Myth or not?

[marisa]

"You are the first person i know, that truly holds the future in his hands"

And yep. I am proud to say that as for reptiles, I definitly hold the future of my collection and who it is housed at all times, in my hands. I have taken lots of steps to make sure that happens as anyone who wants to can. I simply shared that.

Marisa
P.S. I'd also like to add I actually said I LIKED this thread, and was glad it was brought up. I didn't once say you were wrong Jimmy or anything even close. You decided to make that comment for no reason at all in attack against me for whatever your reasons.

[Gary D.]

What Marisa suggests works for her makes wonderful sense. If one can see the cage repairs, cleaning, tornado, tsunami, whatever, coming why not prepare for it. I's not hard to keep a couple large rubbermaids around just incase.

Kicker is when you might not have that advance warning (really as was the case in Phuket) the dog knocks a lamp into the glass frontage on your retic cage, and you can't replace the glass for a couple of days or more. A rubbermaid will not do the trick no matter how the duration of the stay. Or perhaps there's another ice storm in Quebec killing all power for a few weeks. Over crowding and mixing species because your eliminator or generator or hot water bottles will only go so far is better than freezing.

I hould hate to have some kid allow his ball python die all because he was told on a ssnakess forum that mixing species or communal caging, no matter what, is bad and should NEVER be done. That the ball and the boa will become sick and die from exposure to one another, so he had best just choose one and let the other die.

I think what Jimmy meant was that one can never be truly prepared for all circumstances.

.

[marisa]

Of course not. But bringing up that horrible disaster in that context was tasteless, classless and tacky at best.

It's unfrotuante anyone would react that way to simple conversation. Especially using those poor peoples lives as an example to make his point. Sad.

Thanks for getting my point Gary. I prefer to be prepared at all times, and avoid praticing things I do not agree with by putting in the money, time and thought into trying my best to avoid them. Obviously the things you mentioned DO happen. You simply took the time to explain your position far better than Jimmy could ever have apparently.

I still like this thread and the discussion.

Marisa

[peterm15]

i dont currently own any snakes... but if someone can prepare for what MIGHT happen ( which is what merrisa has done) that there is not one thing that is unavoidable.... mistakes and accidents, ect. ect. all happen because of one thing.. human error.. so if you prepare for what mistakes you might make then there would be no need to ever house snakes together... unless you wanted to... ( breeding and such)

now ive heard stories of ppls collection dieing off cause of a desiese that a sympton is star gazing.. sorry... i dont remember the name.. but either way.. the snakes werent housed together so how did it happen... human error.. handleing one snake than another.. without taking proper measures..

so my moral is if you prepare there should never be a need to house snakes together.. (unless breeding)

[Jeff Hathaway]

peterm, the star gazing disease you refer to is inclusion body disease virus (IBDV) which I mentioned. A nasty virus, which can, if I recall correctly, be carried by boas asymptomatically and then wipe out any pythons that get exposed to them (or perhaps it is the other way around...).

Certainly, being prepared is good. Having spare rubbermaids, cages, etc. is great. And if you break the glass of a larger cage, as we recently did, cut a piece of plywood of the same thickness to replace it until the new glass is ready (usually a couple of days). No plywood, no saw? Go to Home Depot with the measurements and they'll cut it for you. And I couldn't say enough about back up generators if you've got a large collection.

However, you can't prepare for everything. In the unlikely event that a major disaster comes around, I doubt anyone will be losing any sleep about whether they bagged their ball and their boa together before heading out for the evacuation shelter. I think we need to stay focused on the things that pose realistic threats in a given area.

And I'll close by saying that I do house snakes of the same species together, for the long term. It isn't evil (thanks, Marisa). It does pose some risks but they can be managed if you know what you're doing. The word 'need' is over used a lot- none of us need any snakes at all. But it can be reasonable to house things together if the benefits outweigh the risks. Each of us must evaluate their own situation carefully, from an informed vantage point.

Jeff Hathaway
Sciensational Sssnakes!!

[peterm15]

jef... just so you know i was useing need in such a way that if you wanted to you could house snakes together but if not than you have that choice as well..