Reptile & Amphibian Forums

what are the best guidelines of quarantining new animals,as far as feeding,cleaning cages,seperate rooms etc.i usually do all my quarantining for a minimum of 3 mos,in a seperate room.I NEVER offer a food item from a quarantined animal to an established animal nor do i put the rodent back in to established animals food housing. i do a once a week THOROUGH cleaning with clorox cleanup and keep water bowls constantly rinsed and sanitized all knowledge on this topic would be greatly appreciated.IBD can wipe out your whole boid collection in a matter of months and because its transmission is not known mites and ticks pose a formidable threat to your pythons AND boas,this is a topic i have never seen in the forum so i decided to bring it up

In my opinion quarantine procedures used most often by hobbyist are fairly pointless. It doesn't hurt at any level, but unless your completely isolating these animals from anything coming into the room or going OUT of the room, you still run a chance of cross contaminating. Do you wear the same shoes in both snake rooms? Do you shower, change clothes, sanitize yourself basically, between rooms? What method are you using to guarantee your not toting a hitching mite from one room to the next? Bleach baths for your feet/shoes are not affective either. Also, at the end of the quarantine period, is the animal inspected by a qualified vet, or is it simply a visual approval made by the keeper? If just a visual, why couldn't that have been made 3 months ago? Also, are you adding new animals to the quarantine area within the other animals 3 month period? Say one animal has a week left of your quarantine, but then you add a sick animal. A mite travels to the almost out of quarantine animals cage, attaches itself, and a few days later you move it, along with the mite(s) into your regular room....so, do you restart the 3 month cycle with all animals in the room if and when a new animal is added? There is a lot to consider when putting a quarantine protocol in place. Good topic, I can't wait to see some of the responses, as you can always learn some new tricks! Take care

Paul

It may not be perfect but you do the best you can. Good to discuses ways to improve though.

I think the most important thing is to eliminate all mites as you bring them in. I know that's easier said than done but you don't even want mites in even one of your quarantine cages. Hopefully the right chemical bath can eliminate the chance of mites as you unpack out in the garage.

I think the 3 month thing is to work around the big bad - IBD. The idea is that a python shouldn't live that long with IBD. The jury may still be out on how communicable it is but I got the idea that without breeding contact or mites (i.e. blood contact) you MIGHT be safe. My vet had done some IBD research including working on a biopsy to test live snakes and said something about 50% of the boas he tested having it and that he attributed it's world wide spread to lax mite control. Of course you also have the problem in boas that they can live for a long time with it and spread it via breeding and to their offspring - sort of AIDS for boids. In a way it’s a big advantage to us that a ball python apparently can’t live very long with IBD. I can only imagine how hard it would be to certify a boa collection IBD clean when every hatchling has the potential of being born with it.

nm