• Hello!

    Either you have not registered on this site yet, or you are registered but have not logged in. In either case, you will not be able to use the full functionality of this site until you have registered, and then logged in after your registration has been approved.

    Registration is FREE, so please register so you can participate instead of remaining a lurker....

    Please be certain that the location field is correctly filled out when you register. All registrations that appear to be bogus will be rejected. Which means that if your location field does NOT match the actual location of your registration IP address, then your registration will be rejected.

    Sorry about the strictness of this requirement, but it is necessary to block spammers and scammers at the door as much as possible.

You there, help me with my parent-problems!

nagini

nagini

The Serpent Son
Oh wise corn snake forum users, please help me with another My Parental Unit Won't Listen case. D:

Here's a little backstory, so you don't think I'm just some irresponsible teen trying to get a snake to be 'cool'. =P

I've loved snakes for as long as I can remember. When I was younger, my family had a ball python and a copperhead, along with a long list of other pets.

But now I live with my dear auntie, and the Pet Limit has been significantly lowered. She wasn't planning on letting me have anyhing other than my betta fish. =P

About six months a year, she caved and said I could have a snake or a rat for christmas. Obviously, I chose the snake.

For the past six months, I have been doing excessive research so that as soon as I got my baby, I'd know what I was doing. So I started telling my aunt what would be needed while we were in the pet store. The first issue was the heater.

I explained to her that a under-tank heater would be the best choice.

She tells me that my other aunt used a heat rock with no problem.

I explained to her /why/ an under-tank heater was needed.

She said that it was ridiculous, and that people are only saying these things because they want me to spend more money. Err..

After a while, I think I finally got her to accept the fact that the under-tank heater would be best.

However, I've ran into another issue.

She wants me to feed my snake live food.

Her argument was that it is natural and snakes do fine in the wild eating live mice.

I explained to her that wild snakes probably have a dramatically shorter life expectancy and that there was a high risk of the snake being injured by the mouse.

She said that frozen mice cost more.

I told her that if she wanted, I could either buy the frozen mice myself, or she could buy live mice and I'd (humanely) kill them.

She said that if I would be able to kill the mouse, I must have something wrong with me.

Adviiice?

Also, the little vomitting smily over there on the smilies list amuses me to no end. :puke01:
 
If you find this :puke01: "amusing",,well there must be "something wrong with you", :grin01: ,,just messin with you.I hate to tell you this but,she may be a victim of her generation,or I should say YOU might be the victim :rolleyes: .Having said that,,I'm not sure how old your aunt is,but convincing her about how things are done is going to be a little tricky,,or it could be as simple as letting her see your ideas in "print".I know most,if not ALL books/manuals on keeping a corn snake as a pet,,will tell about the pro's and con's to feeding F/T as apposed to live.
As far as you being willing to take the "animation" away from a live mouse,well I see nothing wrong with it.Understanding how you can influence the course of the "food chain" only shows me you are willing to accept and assist your pet in the manner of how its life is carried out.Being human,,we by choice,,are far more selective,and much less calace,than "mother nature" could EVER intend to be....
Being a hunter, I have seen things that have nearly brought me to tears,,but knowing that not one of gods creatures has a special order in which their lives begin and end,helps a person accept the way life plays out.Fair or other wise,,life happens.Hope I didn't confuse you,,I'm rambling a bit,,so long story short,,get her a book to read,or you can read it to her,,but I'm sure she will come around :cool:
Good luck
 
Actually, frozen mice generally cost considerably less than live. Then you factor in the the travel and gas to go pick up a live mouse and the live mouse cost goes up even more. You buy a bag of frozen ones and you're good to go for a while.
 
So, if your aunt did it one way, that's the right way, right? Wow, I had no idea! I think I'll change the way I teach today. Instead of what I do, which is obviously not best practice (they didn't teach this way 40 years ago), I think I will sit at my desk and bark orders at my kids. Oh, I can't wait for one to get out of line so I can paddle him/her! Or perhaps I can borrow from the nuns and smack knuckles with rulers. [/Sarcasm]

One more thing: Can your mom kill a bug? Its the same thing a whacking a mouse. Either way, something that once once alive, mammal or otherwise, is killed for the benefit of another.
 
Just tell your aunt to come to this forum.

Perhaps she will understand if she gets to reading the forums she can see and understand for herself. These people are real people not out to get you to buy something to make a buck. They are here to help :) So you will get better advice here than at some pet stores. ( I learned this lesson several years ago when starting my reef tank!)

Then say nicely what about dogs and cats? They can and do kill if outdoors, but (most) people feed them the kibble.
So are we taking away their natural hunting instincs?
 
If the only remaining obstacle is that she wants you to feed live prey, then stop fighting her, and do it. If she's not going to supervise every feeding, then you can pre-kill or pre-stun if you like. Even if you don't do that, the danger that an appropriately-sized live mouse presents to a corn under supervised conditions is extremely minimal. Good luck.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top