I have been keeping, breeding, and selling herps for 40 years plus. I believe that some of us are too fastidious in our paronoia about germs, parasites, lighting etc. I do keep abreast of all current developments and use them if I think it will significantly improve what I'm accomplishing. Having said this I use aspen for my snakes and DO NOT disinfect an entire cage every time something deficates. I do not sterilize a water bowl every time I clean it. Reptiles are exceedingly territorial and most in nature spend their entire lives very close to where they were born. They feel more comfortable in their enviroment if you don't use new hide boxes, water bowls, etc. I'm not suggesting I don't clean them, I just use the SAME ones. Its like you having a favorite chair. I think their much healthier long term without massive amounts of time spent on unneccesary things that do nothing to enhance success. I have had so many species that there is not room on this forum to list them all. I first began breeding Cyclura and boids in the early 1970's. I have bred some 37 species of boids, untold colubrids, 4 species of Cyclura, 3 species of Varanids, 12 species of crocodilians, 14 species of chelonians including G. radiata, and currently am the first to breed Albino Green Iguanas. The first thing I did for the baby albinos is to cover their food with fecal matter of the adult. The reason for this is that Dagmer Werner, a German researcher in Costa Rica saw baby Iguanas eating fecal pellets of the adults. After investigations she found the babies grew MUCH faster because of being infected with germs etc. that were necessary for digestion. The moral of this long post is that if you spend more time understanding and observing your charges rather than superfluous task that only make you feel better, you will be more sucessfull. I very seldom post and I apologise for the lengthy dissertation of facts...Tom Crutchfield

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