I had snakes 25-30 years ago back in the dark ages before the internet was invented. I learned what to do from my pet shop owner friend and the chapter about pet snakes in a reptile book he recommended. My first snake, a two year old chocolate brown rainbow boa, had newspaper on the bottom of his tank, a hot rock, an overhead bulb for heat, and a water dish. Every Saturday, I took out the paper, wiped the bottom of the cage with a sponge if anything had soaked through, put down some fresh paper, rinsed his dish, and gave him clean water and a live mouse. Then, I took some really bad advice about snakes loving sun and it never being too hot for a rainbow... and killed my beloved Tai. I cried for weeks, and that was it for me and snakes. A few years later I got a ball python and a redtail boa, but it just wasn't the same so after a year I let them go to new homes.

Fast forward to last month when I brought Pandora home, knowing I could do better than in the past, and found this site. I have learned a tremendous amount, and made a lot of changes based on information I've found here. Pandora is thriving in a far better environment than my other snakes had as a result. So please understand, I am not against changing the way I do things, and it is not my intention to take shortcuts or cheap out and risk hurting my snake. I am very open to reasonable recommendations and cautionary tales.

Recently, there have been multiple threads about tank cleaning and disinfecting, involving bleach and antibacterial stuff and really frequent disinfection and cleaning schedules. Is this really necessary? It seems excessive. Please don't just say "because your snake will get an RI or other dread disease and either die or cost you a million dollars at the vet." That didn't happen to any of my other snakes who didn't have the benefit of near-sterile conditions. There were no respiratory problems, no skin problems, no parasites, nothing. I'm not feeding Pandora in her enclosure because she's never been fed in her enclosure, and she doesn't seem to mind being handled, so there's no chance of mouse-born issues. I remove poop and urates promptly along with all the cypress in the area and make sure the glass is clean. My plan was to replace substrate completely and hose down the tank and all its contents every couple of months or any time there was stuck on yuckiness that needed more than a couple passes with a damp sponge. I use hot water and a sponge on the water dish every other day when I change the water. So why isn't that enough? Is it because of the increased humidity in modern tanks? Do I really need to do all that cleaning and disinfecting? I'm not criticizing, I'm looking for information.