Multi species housing

I was thinking in the future of doing T8 stacks for my balls, with one shorter stack topped off by an arboreal cage for my red-tail, that way all of the snakes are conveniently together in one place. But part of me is worried about disease transmission. I got Wee Nake from a reputable local breeder who some of my good friends have worked with for many years, I do not intend to get any more Boas, and I've never had any cause for suspicion with her health. But there's always the (admittedly) remote chance she could be an asymptomatic carrier of IBD, and I don't want to accidentally kill my entire collection. Is this a reasonable fear or am I just being overly paranoid? Thanks!

How long has the boa been separate from the rest of your collection?

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Originally Posted by meowmeowkazoo

How long has the boa been separate from the rest of your collection?

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I got her about 5 months ago, she eat's like a champ, and has had 3 perfect sheds so far. She's never exhibited any behaviors that would be considered abnormal, but just in case she's kept in a different room and I enforce very strict hand/arm washing procedures.

As horrible as it sounds, if this boa is asymptomatic, there is no way of knowing if the snake has IBD.

If you are seriously concerned for your collection (and who wouldn't be), what you could do is always take the least valuable/favorite snake from your BP collection and house it in the same room with your boa. I have heard of keepers before using Normal BPs as 'canaries in the coal mine' type thing. They will house a BP with the boas to try and catch an infection, even if it's asymptomatic.

You could always do that and have a single BP exposed and then continue to keep them together for a time (not in the same enclosure, of course). That way you would feel more comfortable about moving the boa into your main collection if you felt so inclined.

And, if in the rare chance it is possible, you have not risked your entire collection.

But it's not foolproof. If they're in the same house, there is still that risk.

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Originally Posted by Vasiliki

As horrible as it sounds, if this boa is asymptomatic, there is no way of knowing if the snake has IBD.

If you are seriously concerned for your collection (and who wouldn't be), what you could do is always take the least valuable/favorite snake from your BP collection and house it in the same room with your boa. I have heard of keepers before using Normal BPs as 'canaries in the coal mine' type thing. They will house a BP with the boas to try and catch an infection, even if it's asymptomatic.

You could always do that and have a single BP exposed and then continue to keep them together for a time (not in the same enclosure, of course). That way you would feel more comfortable about moving the boa into your main collection if you felt so inclined.

And, if in the rare chance it is possible, you have not risked your entire collection.

But it's not foolproof. If they're in the same house, there is still that risk.

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Although in theory that makes sense, I get waaay too attached to my snakes, so I don't feel like it would be fair to do that to another snake even if it is only a normal. I guess I'll just keep her separate.