If You Have Mites Follow These Instructions:

  • Take anything that you want to save out of the tank
  • Put this all into a garbage bag and tie it TIGHT
  • Leave it outside for 4 weeks
  • Take out the animal and water dish
  • Spray down the whole tank with MITE SPRAY
  • Rub entire animal down THEN spray a Q-Tip with the mite spray and rub it in and around the eyes of the animal
  • Put in newspaper and spray it down too
  • Let all dry THEN put the snake back (chemicals are toxic if wet)
  • About an hour later put the water bowl back
  • REPEAT all in 12 days (that's when the eggs hatch)
  • DO NOT SPRAY more than this in ANY TIME PERIOD
  • Could kill larger snakes and probably will call smaller snakes

Frequently Asked Questions:

  1. What is a Good or Bad substrate?
  2. What size cage is the absolute MINIMUM for my new snake?
  3. Do I really need to have that EXPENSIVE UV light strip?
  4. Besides the above, how may I care for basic health issues myself?
  5. Do baby turtles or any reptiles for that matter pose a significant risk of getting the bacteria Salmonella?
  6. How do I REALLY tell what the HOT side temperature reading is in my tank?
  7. Besides the cost of my pet, what else DO I HAVE TO BUY/DO to keep my pet healthy and happy?
  8. Once I do get eggs, how do I incubate them?
  9. How do I make a good and inexpensive incubator?

1. What is a Good or Bad substrate?

  • Playground sand is really tiny rocks/glass and may get stuck in the intestines of the animal...IMPACTION.
  • Those "calci sand" substrates seem to dissolve in the animal's GI tract (we use Reptilite)
  • For some animals, especially BLOOD pythons, even mulch, aspen care fresh may get lodged in their mouths and cause an infection that MAY become serious
  • Some substrates like moss and soils hold moisture better and MAY become too wet in poor ventilation situations and cause the proliferation of molds, fungi and bacteria
  • WHEN in doubt, use newspaper or paper towels
  • The ink used to print MOST newspapers is a natural antibiotic/antifungal

2. What size cage is the absolute MINIMUM for my new snake?

We go by the MINIMUM measure for a snake is 1/2 as long as the snake and 1/3 as wide. Make sure that it can AT LEAST turn around comfortably in its new cage.

  • EXAMPLE 1: A 4' snake needs at least a 2' long cage and a 1' wide cage = 2 square feet of floor space
  • EXAMPLE 2: A 6' snake needs at least a 3' long cage and a 2' wide cage = 6 square feet of floor space
  • EXAMPLE 3: A 10' snake needs at least a 5' long cage and a 3' wide cage = 15 square feet of floor space

3. Do I really need to have that EXPENSIVE UV light strip?

For certain animals you do. The need the sun's ultraviolet or UV radiation to be able to actually use the calcium they eat in bone formation. Without these rays from either this light strip (minimum of 7.0 % UV) or the SUN (the best), they will NOT be able to metabolize or use the calcium and their bones will slowly waste away. The first signs of this (Meatbolic Bone Disease or MBD is swollen joints, failure to grow even though it is eating and a jaw that is "off center". [Check the Chart Below to see if your animal needs a UV Light]

This is a picture of a Bearded Dragon kept without UV radiation for over a year. He died 2 weeks later.

Sick Bearded Dragon

How to cure if caught early enough:

  • Get them outside as often as possible based on temperature conditions
  • Get new UV lights for them at least 7.0 and make sure that these lights are within 12" from the animal
  • When you buy your new light, make sure you REMOVE the plastic lens that covers the bulb. UV radiation can not go through glass or plastic just like you cannot get a sun burn/tan through glass or plastic
  • Get calcium powder with vitamin D3 in them as often as possible
  • Get them to eat LIVE pinkie mice/rats each week
  • BE PATIENT and CONSISTENT
  • If the animal is not appearing to get better, get them to a qualified reptile veteranarian.

4. Besides the above, how may I care for basic health issues myself?

THERE is NO substitute for a good qualified reptile vet, BUT if you have no other choice, THIS SHEET is how we deal with most problems ourselves.

DISCLAIMER: This sheet was put together with the help of many people, veteranarians included, but I am not a Veteranarian and can not be held responsible for mistakes or just bad luck from practices based on this sheet.

5. Do baby turtles or any reptiles for that matter pose a significant risk of getting the bacteria Salmonella?

From a seminar by the World Health Organization in Toronto, Canada in 1997:

The following results are based on data taken ALL OVER THE WORLD!

  • ONLY 7% of baby turtles had salmoella
  • 50% of snakes had salmonella
  • 30% of Cats had salmonella
  • 35% of Dogs had salmonella
  • 77% of HOMES had salmonella bacteria found in the KITCHEN

6. How do I REALLY tell what the HOT side temperature reading is in my tank?

The BEST way to find out the temperature on the HOT side is to place, NOT STICK, your thermometer on the floor of your tank DIRECTLY below the heat source (if a light in a dome) or directly above the heat source (if a heat map). Please check the picture below. The other side will be your cool side.

Thermometer In Tank

7. Besides the cost of my pet, what else DO I HAVE TO BUY/DO to keep my pet healthy and happy?

These are MINIMUMS for 1 ADULT of the species

Chart

8. Once I do get eggs, how do I incubate them?

Get the eggs as soon as possible.

Make an "EGG CHAMBER"

  • Get a plastic shoebox type container large enough to hold all the eggs
  • Get some course, large pieces, vermiculite
  • Wet the vermiculite
  • Squeeze the vermiculite until it "clumps" together BUT NO water squeezes out
  • Place this in the shoe box about 1" deep
  • Use your thumb/fingers to make "dents" in the vermiculite
  • Place the eggs in each "dent"
  • Cover the eggs leaving the top half or so above the vermiculite
  • Poke 1 hole in EACH side of the plastic shoebox
  • PUT THE LID ON TOP AND SNAP IT SHUT
  • Place this in your incubator Or any place that stays a constant temperature in the 80s
  • Be PATIENT and wait
  • On top of a hot water heater is a good place
  • For certain animals like Leopard Geckos:
    • Upper temps 90-92 means you will have males
    • Lower temps 80-82 means you will have females

9. How do I make a good and inexpensive incubator?

  • Find an old box or best case and old refrigerator (FREE)
  • Make sure that the door locks tightly for insulation purposes
  • Get a long enough piece of 3" heat tape ($10)
  • NOT the larger heat tapes because they will heat up too quickly and alter ambient temperature in the unit
  • Get an inexpensive thermostat/rheostat ($30)
  • Drill a hole in the top back of the box/fridge large enough for the wires to go through for the heat tape
  • Wire the tape up with insulated clips
  • Tape it or Glue it to the back of the box/fridge in the middle running longways
  • Drill another hole in the back next to the first but this time larger to allow the thermostat's probe to go through
  • Push the probe through and fix it to hang down in the middle of the box/fridge
  • Let it all dry and set the thermostat on the desired temperature.
  • Check this temperature with a very accurate thermometer for a few days to make sure it is "spot on"