get out of. It's got a key lock to it and Frosty couldn't escape it, even with the cats help lol.

So now it's in my care, but he's still gotta do the work for him. He has been told by his dad, he must come down at least twice a week to care for the snake, handle him, feed him and clean his enclosure. He still loves the snake, wants the snake, just has to learn a little more about the snake and why it's so important to keep him safe. He's learning and has read most of Don's book, he's just got to learn a little more.

anyway, thanks so much for replying, he has asked to take it to school next year, he's in intermediate school but they still share with the class sometimes, he wants to do a report on snakes and then take his to class. I thought that was a great idea, this summer he has lots of time to learn.

Thanks again....Izora

No problem. Glad to hear everything is going well(all things considered lol).

Not that it's needed in your case but a trick I have found invaluable in setting up reptile enclosures for classrooms is using velcro tape to escape proof the enclosure.

Basically I use an aquarium with one of those lids that set on top and have lips/edges coming a little ways down the sides ot the tanks top frame.

I then adhere high strength velcro tape(sold at hardware store among other places) to the top of the aquarium and to the outside of the top of the aquariums frame where the lid overlaps.
Likewise I adhere the matching sides of the velcro tap to the interior edges of the lid where it will touch the velcro on the tank.

The advantage of this is you have a tight seal on two sides of a 90 degree angle all the way arround. This makes it impossible for a snake to escape through there and also eliminates accidentally leaving the enclosure not fully secured as it takes so much work/force to get the lid on or off.

A side benefit of this setup for teachers in the classroom is you can also hear it when someone trying to get the animal out long before they succeed in getting the lid off.

The drawback is it normally takes a teenager/adult or the use of a butter knife to open the enclosure. The butter knife is used to slide between the overlapping sides of velcro seperating the two sides. You still need to force/pull apart the velcro on the tanks top but once the sides are seperated this isn't too tough.

Like I sade not needed in your case but is very usefull in the classroom environment on an ongoing basis.

Sean.

what a great idea, I still have that little 2.5 gallon, When I get another baby I'll have to use the velcro idea. Thanks again!

Izora