Sanitary Issues?

[drezden]

Even if your BP hasn't crawled through its own poop, it could still have dead rodent germs from constricting its last meal, or have crawled through a little bit of urine.. etc.

I guess what I'm getting at is.. do I need to be paranoid when I let my BP crawl on my bed blanket and kitchen table.. or are those type of germs the kind that die quickly?

[Emily Hubbard]

My rule is not letting my snake or anything my snake touches (water bowl, etc) near where I eat. Therefore, I wouldn't let your snake on the kitchen table. I clean bowls and hides in the bathroom sink rather than the kitchen sink and I just keep a bottle of a bleach solution under the counter to give the sink a spritz when I'm done.

Salmonella is carried in the feces of reptiles, so the cleaner you keep the tank after they relieve themselves, the lower the risk. Just wash your hands after you touch your snake and keep its home clean and you don't have much to worry about. Snakes are pretty clean animals actually. But because the risk is there, however small, keeping the snakes out of the kitchen is a good rule for us all.

[kitedemon]

That is pretty good advise. I am not very paranoid about the snake carrying bacteria on the scales and skin. Typically they do not make good places for bacteria to live in the massive numbers that effect humans. Simple hand washing before and after is usually all it takes and as Emily pointed out a heathy clean habitat for the snake will go a long way to keep everybody healthy. If you are concerned mostly with Salmonella vinegar is effective against it too and a lot less hazardous than bleach can be. There are also a number of chemical disinfectants that are also very good at killing off harmful bacteria that are more reptile friendly than bleach is as well. (chlorhexidine, F10 are my favs.)

[DooLittle]

There was a poll about people getting salmonella on here awhile back, and I remember one extreme (to me anyhow) comment, where the person actually changed their clothes after handling the snake before going to bed. I think I am in the middle of the road with caution. I also wash out bowls in the bathroom sink, they do not go near the kitchen. Then when I am done, I clorox the bathroom sink down. We wash our hands after we hold them. But they crawl all over us and the floor and couch. My snakes are also kept very clean, so I don't worry as much, since I know they haven't been lounging in poop.

[Annarose15]

My rule is not letting my snake or anything my snake touches (water bowl, etc) near where I eat. Therefore, I wouldn't let your snake on the kitchen table. I clean bowls and hides in the bathroom sink rather than the kitchen sink and I just keep a bottle of a bleach solution under the counter to give the sink a spritz when I'm done.

Salmonella is carried in the feces of reptiles, so the cleaner you keep the tank after they relieve themselves, the lower the risk. Just wash your hands after you touch your snake and keep its home clean and you don't have much to worry about. Snakes are pretty clean animals actually. But because the risk is there, however small, keeping the snakes out of the kitchen is a good rule for us all.

This is really a good general rule for all pets. I don't let my cat or dog hang out on the kitchen counter, either, and I wash my hands after playing with them.

[Slim]

Wow, I just learned that I'm a lot less careful about snake germs than some of you. I do wash my hands before and after handling, but I do my husbandry cleaning in my kitchen sink, and always have.

As far as where my snakes can crawl, I have a personal rule about not letting them crawl on anything that I'm not willing to have them poop on...a hard learned lesson. If I'm going to let them crawl on the bed or on the floor, I put a towel down first. Then the towel goes in the wash.

I guess after spending so much time in Afghanistan living in an upholstered toilet, I don't worry as much about germs as I used to...

[drezden]

There was a poll about people getting salmonella on here awhile back,

Do you remember roughly how many people had gotten salmonella poisoning from their snakes on this website?

[Mike41793]

Do you remember roughly how many people had gotten salmonella poisoning from their snakes on this website?

0. You have like a 10x better chance of getting it from poorly prepared and cooked chicken

[Annarose15]

Wow, I just learned that I'm a lot less careful about snake germs than some of you. I do wash my hands before and after handling, but I do my husbandry cleaning in my kitchen sink, and always have.

I guess after spending so much time in Afghanistan living in an upholstered toilet, I don't worry as much about germs as I used to...

I have been known to drink straight from the garden hose. I guess what doesn't kill you makes you stronger. There have actually been studies showing that children raised in homes with pets have fewer allergies as they grow up - I take the same approach with most germs.

[sleepygeckos]

I believe the quoted chance of a CBB herp having salmonella is 1% and that is mostly turtles...? That being said, we have designated areas where reptiles can be - their enclosure, the table assigned to their stuff and the human handling them. We wash after handling any reptile. Herp food/gutload stored in human fridge/freezer are double bagged- outside clean hands, inside herp'ed hands. Since my geckos are fond of playing Climb the Girl, I often end up changing clothes and or taking a shower if they are especially troublesome.

Now part of this is because I have a poor immune system and don't want to take any chances that my reptiles have anything... however, up against a wall if you were to put into law "You can keep it if you lick it" reptile ban, I believe I'd be just fine. In the meantime, not worth the risk for just a little bit of vigilance.

(Of course I don't condone licking reptiles, but it makes my point.)