Remodeling in the Snake Tank! (Pic-Heavy Thread)

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Originally Posted by Raven01

Granted I cannot guarantee iron toxicity in reptiles why take the risk?

"Iron poisoning is an iron overload caused by a large excess of iron intake and usually refers to an acute overload rather than a gradual one. The term has been primarily associated with young children who consumed large quantities of iron supplement pills, which resemble sweets and are widely used, including by pregnant women—see overnutrition (approximately 3 grams is lethal for a 2 year old"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_poisoning
Any 2 year old considerably outweighs the largest BP so dosage could be miniscule if the function is the same biologically.
If you have contradictory info from someone like a herp vet please do share it so that I can stop spending on stainless for pet=steel with small animals.
Thanks.

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you need to consider how much 250 mg or 3 grams are. a bit of rust, enough to leave a visible red stain on your fingers, is maybe around 5 milligrams, upper estimate, it may only be 1 milligram. so you need to rub your fingers against rusty iron until they visibly have red dirt on them, and then lick them clean, and repeat that for 50 times at least, to get to 250 milligrams. Now how is a BP with its tiny toungue supposed to get that done?

rust doesnt look good and is hard to keep clean, but really, not poisonous or toxic. still thinking about a good analogy for 250 milligrams. a small bean, or a large pill, thats about the weight. you really need large surfaces that rust like crazy to get there, and then the snake needs to somehow scoop it all up and swallow it.

btw:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_poisoning

I am well aware of sizes and weights.

"Toxic effects begin to occur at doses above 10–20 mg/kg of elemental iron. Ingestions of more than 50 mg/kg of elemental iron are associated with severe toxicity"

^^^^ that is for humans so unless reptiles process iron differently (which they very well may) a 250 gm BP could exhibit toxic effects at a lowly 2.5-5mg, (think dragging a damp rat across exposed rust.)
Until I see info regarding reptiles metabolizing iron safely I will prefer to err on the side of caution even if it costs me a little bit more.

elemental iron means that it has not yet turned into rust, and will consume oxygen until it has turned into rust, and can also take other chemical routes instead of turning into rust.

iron powder, can burn, rust cannot burn.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Kurtilein

elemental iron means that it has not yet turned into rust, and will consume oxygen until it has turned into rust, and can also take other chemical routes instead of turning into rust.

iron powder, can burn, rust cannot burn.

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Rust can burn, mix it with aluminium to make poor man's thermite (do not try this inside or near anything flammable it burns at a very high temp and can melt steel containers). And, yes I know all about Fe₂O_3, Fe₃O_4, FeO, etc.
That still does not address any of the issues I asked about.
I`m not telling you not to do this as I don`t have concrete evidence either way.
What I did say is, without concrete evidence that it is safe I wouldn`t suggest people expose their reptiles to it.

To get back to the habitat itself-- Magnus only just "discovered" the tubing yesterday and it's his new favorite shedding tool. He also manages to cram himself into it as a hide, which I wasn't expecting to work, but ball pythons are crafty. Heh. I'll post a pic when Photobucket's working a little better for me. :)