Brown house and Gauteng

[minamoo]

Hi Everyone,

I hope this is the right place for my question.

Today my neighbour brought me a gorgeous little brown house snake (about 25cm) that they had to get rid of because their helper didn't want to enter their house. They've had it for two weeks, kept it in a glass bottle with garden soil as substrate, no water, and they tried feeding it crickets but it didn't want to eat.. Of course I took it, put it in an enclosure with paper towel, lots of hiding space and water. I will see if it will accept a pinkie tomorrow.

I now have some issues to deal with. I live in Gauteng (Pretoria), and being an indigenous snake... I currently have corns and milks and have no idea how to get a permit for this little one, or if one would even be granted. I don't know if it is wild caught or captive bred, but I'm guessing it was caught. I also can't release it within the suggested 20km radius where it was found, because the neighbours don't know where it came from (they got it from someone at work).

It really is gorgeous, and I have no issues keeping it Please advise?

Many thanks,
Jessi

[Bushviper]

The right thing to do is to make sure it does not get released where it did not occur. This can be done by either killing it (wrong idea) giving it to a zoo or snake park (who dont want it) or just keep it and not apply for the permit (possibly the best idea). This is illegal and you could get into trouble if somebody finds out and decides to go to the trouble to pay you a visit.

I would suggest you join one of the herp associations and then we can get you permits for house snakes which are legal and captive bred. In the mean time just hang onto the snake and lets see if we can find some legal way of either getting it a new owner or trying to find out where it came from.

[minamoo]

Thank you Bushviper. Definitely no killing or zoo. I'll be joining THA as soon as and hopefully the little one can become a legal child. Until then, I guess some laws were made to be broken