No, my snake isn't sick.

I'm a college student, and right now I am taking a microbiology course. My professor made a remark one day in lecture that I found interesting, and I wanted to see what anyone else here might know about this.

My professor told us a story about how he had visited a zoo to collect some feces from a Boa constrictor from which he had hoped to culture out some Salmonella bacteria. To his utter delight, he explained that he was unable to culture out any Salmonella, but rather grew several large colonies of Pseudomonas aeruginosa bacteria. He rattled off several characteristics of these microbes, which I can't remember well enough now to repeat, but one of the things he said about these bacteria suggested to me that they could be a common culprit of RI's in Boas.

I thought that was pretty interesting since RI's seem to be the most common complaint for boids in captivity. Especially with this species of bacteria living in the boa's gut without causing its host any problems. It suggests to me that bacterial RI's may be just as much an issue of hygiene as they are of temp & humidity.

Anybody else know anything about this? I'd love to hear it! I am thinking about writing my term paper for the course on this relationship.

~Rebecca
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1.0.0 Dumeril's Boa '04
1.1.1 Ball Pythons



0.2 American Pit Bull Terriers (40lb darling lap dogs:Brandy&Mara)

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