Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I purchased a new burm off reptibid, and I'm curious as to how long I should Quarantine him from the rest of my burms? I used to have all of them in seperate enclosures but I expanded to build one massive enclosure so now I have them all together. The plan is to add my new albino green male how long should I wait?

ok ok, here is why you shouldnt put them together....

Its dangerous, one snake gets mites, other gets mites, one gets another kind of parasite or something...the other gets it

Feeding time, even if you seperate them for feeding, one of them still might have the smell of a rat on them, the other might go for it.

Man, there are so many reasons not to i just cant think of them...all i know is never to keep snakes together unless breeding

OK OK, here is why you shouldn't put them together....
Its dangerous, one snake gets mites, other gets mites, one gets another kind of parasite or something...the other gets it

1snake man:One gets mites you clean the cage with Provent-a-Mite, and kill the mites that are present on the snakes as well.

Feeding time, even if you separate them for feeding, one of them still might have the smell of a rat on them, the other might go for it.

1snakeman:You separate them for 2-4 houres and the rat smell will be gone.

Man, there are so many reasons not to i just cant think of them...all i know is never to keep snakes together unless breeding

1snakeman:If you cant think of them then why are you giving out advice? you should let somebody answer his post that has experience with two snakes in the same cage, or come with better facts. it sounds like your just going by what people say but somethings you never know unless you experience it yourself. I was told its stupid and unsafe for an iguana to be a free roamer, well I'm glad i didn't listen to those people cause it seems like she is more happy free then living in a cage.

old pic of my little little babies

I was just throwing in what i knew. Even you couldnt think of them all...lol. It doesnt hurt for me to throw in a few things whether i experienced them first hand or not...as long as i KNOW they are true. others can feel free to post too...arnt these forums to give the help that you know? so everyone can put in there advice, some know more than others.

Its all good i wasent trying to bash you or anything like that, i was just proving a point.

Missed the point, what is it?

Firat off I will start by answering the question that absolutley no one in either of your threads have answered. You should quarentine all new animals (regardless of where they come from) for atleast a month. If after a month and there are no signs of parasites and a fecal or two have been tested and is clean then I would state that it would be safe to introduce the snake to your collection.
Now, I will go into the dilema. Housing multiple snakes together is a bad idea. I am not just saying this because of the other people think so. I have had burms for over 16 years and I know about the consequences that can happen when housing multiple snakes together. First off the spreading of parasitic problems as well as RI and any other medical problem. The chances of another animal contacting a disease or a parasite problem form a snake within the same enclosure is substantially higher then from a snake in a seperate enclosure. Look at it this way. Who are you more likely to catch a cold from, some one that lives in your house or from your neighbor. See my point.
Feeding is the biggest concern I have when Considering this topic. By housing snakes together you are forced to feed outside of the enclosure. If you feed in the enclosure then you have a significant chance of both snakes going for the same prey item. So I am assuming that you are going to feed outside of the enclosure. I strongly advise against this. I use to feed outside and have experienced alot of trouble with this. First off you have to handle a large and potentially dangerous animal when it is in feeding mode. Most snakes will stay in feeding mode for quite a while after they have consumed their meal. Now you come in and have to relocate them back into their enclosure and they could easily misconstrue you(or your hand) as another prey item. Handling them after feeding also puts a lot of stress on them and can result in regurgitation. That is something that you really do not want to experience. Thirdly, and Lastly, once both snakes are reintroduced back into the enclosure, it is a very real possiblity that one of the snakes will still smell the scent of the prey on the other. One made a statement that wait two to four hours and the smell will be gone. True if the snakes smelled in the same sense as we do but they do not. They smell by picking up articlesparticles of the prey with their tongues and the particles are analyzed in their Jacobson's Organ. These particles do not go away and may reside on the snake for much longer then that. I have experienced two burms going at each other when they misidentified its cage mate as a prey item. This happened on two seperate occassions and solidified my stance that snakes should always be housed individually. I am sorry that this is so long but I get rambling sometimes. I just got frustrated that in two threads no one has given you solid advice as to why not. They just bellow don't do it. I hope that in this long post of mine that there is some solid information for you that will help you come to the decision to house your snakes seperately. Todd