A day late, but better late than never, right? Now, we quarantine for 3 - 6 months, regardless of whether we’ve had dealings with the breeder before. I say now, because we’ve had our dealings with crypto in the past.
When we receive animals, they all go on paper towel, in a room isolated from the rest of our established collection. Once we’re sure they’re mite-free, we put them on shavings, makes it easier to collect fresh fecal samples when they’re not smeared all over paper towels. We send 3 - 4 fecal samples to the lab during their time in quarantine, testing for parasites. Feeding schedules are staggered, with quarantine animals fed on separate days, using separate forceps and us wearing gloves.
We don’t just practice this protocol with new animals. After every show we vend, we have a quarantine rack set up for the animals coming back from the show.
Having learned the hard way, I don’t feel quarantine on it’s own is adequate enough. Being proactive and testing for virus and parasites should be a part of good quarantine practices.
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Testing for nido/arena/ompv should be part of any given quarantine. Not just for boids, but just about anything.
Amphibians should be tested for rana/bsal.
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I have a feeling that if these tests were commonplace a lot of collections would suddenly be for sale.
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I would put Bdend in there too. Above Bsal even
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That said, the problem with these tests is that in most cases they have outpaced out actual understanding of the diseases.
We can now easily test for nido but we do not have a clear understanding of how the pathogen behaves. Some snakes get terribly ill, but some do not. Some snakes appear to clear the pathogen, but some seem to constantly shed it. Sequence data shows us that there are many, varied strains/subspecies of the virus but we do not know if there is equally varied pathogenicity. And the tests are just broad detectors, not variant detectors. So did your snake that tested positive for nido test positive for Ball nido? Or Corn nido? Or chondro nido? Or BTS nido?
We cannot answer these questions but people are testing their animals and then, when they get a hot animal, they kill all the animals in their collection “as a preventative measure” (I have seen at least five cases of this).
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Fully agree. I have always considered testing to be part of the quarantine process. Just sticking something in a box somewhere else for a while is not quarantine
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Do you do your own testing or send it off somewhere? It seems way cheaper/more practical to do it yourself (although I guess if time is a factor…)
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Depends on what I am testing for. I can do a fecal float at home with little effort, but I do not have a BSC and real-tine PCR platform at home (much to my chagrin)
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But how cool would it be if you did…
I am debating just buying the reagents myself and taking the samples into lab to test. But also all my snakes, quarantined and otherwise, are in the same room because my apartment is small, so it may be a moot point
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For $60 plus shipping you can get a sample tested for nido/arena/ompv. It should be a no brainer for anyone with a existing collection or quarantine.
There is a good chance that there is a type of nido and arena virus for just about every reptile species out there. At this point it shouldn’t matter what strain/type of virus a animal tests positive for. It should be culled and sent for pathology.
These issues have been swept under the rug for far too long. Arena has been going on since the early 90’s and nido popped up in a bad way in the early 2000’s. We’ve come a long way in understanding both, but have so much more to go.
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Well you have just proven my point about the ability to test having outpaced our actual understanding of these diseases…
LCMV and IBD are both arenaviruses, when three of the major rodent suppliers were found to have LCMV in their stocks did you cull your snakes? Given your logic you should have but I would bet good money you did not. Why is that??
Host specificity is a thing. It has been shown across all levels of the animal kingdom that some viruses/bacteria are perfectly co-adapted to a given host species to the point that they are benign, but if they spill over into a different species/genus they then become pathogenic. So if your corn snake is infected with corn nido that it has evolved with in tandem across aeons to the point of mutualism, then burning your entire collection to the ground over a positive test is idiotic. But the tests available cannot tell you whether it is corn nido or ball nido. So people have decided that it is a great idea to kill animals that may not actually be sick because there is a huge ignorance gap that everyone is turning a blind eye to
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I use the Ultratherm Reptile UTH with my quarantine box for the same reason. Since it’s a temporary setup it’s nice to know that it’s limited power if something goes wrong.
I’ve tested my mat with the quarantine tub I have and ended up with 100F on the hotspot, which is still too hot to be truly safe but the rest of the box stays below 90F. But doing the same with runaway THG tape is easily over 130F and the whole box is over 100F.
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Is it okay to quarantine new reptiles together? This is a genuine question. If I got 2 ball pythons from different places can I quarantine them in the same room, different tubs?
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I would say yes. However; something to keep in mind.
If the animals come in at the same time, you can quarantine them for the same amount of time. Say you’re doing a 90 day quarantine. Both animals after 90 days can go to your reptile room. However, if you have one animal and then 45 days later you add another to the quarantine room, your quarantine clock needs to reset and start at day 0. This is just best practice to make sure nothing is going to contaminate your current collection.
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Welcome to our forum, @mrsowlington ! There are a lot of good, knowledgeable keepers and breeders to help!
While it’s not possible in a lot of situations and living spaces, I have quarantined 2 of my snakes bought at different times in 2 other additional separate rooms too. Paranoia gets the best of me sometimes 
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I have a newbie question. Do you use any substrate during quarantine? I was told paper towels for the whole time. I dont have the snake yet but I’m getting the setup ready.
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Paper substrate like paper towels is usually a good idea. It just makes it easier to monitor poops and for things likes mites.
If it’s your first reptile, you don’t really need to quarantine it in the sense that you’re trying to prevent the spread of pathogens and parasites to other reptiles, but it’s still a good idea to monitor the animal closely to ensure it doesn’t have any pre-existing problems. Keeping on something like paper towels for the first few weeks at least just makes that easier. It does somewhat depend on the species, though. Many burrowing species won’t feel secure without loose substrate to hide in, so I’d argue against using paper towels for those species.
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No its my second. I have a leo in my bedroom. My snake will be a corn snake. I have lots of fake foilage and places to climb and hide for her. Im so excited to get her. Just one more week yay
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Ah, in that case, you’ll definitely want to keep your new slithery friend in a separate room from your leo, make sure you’re not sharing any supplies or decor between them (so things likes hides, water bowls, feeding tongs, ect.), and wash your hands and ideally change your shirt after handling the new corn snake and before entering the room with your leo. Odds are your new snake will be fine and healthy, but it’s good to practice these precautions for at least 3 months after bringing a new reptile home, just to be sure the new reptile didn’t arrive with anything it could spread to your existing reptile(s).
Personally, I’d hold off on adding all the fake plants in your corn snake’s enclosure for at least the first month or so. What I like to use instead to give them cover is to just toss a bunch of loosely crumpled paper towels in there. That gives them something to hide in and feel secure as they move about the enclosure, and it will still allow you to see mites easily if they’re present. And if you do have mites, it saves you from having to throw away all the nice pretty decor you got. If everything looks good and mite-free after 30 days, then I’d say you’re good to add loose substrate and nice decor, though you should quarantine the new snake away from your leo and keep up with all the other quarantine protocols for at least another 60 days, just to be safe.
Granted, this is just how I do things. Different people have different methods and opinions on quarantine procedures, and maybe some other folks will chime in, but that’s how I like to do things.
Congrats on getting your first snake! Corn snakes are amazing, I’m sure you’ll love your new friend.
Hm never thought to use something else for the decor at first. I do have separate everything. Not because was thinking quarantine but i dont want to bring it all up and down the stairs all the time. Lol. Thank you
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