Do you let others in your snake-room??

[Vasiliki]

Congrats on the 3-pager, haha.

I have a very small collection, so I've had people over before that were both reptile and non-reptile people. But recently I've been rethinking things.

You see, we have a local reptile society and we do monthly meetings. At these meetings, various people are invited to bring their animals if they like, to show them off and meet with others. It's a great event. But we've had a few problems with new-comers not respecting our rules for the meetings. (Minimum quarantine length, proper handling practices such as sanitizer between animals, etc). In fact, one of the reptile keepers has been 'battling' mites for the past few months and she has come to two meetings.

It was enough to make me question even friends, you know? It's great to see everyone, and see the new animals, but it was enough to make me seriously rethink what I'm comfortable with.

I spoke with one of our biggest breeders, who came to a meeting the month before last, and she kept her animals in display boxes similar to the show kind. I obviously inquired, and she informed me: "I want people to feel involved with what we're working with, but nobody can hold the animals anymore. It's just not worth it. My collection is too hard and valuable to have something happen to it."

Each animal she brings to the meetings then goes through quarantine again, so she doesn't often bring anything but her males that are done for the season.

What she was saying made total sense. Even if we trust the person we're interacting with, that doesn't mean that they haven't come into contact with someone else who wasn't on the ball. Heck, I went with a friend to a pet store to check out a BP she was interested in (I was trying to talk her out of it) and upon handling the animal, my hands were covered in mites. (Note: I treated myself as if I was a biohazard, which almost got me in trouble when I stripped in my back yard before going into my house, bwahaha)

So, what happens if one of our newcomers interacts with animals from a pet store, doesn't notice the mites and goes home? They might think their collection is safe, but it's not.

Now?.... I don't know how I feel. I enjoy taking my reptiles out to educational outings, so I can't quite say that I keep my collection at home under lock and key, away from the world. But part of me is becoming more and more nervous about interacting with people with other reptiles. Not because I distrust them, but because I just don't know where they've been.

Not an easy question, for sure.