Quarentine Question

[Anya]

Sooo, in a couple weeks I'm picking up a spider! (yay!!!) So, I've obviously been thinking about housing and such... My current Pastel was acquired through a single-snake/reptile family (so no nasty anything coming in to contact with her) and she was bought by that family from the same place I'll be getting my spider. I've also only had my pastel for 2 months.

SO, with only 2 snakes from very very similar backgrounds, both recently acquired, is quarantine really necessary (in this case?) ?

[Jessica Loesch]

Yes. What if you new snake developed a URI? Just keep in a different room for a little.

[Anya]

But...couldn't it develop a URI at any point in time? And I know many people have 'quarantine racks' with many snakes waiting to be rotated out into the main collection...but...I only have two...

[ballpythonluvr]

Quarantine is a an absolute must when you acquire a new snake. I only have two snakes myself but I just got a new little girl on Tuesday and I have her in a completely different room from my male normal.

[wolfy-hound]

The new snake could easily have ben exposed to something else in the time between them acquiring the pastel and you acquiring the spider. Always better to quarentine. There's really no good reason to not quarentine and plenty of reasons to quarentine.

[Jessica Loesch]

But...couldn't it develop a URI at any point in time? And I know many people have 'quarantine racks' with many snakes waiting to be rotated out into the main collection...but...I only have two...

What do you mean??? with good husbandry, its not as common!!!! If you are spot on, you shouldn't have to worry about a URI occurring "at any point in time" for your own snakes.

that being said, you don't know what they were doing with their snakes or the conditions they were in before they cleaned its enclosure.

[Abaddon91]

just as a horror story my super pasetl was purcused and put into my bed room (main collection in living room) 2 days from picking him up he starts to show uri symptoms i came to find out tht the guy i bought from didnt have him on any heat (not really consurning as its around 100 in texas right now) no water and vry lil food and housed with 3 other snakes that he also sold that day so 4 of us 99% sure got sick snakes ive spent $200 on vet bills for just im cant think what id pay if my 8 others got sick

[llovelace]

QT is an absolute must, no way around, it's better to be safe than sorry.
Just set the new guy up in a tub, in a different room with a heat pad on a rheostat.

[AliCat37]

TECHNICALLY, if you wanted to really quarantine, you can't even have your snakes in the same building, as many things travel through the air.

Personally, I do not quarantine since I have a small collection. Yes, it is a risk. I KNOW. If I had thousands of dollars worth of snakes, then I would set up a different location to quarantine. Just and FYI, quarantine is 6 months. I don't have the ability to house a reptile at someone else's house for that length of time. Risky not to do it, yes.