Nice find. And definitely looks like a Butter corn. Certainly don't find many of those around here.
It sounds as though you've got quite a nice home for him/her. And from what I can tell, most everything seems to be in order. Aspen shavings would definitely look better and absorb more of the waste smell than newspaper would. Plus you just have to spot clean up the poo's when they happen. I don't change the entire cage worth of bedding for 2-3 months, round about. They're a pretty low maintenence pet.
Two rat pups a week would make for a very obese snake, I'm sure. One adult mouse a week would suffice nicely and be considerably cheaper as well. I typically feed my adult females one adult mouse or rat pup a week, my adult males one adult mouse every 10-14 days. The males really seem to pack on the weight more than the females, and can get obese easier.
Since you don't know where its been, I would recommend getting a fecal sample to a vet that deals with reptiles. Most areas have at least one exotics vet. And some regular vets will do fecals for you even if they don't do reptiles specifically, you'd just have to ask. Plus a qualified vet could probe the snake to determine it's gender. Which could prove handy when you're wondering why all of a sudden its not wanting to eat for a month or so.
If you haven't gotten it already (I don't recall reading so), you definitely need to pick up Kathy Love's book "Corn Snakes: The Comprehensive Owners Guide". She sells it through her website,
www.cornutopia.com, or
www.amazon.com sells it, as do most pet stores as well. The book is great with lots of useful information that's easy to understand and follow, plus great pictures of all the morphs of corns.
And Holly, there really is definitely no need to get so defensive. Mary Beth and everyone else mean well, it just happens to be a passionate opinion different than yours. Which at least around here we embrace the ability to express ourselves like that. It's a luxury we enjoy compared to some "other" forums where the moderators tell you what you can and cannot say. That's what makes us different, we can agree to disagree most times.
While I'm not like obsessive-compulsive Dean in my husbandry aspect of things, as for me that just saps the enjoyment out of everything when I have to triple check a tub before re-racking it. I have lost snakes before. Thankfully, I found most in the house weeks and even months later. Just recently forgot to put the weight back on top of my adult female Motley's tub and she got out. I found her a week later under the dryer, being guarded by one of our cats.
And judging on the condition of the snake (if those pictures are pretty recent to when you found him) he looks to be in pretty good condition. I know when mine went missing for 8 months and found her outside, she looked a lot worse than that. So I'd be pretty torn over trying to find the owners, as he doesn't look ill-kept or malnourished, and also wanting to keep him myself.
And to exercise my right to disagree with Dean, just because a snake escaped doesn't mean the original owners weren't responsible enough to take care of it, and therefore she has all rights to keep it.
I've had quite a few escapes myself, and I know it stung me personally when I read that. Sure, most of the escapes were my own dumb fault: not latching lid, forgetting the weight, not putting the wire lid back down all the way. Not all of us are as perfect as some people like to think of themselves as.
I also don't like to think of myself as irresponsible, as all of my animals are well fed and cared for. But just because of an accident I'm deemed unworthy to take care of it. It's like my dog running off and the neighbors through the woods finding her, some things are just simply out of your control in the end.
I know I'd have a lot less escapes once I can get rid of these damned plastic tubs and their thoroughly worthless lids, but I'm not made of money and the proper caging and racks that I want aren't cheap. I don't have the luxury of dropping a couple grand for AP racks on a whim. Poor people have poor ways, and while I may not be poor per se...buying the high quality food and supplies is more important to me right now.
And before someone goes off on a tangent and says, "Well if you don't have the money for the proper caging, then you shouldn't have the snakes"....I'd be inclined to agree with you. But at least I'm not keeping 4 adult snakes in a single tank, or feeding them together, or doing other similarly daft acts. Every one of my snakes lives in its own tub with exorbatent amounts of space...which is more than I can say for some folks on the forum who keep their snakes cramped into smaller tubs in a rack.
In the end, while I may not go all out and post flyers or ads in the local paper, I would at least glance at the Lost & Found for a month or so in case someone posts something. I know I'd like to think that if someone found my pet they would at least try a little bit to find me. I'm not going to look down on you if you don't do it either. We're all human and all have the same "finders-keepers" desires sometimes. But I know with me, I'd be guilty if I didn't make some attempt.
