Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I see a lot of discussion on here about RI. I feel that certain people think cold air, or odors cause RI. To me, RI is like a bad sinus infection. I do not believe that RI is caused by these things as it is an infection caused by a virus or bacteria. If cold air made people or animals sick, then why don't people in Alaska stay sick all the time, or the wild animals there. I think that RI in reptile collections is a direct result of an infected animal being placed in a collection where there was no disease to begin with. I may be wrong, but it just seems like this is a logical explanation to me.
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Happy Herping,
Jody Barnes
Royal Kreationz

1.0 albino
1.2 het albino
1.0 het caramel
1.0 het pied
0.1 poss het. pied
0.4 normals (beautiful pastel sibs)

People in Alaska are warm-blooded animals, able to maintain their own internal body temperature. Snakes are cold-blooded animals, and if allowed to be kept without heat, their metabolisms and immune systems drop, opening them up to the slighest infection...which leads to R.I.
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~* Jen *~

Pink Lady Constrictors

Jen's right on! In humans, cold air has nothing to do with "colds"!

somewhat wrong anyway... its all about the immune system. weakened animals are prone to infection. and some completely benign bacteria live in all living things and can become lethal when conditions are wrong for the animal, but right for the infectious agent.

put a polar bear in the amazon and he'll eventually succumb to an infection of some sort. so your right, its not "always" about cold, but that certainly is a very quick route to weaken the immune system of a cold blooded ball python, and open it up to infection fom an opportunistic bacterial passenger or to something brought in by another animal.

hope this helps.

There are actually many issues that will result in RI - everything from cold or drafts to viruses or bacteria to stress can cause your snake's immunity system to act up resulting in a respiratory infection.
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Tosha
JET Pythons

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