I need opinions - 2 snakes 1 cage

[Riv]

@wilonm Youre absolutely right. There is a lot of people out there that say you should NEVER do this, and thats the whole reason we're talking about this in the first place. Up until the quarentine thing I had agreed with skip on most fronts. It is purely in experience, skill and knowledge, and those who cant do flame those who can. I was just trying to keep the conversation in a friendly tone thats all.

@Hypnotixdmp That sounds great to me. I generally go heat lamps with a mister for humidity, but hey, a regulated UTH sould work just fine. I would recommend investing in a temp gun though. It makes checking your temps the easiest thing in the world and they last forever. I dont even use thermometers anymore, digital or otherwise. Theyre about $100 at home depot. Pricey, but mine is still going strong two years later and I could be happier. 100 gallons should be more than enough room as adults, and your feeding schedule should work in theory. I hope you enjoy your babies! Personally I love watching my girls interact with each other. I'll have to split them up once theyre large enough to be breeders, but im contemplating raising my female normals like that from now on.

SORRY FOR THE DOUBLE POST GUYS, THEY APPARENTLY DONT LET YOU EDIT UNTIL TEN MINUTES AFTER THE POST, AND I HAVE TO GO NOW!

[hypnotixdmp]

Well thanks you 2, I got my 2nd baby yesterday, he's a beautiful spider + possible het hypo, hopefully he's het hypo but if not it's still cool!! I have him quarantined in another room and we use window units so every room has it's own airflow system. I got to see my little guy eat at the breeders before I took him home and even got the chance to see a lot of other snakes in general, stuff I've never seen lol. But I posted another thread called "New Spider + Possible Het Hypo" with a couple pix check it out!!!!

[wilomn]

Calling Skip a liar is akin to calling yourself an ignorant sphincter. Just because YOU don't think something is necessary does not mean no one else does. It's not such a difficult concept in spite of the fact that some of you simply refuse to acknowledge it.

[Skiploder]

Are you kidding me? 3-4 weeks is plenty. In ONE months time you can say with 100% certainty that is either does or does not have a URI, or mites and ideally if its been eating well you should have had more than one opperunity to examine its stool for texture and parasites. The only thing you may not know about is an airborn pathogen, and if youre using the same ventilation system throughout your house it MAY still get to your other snake regardless. Six months, thats an insane extreme. If you tell me you quarentine every one of your snakes that way Ill call you a liar.

I quarantine every one of my snakes and keep them out of the snake house for 6 months. Period. I've been around long enough to have endured various viruses and other pathogens that remain aymptomatic for longer than 3 months or that do not shed oocysts continuosly and can take several fecals to detect, while the snake remains asymptomatic the entire time. Mites and URIs are the least of my worries - I've seen collections decimated by much worse because people were stupid enough to not follow proper quarrantine procedures.

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Calling Skip a liar is akin to calling yourself an ignorant sphincter. Just because YOU don't think something is necessary does not mean no one else does. It's not such a difficult concept in spite of the fact that some of you simply refuse to acknowledge it.

I'll consider the source, Wes, and not lose a wink of sleep over it.

Cheers.

[satomi325]

Are you kidding me? 3-4 weeks is plenty. In ONE months time you can say with 100% certainty that is either does or does not have a URI, or mites and ideally if its been eating well you should have had more than one opperunity to examine its stool for texture and parasites. The only thing you may not know about is an airborn pathogen, and if youre using the same ventilation system throughout your house it MAY still get to your other snake regardless. Six months, thats an insane extreme. If you tell me you quarntine every one of your snakes that way Ill call you a liar.

The average quarantine practice here is 6 -12 months. I do 6 months minimum for each one of my snakes. Im not saying everyone does it, but some harmful agents can live dormant for ~9 months before breaking out. When a zoo quarantines their new animals, you can bet its 6 months or longer. Same thing goes for if one moves to a certain country or vice versa. Its to protect the resident animals. The point being animals can pass other things to each other. And I'm not talking about RI or mites, which are pretty obvious to identify in a few weeks or less, like you said. Some people have invested thousands of dollars in some collections. It would be very sad and a huge waste if an outbreak of something occurred in a large collection due to poor quarantine procedures. Like I mentioned before, better safe than sorry.


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[Skiploder]

The average quarantine practice here is 6 -12 months. I do 6 months minimum for each one of my snakes. Im not saying everyone does it, but some harmful agents can live dormant for ~9 months before breaking out. When a zoo quarantines their new animals, you can bet its 6 months or longer. Same thing goes for if one moves to a certain country or vice versa. Its to protect the resident animals. The point being animals can pass other things to each other. And I'm not talking about RI or mites, which are pretty obvious to identify in a few weeks or less, like you said. Some people have invested thousands of dollars in some collections. It would be very sad and a huge waste if an outbreak of something occurred in a large collection due to poor quarantine procedures. Like I mentioned before, better safe than sorry.


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Nikki, so that we may better educate our dear Riv, would you care to enlighten him on where you are going to school and where you work? You've shared it with us before so I don't think I'm asking you to divulge any deep, dark secrets............

I'd hate for him to think you are a liar too.

[satomi325]

Nikki, so that we may better educate our dear Riv, would you care to enlighten him on where you are going to school and where you work? You've shared it with us before so I don't think I'm asking you to divulge any deep, dark secrets............

I'd hate for him to think you are a liar too.

I attended the University of California, Davis in Animal Biology. Possibly on my way to vet or grad school. I have been working in a research laboratory for UC Davis Medical Center since 2010 with stem cells and immunodeficient animals.
With laboratory animal colonies, you have to have a strict quarantine protocol in order to protect the animals. It is very important to keep residents from being exposed to new entry animals due to the possible risk of contagious pathogens that could potentially destroy an entire project and/or years of work. A couple weeks is not long enough to quarantine. Like I mentioned in my previous post, some pathogens can lay dormant for months before breaking out. You don't know what the new animal has or has been exposed to in its life. Its the same thing with pets at home. Especially reptiles. Treating a sick reptile is not easy as mammals. Can you imagine a big breeder treating his collection of a hundred+ snakes because a new snake gave the collection something nasty? Its not easy and its not cheap. Even treating something as simple as RI can be costly and difficult. Its not easy on the keeper and it is especially not easy on the animal. All this could be avoided with proper quarantine. Many of us have invested a lot of time, energy, and money in our collection and/or breeding projects. Some have spent years selectively breeding in wanted traits and breeding out unwanted traits. If proper quarantine can prevent losing those years and effort, then why not do it? It can only do you good, never bad.



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[WingedWolfPsion]

I quarantine for a full 12 months in a separate room, with no equipment exchanged. I believe anything less is a ridiculous risk.

Some of the more deadly viruses can incubate for up to 10 months--and that's information from a vet. I will not risk my collection by cutting the quarantine period short. Safe is safe--everything contagious (that I am aware of) will show up within 1 year.
The same cannot be said of 1 month, 3 months, or even 6 months.

How much of a risk you want to take is up to you, but don't be naive about the level of risk you are taking. Every year there are people who report losing their entire collections to viruses.

[Riv]

Well, I suppose I stand corrected. I apoligize for calling you a liar skip. Id never heard of anyone quarentining that long before. You practically told me the sky was green, and turns out you were right. Ill have to observe a longer quarentine from here on. I suppose I should count myself lucky for not having gotten anything worse than mites thus far..

[Skiploder]

Well, I suppose I stand corrected. I apoligize for calling you a liar skip. Id never heard of anyone quarentining that long before. You practically told me the sky was green, and turns out you were right. Ill have to observe a longer quarentine from here on. I suppose I should count myself lucky for not having gotten anything worse than mites thus far..

It's all good.

Peace.