Hey ppl. Xmas is coming up and I'm goin back to Portugal to spend it with my family. I'll be gone from the 21st Dec to the 4th Jan (14 days). I have a few options concerning how to best deal with my corn. Opt.1 - leaver her i belgium for the 14 days with no food and no change of water. (but she'll be in a familiar environment) Opt.2 - Take her with me to Portugal (still have to find out if its aloud...) and she'll be in her big faunabox for 14 days, with food and fresh water. Opt.3 - Get someone to feed her while im away and changing the water... which is very difficult considering that none of my friends will be there during that holiday period. (it would also involve lending m appartement key... :roll: ) Opt.4 - Get someone to keep her for 14 days in her fauna box (seeing her viv is way to big to carry around) but she'd be fed and she'd have clean water. (But do i trust someone to take good care of my baby? they might show her to everybody and stress her like mad, or not pay attention to the instructions i gave and just messing up sumthin) So, your advice would be appreciated (as well as other options i havent thought about) Thx guys
I'd forget option 2. You MAY be ok, but it may end up being a lot of hassle for nothing. Corn snakes in the wild here in Florida regularly go several weeks without food. I'd just give her a good feeding before you go, stick all the heating devices on timers. As far as the water.. I'd put in a slightly bigger than usual water bowl, and use an aquarium pump with an air-stone (to keep the water in motion and to help prevent it from developing algea). She should be fine for 2 weeks. That's one of the advantages of a snake as a pet, they don't need daily care. You might want to get a friend to pop around mid-way through your away-time just to spot clean any poop.
im with axe. it should be fine for 2 weeks with no food. if you dont already have them you should think about getting a blacklight and a thermostat so you wouldnt have to worry about it getting to cold/hot in her cage and you dont have to worry about turning the light off. just a thought. it works perfectly for me when im camping, etc.
I agree that she should be fine for two weeks without food. I'm not sure about your area, but where I'm from there are alot of pet stores that do snake sitting pretty cheap. That may be an option too. Just check out all of the pet stores and make sure the people running the one you leave it with know about reptiles and make sure they treat their reptiles well. But she should be fine for the two weeks.
My major concern about pet-sitters that aren't in-home is more stress on the animal (just like moving stress when you acquire a new animal and bring it home). When you get a new animal, it needs some settling in time. The snake would be going through that same stressed-out settling in time at the "sitter's" place, and then go through it all over again a week or two later when it returns home. It's less stress on the animal to leave it where it is.
Just a thought about the airstone idea..... Make sure it doesn't cause any vibration through the tank. Keep the pump out of contact with the tank. Constant vibration could really aggravate your snake. I had a pump in the big water bowl I had to circulate the water and it caused a buzz through the whole viv. Needless to say, I took it out and put in a regular water dish. I would leave him home too. Just fill up his water, set the temps and go. I'm sure he would be fine. Another thing about the airstone: the water will evaporate much more quickly and also make the whole viv more humid.
