do you have quarantine enclosures?

ErikBush97 · 11-02-13, 03:13 PM

Hey, everyone. When I buy boas, I keep them in totes. Once quarantine is over, I buy them AP cages. Anyone do anything similar or do you just put them right in there permanent enclosures? The reason I like to do it like that, is because if I buy a snake, put it in a T8 (for example), and it dies... I'm now out $215 and I have a huge cage in my house, not being used.

marvelfreak · 11-02-13, 03:18 PM

I have have totes that i use for quarantine once a snake moves out and into a bigger cage they get bleached. Once dry they get wash out really good a second time with soap and mild bleach. Then before any snake goes into one it gets treated with PAM.

ErikBush97 · 11-02-13, 03:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by marvelfreak

I have have totes that i use for quarantine once a snake moves out and into a bigger cage they get bleached. Once dry they get wash out really good a second time with soap and mild bleach. Then before any snake goes into one it gets treated with PAM.

good idea. I just wash my two quarantine enclosures out with 20% bleach, 80% water. Let it dry, wash it out with water, wash it with 10% bleach, 90% water. Let it dry, wash it with water, let it dry again and wash it out with water again. Then I let it sit outside for one day just in case, and that's the way I've been doing it.

DeadlyDesires · 11-02-13, 03:34 PM

just curious?? why use pam?

Valvaren · 11-02-13, 03:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DeadlyDesires

just curious?? why use pam?

Pam = provent-a-mite

DeadlyDesires · 11-02-13, 03:38 PM

oh ok lol..

marvelfreak · 11-02-13, 03:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DeadlyDesires

just curious?? why use pam?

Provent A Mite i use on the cages before i get a new snake and put them in the cage because if it has mites it will help kill them. Plus i also treat the snake it self with reptile relief.

muffiewrites · 11-02-13, 08:15 PM

I only have the one snake, and I don't intend to purchase anymore, but I still have a feeding cage/quarantine enclosure. He's in a natural viv, so I think it's necessary to have an enclosure that's without dirt.

I don't use bleach. I use vinegar on it, and then hot, hot water (my tap can scald people), and then I let it sit in the sun. I do that after every feeding. I put paper towels in it for substrate when he stays in there longer than a feeding. I have a zippered pillowcase for transportation (any car rides or farther than my property line), but he rarely goes anywhere that I can't just hold him. I put him in the feeding cage after a trip outside because mites and a natural viv? Maybe not as bad as I'm imagining, but why find out for realsies.

On the vinegar thing, if I were bringing new herps or a new enclosure in, I would use bleach simply because vinegar hasn't been tested fully against all bacteria. It's enough to clean up after feeder mice because if these mice leave behind the kinds of salmonella that vinegar can't kill, the snake already ate it. New herps/enclosures are different because I would have no idea what kinds of bacteria they'd been exposed to before I got them and wouldn't want to take that chance.

A herper from the herp club I used to belong to would soak her herps in a betadyne solution on a regular basis, particularly new ones, and then use olive oil (very lightly) to condition their scales. I have no idea what to think about that, other than the sterilization factor involved in the betadyne. Spike's had no troubles with his scales or shed since he's been in the natural viv.

KORBIN5895 · 11-02-13, 09:00 PM

Well the good news is that mites aren't found in the wild here in north america. Secondly the olive oil is probably very annoying for the snakes skin.

MDT · 11-02-13, 09:22 PM

And studies now are showing that betadyne is likely cytotoxic. It does have an adverse effect on healing wounds. Why in God's name would you soak a snake in Betadyne???

Muffiewrites, why do you feed in separate enclosure?

muffiewrites · 11-03-13, 09:19 PM

I have no idea why she did the betadyne and olive thing, other than to condition the snakes' skins, as she put it. I don't do it. My guy's got great skin.

Quote:

Originally Posted by MDT

Muffiewrites, why do you feed in separate enclosure?

Two reasons. One, so he doesn't eat any dirt. I dunno if it matters or not, but he's not out in the wild and his ability to move around is limited. He can't get perfectly straight. I doubt eating dirt every once in a while is tantamount to sticking a stake in a vampire's chest, but better safe than sorry. I have far more control over what doesn't go in his belly in an enclosure that has nothing in it but him and the feeders.

Two, operant conditioning. He may hunt around his cage when it's near feeding time, but he never finds food there. He only gets to eat after I've held him. Most of the time, he eats while I hold him. This means keeping my hands fisted because thumbs look like fuzzies. A drop of vinegar will get him to release his bite faster than anything else.

Mikoh4792 · 11-03-13, 09:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by muffiewrites

Two, operant conditioning. He may hunt around his cage when it's near feeding time, but he never finds food there. He only gets to eat after I've held him. Most of the time, he eats while I hold him. This means keeping my hands fisted because thumbs look like fuzzies. A drop of vinegar will get him to release his bite faster than anything else.

And all this can be avoided if you feed inside the enclosure, so your snake associates only the cage with food, instead of associating food with being taken out.

muffiewrites · 11-03-13, 09:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by KORBIN5895

Well the good news is that mites aren't found in the wild here in north america. Secondly the olive oil is probably very annoying for the snakes skin.

Snakes mites are starting to show up in the US. They already occur in parts of Mexico. As more captive bred snakes are released into the wild by irresponsible owners or by accident or catastrophes (tornadoes, etc), so will snake mites.

North America is covered in other types of mites. Wild birds are the major carriers.

muffiewrites · 11-03-13, 09:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mikoh4792

And all this can be avoided if you feed inside the enclosure, so your snake associates only the cage with food, instead of associating food with being taken out.

Normally, I would agree with you, but Spike quit striking every time the door opened after I quit feeding him in his cage. I originally thought it was because I wasn't feeding him enough, but that wasn't the case. Neither was it startling him with sudden intrusions into his cage. He does the hide then strike thing when startled, not an aggressive strike. He will strike if I startle him while he's out in the open. Now, I can stick my hand in there, even wiggle my fingers, and he just wraps himself around his branches. We're getting to the point where he'll come investigate my hand when the doors are open. Eventually, I think we'll progress to the point where he'll climb out on my hand on his own.

It's the holding him while feeding him that's the biting issue, and that has more to do with me than with him. One bite in two years isn't bad.

Mikoh4792 · 11-03-13, 10:19 PM

How long exactly after you took him into your collection did you start feeding him outside the enclosure?

Your case may be true, but it's also possible that he's stopped striking merely as a result of getting used to you, the way snakes tame down with regular interaction.

In my experience this is also true for snakes that are fed inside their enclosures. They calm down through interaction more so than the situations they associate feeding with. Except when they are fed inside their enclosures, they are less likely to associate handling with feeding time.

Besides you even said yourself that her strikes were more of a defensive strike than a feeding response strike.