When you were little, did you ever catch frogs and snakes? Did you come right home and wash your hands in between each adventure? Probably not. I think we spend too much time keeping our kids away from the world and that's why we have so many kids who are allergic to everything including exercise (asthma anyone). I am an elementary school teacher and I have reptiles in my classroom and home. I keep my cages clean, my herps healthy and my kids respectful and responsible. We even go outside once and a while to have class, not recess.

I've had kids kiss turtles after long discussions about safety and "the runs", there's always the occasional bad hand washer or thumb sucker that gets in the mix, and I've never had a child get sick from one of my herps and I probably have a very high herp to child interaction ratio.

Ultimately if you keep your kids and your herps clean, everyone should be OK.

Oh, and keep those strong smelling disinfectants away from your herps, they're just as deadly to them as to the bacteria.

Randy
DeadFish Herpetological

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