Reptile & Amphibian Forums

When you decide to keep a wild caught snake, what precautions
should you take to ensure that your pet snakes don't contract
some parasite or disease from the new addition?

Thanks
Scott

Quarantine the new animal in completely separate tank (separate room if possible) for at least a month, two would be better. Lots of hand washing between handling the new animal and your current ones, *no* transfer of tank things (hide boxes, water bowls, whatever) between them, feed at different times in different feeding boxes. Get a fresh fecal sample from the new one and have a local herp vet check for parasites and treat as needed. (fresh = not dried out, preferably)

Other than that, just keep a close eye on the new critter and if you see anything at all out of the ordinary, have the local docs check it out. Good luck,

-Pat
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0.0.1 Normal corn snake (Frito)
0.0.1 Creamsicle corn (Tang)
0.0.1 Ghost corn (Raynham)
1.1 Bay of LA rosy boas (Rivet and Cali)

Thanks for the suggestions.

Scott

1.0 Milk Snake Georgia locality "Gilmer"
1.0 Milk Snake Alabama locality "Grover"
0.1 Wire Fox Terrier "Penny"

on quarantine and think if cross contamination in water bowls, etc. My disease cross contamination of 2 times came with me not cleaning water bowls sufficiently and putting/mixing water bowls in other cages. Okay....fixed that problem by paying attention. But later when I got into venomous I did it again by using tongs to gather water bowls from cages and while I used precaution of what I was doing with the bowls, not using or thinking of the results of my using the tongs by not dis-infecting going from one cage to another.
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I may be old , cantankerous, crabby, and cynical, but......