Reptile & Amphibian Forums

How long should you quarantine a new addition to your collection?
Were should they be quarantined and under what circumstances? I hear a lot of people talking about doing it, I was just wondering how important of an issue it is.

"..... I was just wondering how important of an issue it is."

It depends on how important your collection is. Every new animal you bring in brings with it the opportunity for disease to wipe out your whole collection.

My quarantine time is typically between 1-3 months depending on where the animal comes from, and what species it is.

As already stated it depends on where it came from and how much you know about the animal, for myself I have a small collection about about 80% of my animals coming in are all form a local breeder that I have been buying form for over 2 years and I meet with about every other month, those animals I really don't quarantine away form my collection but they do still have their own cages. If you do not know the breed personally I would recommend 3 months min, simply because it is better to be safe then sorry, there was one time I purchase a bulk of animals from a well named breeder that I did not know and after having a month go by one of my heaters went out and the snake room got down to about 60-65 degrees and it took 2 days to get the heater replaced about 2 weeks later I had the worst RI run through those animals I could ever dream of and it took me months and multiple vets to get everything back on track. But on a good note none of my other animals got it because they were far enough away.

My vet recommends that you keep your quarantine cages at least 6 ft away from your other animals; however, if you could run another room or set up that would be even better, and it also depends on how many you are bring in as to how much space you need for a set up.

Matt

Thank you for the advice. That really helps!