Do you re-use...?

[lance]

If you had a snake I wanted to buy and I looked into your rep, and it was good, and I ordered a snake from you and the snake arrived promptly and in good health, in a brand new shiny box, I would QT the snake and inspect/disinfect the box and place it away for future use.

If I didn't trust that the snake from you was likely to be free of mites and in good condition, I wouldn't have ordered from you. If the snake did end up with mites, EVERYTHING in the QT room would be treated.

You are MORE likely to pick up mites from walking into a pet store, vet office or expo, than you are from receiving a snake in the mail from a respected breeder. And if you did pick up some hitchhiker mites from a local collection, the QT room will do you no good. Your snakes and your stack of new boxes could get mites crawling around on them too.

The point is that a clean, structually sound box is just a box.

Rick

extremely well said

lance

[twh]

i wash all cloth bags before reusing them.with boxes that are in good used condition i put them in the chest freezer for two weeks or longer before reusing them.

i just find it hard to throw away good used items in a effort to try to impress a customer.have fun!

[Blue Apple Herps]

If you had a snake I wanted to buy and I looked into your rep, and it was good, and I ordered a snake from you and the snake arrived promptly and in good health, in a brand new shiny box, I would QT the snake and inspect/disinfect the box and place it away for future use.

If I didn't trust that the snake from you was likely to be free of mites and in good condition, I wouldn't have ordered from you. If the snake did end up with mites, EVERYTHING in the QT room would be treated.

You are MORE likely to pick up mites from walking into a pet store, vet office or expo, than you are from receiving a snake in the mail from a respected breeder. And if you did pick up some hitchhiker mites from a local collection, the QT room will do you no good. Your snakes and your stack of new boxes could get mites crawling around on them too.

The point is that a clean, structually sound box is just a box.

Rick

Right, but doesn't matter for me. Of course I only buy from people who I trust and believe them to have satisfactory husbandry. But I think its best to always assume the worst that they could have an unknown disease or something that they nor I don't know about.

A box is maybe $3 tops. I'd rather use and receive new boxes every time, than to risk a $1k snake, just to be on the paranoid and safe side.

[Blue Apple Herps]

i just find it hard to throw away good used items in a effort to try to impress a customer.have fun!

I don't think its an issue of impressing a customer, but doing your best to ensure they get a healthy snake.

And for me as a customer, that means using a new box/bag/deli cup when I receive a shipment. As a customer I would be very upset if I received a snake in a used box or bag.

[sho220]

i wash all cloth bags before reusing them.with boxes that are in good used condition i put them in the chest freezer for two weeks or longer before reusing them.

i just find it hard to throw away good used items in a effort to try to impress a customer.have fun!

I would think this would take care of contamination concerns. I would have no problem receiving a snake in used shipping materials if they were treated like this.

Also, I think the cost issue is being brought up when the real issue is having perfectly fine cardboard, bags and styrofoam being tossed in landfills.

[4theSNAKElady]

I have reused boxes,as long as they're in good shape.Snake bags, not really. But, I have kept and reused my 8Ballpythons snake bags for other misc purposes... (heck, now they're prob collector's items,lol)