Doug
12-14-2002, 10:40 AM
Hi,
I am fairly new to boa keeping but I have seen a few really bad outcomes from not taking strong precautions with new boa's/pythons to your collections. :-/ You should wash your hands after handling any new snake or doing any cage maint on its cage and again before doing maint on another snakes cage. I try to do the newest snakes cage last that way I am not cross contaminating my older snakes cages somethig as simple as touching the edge of a water bowel may cause contamination in another animals cage.. I always treat the new snakes cage for mites for a few months in case he brought any home with him. IBD is becoming a rather unpleasent occurance in too many boa collections, SO I thought I would post a warning to any new boa keeper who may be adding a snake like you gonaa keep only one. yea right..
Many pet stores never change the litter between snakes and you may not know your snake has a problem for a few months that way the pet stores says " hey its your fault.". here's a couple well written web pages, >:(education can prevent a future disaster.
>:(
http://www.anapsid.org/ibd.html
and a sad story about a families loss of their collection of snakes over the period of a few months.
very sad yes this article is old but the disease is gaining ground again cwm24.gif
http://www.anapsid.org/deanne.html
I am becoming cynical about pet stores animals and their lack of good animal husbandry, know your seller or you may have a mess on your hands. And you could introduce mites in one cage and contaminate your your older healthy animals with mites and mites seem to be the common denominator with the spread of IBD. , If you see a sick snake don't try and rescue it you may infect your group of animals, and rememeber snakes can be ill for months and appear normal too. Ibd is similar to another immune disease and the mode of infection to full blown disease is a gradual process so it may appear a little different in each animal.. A simple rule is strict isolation for all new snakes, mite precautions on the new snakes cage. PS dont forget that feeding live and fresh killed rodents increases the risk of mites from that nasty pet store....
Doug
I am fairly new to boa keeping but I have seen a few really bad outcomes from not taking strong precautions with new boa's/pythons to your collections. :-/ You should wash your hands after handling any new snake or doing any cage maint on its cage and again before doing maint on another snakes cage. I try to do the newest snakes cage last that way I am not cross contaminating my older snakes cages somethig as simple as touching the edge of a water bowel may cause contamination in another animals cage.. I always treat the new snakes cage for mites for a few months in case he brought any home with him. IBD is becoming a rather unpleasent occurance in too many boa collections, SO I thought I would post a warning to any new boa keeper who may be adding a snake like you gonaa keep only one. yea right..
Many pet stores never change the litter between snakes and you may not know your snake has a problem for a few months that way the pet stores says " hey its your fault.". here's a couple well written web pages, >:(education can prevent a future disaster.
>:(
http://www.anapsid.org/ibd.html
and a sad story about a families loss of their collection of snakes over the period of a few months.
very sad yes this article is old but the disease is gaining ground again cwm24.gif
http://www.anapsid.org/deanne.html
I am becoming cynical about pet stores animals and their lack of good animal husbandry, know your seller or you may have a mess on your hands. And you could introduce mites in one cage and contaminate your your older healthy animals with mites and mites seem to be the common denominator with the spread of IBD. , If you see a sick snake don't try and rescue it you may infect your group of animals, and rememeber snakes can be ill for months and appear normal too. Ibd is similar to another immune disease and the mode of infection to full blown disease is a gradual process so it may appear a little different in each animal.. A simple rule is strict isolation for all new snakes, mite precautions on the new snakes cage. PS dont forget that feeding live and fresh killed rodents increases the risk of mites from that nasty pet store....
Doug