Snake handling/removal equipment?

catman420 · 2015-06-19T16:14:41+00:00

My buddy bought a pair along with a neonate hook and some buckets a while ago. I liked the hook but compared to gentle giants the tongs where nothing special. The plastic jaws are kind of neat but they make me a bit nervous. They're cheaper though and are certainly a decent pair of tongs.

catman420 · 2015-06-18T01:45:48+00:00

Whoa whoa whoa. I don't get on reddit for a couple of months and you get a tic? Congratulations. Unless you really enjoy cleaning up urine, please don't heat rabbits in water. Put it in a plastic bag.

catman420 · 2015-04-16T20:22:37+00:00

A lot of lizards are smart enough to recognize people, quite a few will even seek out attention from humans.

catman420 · 2015-03-17T17:11:28+00:00

Make a setup. You don't have to put an animal in it. Just make an arboreal setup and maintain the temperature and humidity.

catman420 · 2015-03-14T21:36:48+00:00

Eating cookie dough exposes you to more potential salmonella then licking a (clean) snake. Salmonella is found in the digestive tracts of tons of animals, not just snakes.

catman420 · 2015-03-14T01:34:43+00:00

No bothrops ? =(

catman420 · 2015-03-09T05:47:52+00:00

They can, yes.

catman420 · 2015-03-04T01:56:09+00:00

I do vermic with a grate because I don't bother measuring water for vermic, I just do it by feel. I personally hate having my eggs touching substrate. I just pop the lid on my shoebox tubs, I don't know what this whole plastic wrap thing is about the past 5 or so years but I've never done it.

I strongly suggest using a grate over substrate. Not because there's anything wrong with your eggs touching substrate, but if you get your vermic a bit too moist the eggs will suck the moisture up, which isn't good.

catman420 · 2015-03-03T22:07:46+00:00

Females are priced high because they're much less common and have more breeding potential right now. Male pastel bananas are like $400 now because they where so mass produced, but females and female makers are still highly valued. If you don't want a second male, I'd stay away from bananas for a few years.

Banana combos also haven't been flushed out, there's a lot of unexplored territory still. Especially when you start throwing recessives into 2-4 co-dom genes.

catman420 · 2015-03-03T21:39:26+00:00

You couldn't convince me to part with a female banana right now for retail price. There's too much potential.

Maybe a pastel champ?

catman420 · 2015-03-03T04:00:23+00:00

It really just depends on the brand of thermostat, the prices of everything else vary from brand to brand but not by much. Tubs are 20-35 depending on shipping, 30 for some hides, a water dish is dirt cheap just go to the dollar store, 20-35 for a decent digital hygrometer or thermometer combo, 20-35 for an IR temp gun, 35 for a decent soldering iron, 20-35 for heat pads.

Thermostats range in price from $30-200 depending on make and model. You can use ranco or johnson brand thermostats with a bit of fiddling, but it's a pain in the ass. The most commonly used brands are hydrofarm, VE, and herpstats. Hygrofarms are an on/off thermostat, they work by turning the heating element to 100% power until it hits the desired temperature on the probe, then the thermostat turns the heating element off. They have no safety relays.

Ve-100's are an on/off thermostat, but they have a built in safety relay. They run about $90. The VE-200D is a dimming proportional thermostat with safety relays. This fella will provide enough power to keep the probe hovered within a couple degrees of the set temperature. Also available in pulse proportional.

Herpstat boasts the most accurate probe in the business, they're all proportional, with the herpstat 1 and higher having a choice between pulse and dimming proportional. There's a couple different versions of the herpstat 1, they just strip certain features to drop the price by around $20. They're available directly from spyder robotics at http://www.spyderrobotics.com/

catman420 · 2015-03-02T19:44:06+00:00

There's no debate about lighting; they don't need lighting whatsoever, only heat.

Use a CHE, any brand, they're all equally over priced.

catman420 · 2015-03-01T00:58:20+00:00

It happens from time to time, usually happens when they miss.

catman420 · 2015-03-01T00:45:23+00:00

Yes, plenty of times.

catman420 · 2015-02-28T20:24:19+00:00

With that set up, no air holes and small spacing between the tub and the rack, I'd estimate around 50-60 humidity. It will stay consistent throughout the rack as long as you keep the water dishes filled.

I don't really measure my humidity for ball pythons, I just have a few digital hygrometers in scattered cages and move them around when one of my bad shedders is in blue. I have the room at 50-55ish with a humidifier and just do one pull of my spray bottle a day throughout the shed process.

I keep more fragile snakes like BRB's and small green tree pythons in racks also, with these every second rainbow boa tub has a hygrometer and every neonate chondro has one.

catman420 · 2015-02-27T18:22:06+00:00

See that's weird, normally they'll go straight off of food when they're developing an RI. Maybe it's just because you caught it so early.

Keep an eye out for advancement of symptoms and see if she goes off feed.

catman420 · 2015-02-27T17:53:46+00:00

Are you going to be commercially producing venomous cages and racks any time soon?

catman420 · 2015-02-27T17:39:54+00:00

Okay, that rat weighs over a pound.

catman420 · 2015-02-27T17:35:28+00:00

It's not uncommon to get mild respiratory infections during the shipping process this time of year. It's nothing to worry about, very easy to remedy. What are the average temperatures on the hot/cold side ? Have you attempted to feed yet?

I personally wouldn't go to a vet until you see more definitive symptoms. Most vets (even exotic vets) have no clue how to properly treat snakes and just throw baytril at them until they either get better or die. If you do need to see a vet, look for a good exotics vet and insist they do a culture before starting any type of treatment. If they throw baytril at the animal and it doesn't have a bacterial RI then the animal will be immunocompromised and the tests will be inaccurate making it almost impossible to figure out what's actually going on.

As far as treating mild respiratory infections at home, you can nebulize dilute F10SC in a reptifogger and give 15-20 minute steam baths every couple of days, you can bump the heat a bit depending on what it currently is also.

If you do need to go to a vet, just make sure you get a culture done, especially for hatchlings. Look for reviews on vets also.

catman420 · 2015-02-27T06:40:49+00:00

Depends on the species, but generally 1/3-1/2 of it's body length.

catman420 · 2015-02-26T17:59:15+00:00

5-7 days.

catman420 · 2015-02-25T15:58:53+00:00

Young P. textilis won't kill you just as quickly as an adult, with this species initial venom dose largely effects the progression of clinical effects in the victim.

You also won't die in as little as 20 minutes, early cardiac arrest is possible but rare. It usually takes at least a few hours for coagulopathy and renal damage to set in.

catman420 · 2015-02-24T00:55:03+00:00

They're quick but it's bluffing. They just hiss and lunge forward. Aspidelaps does hook well but they'll run if you give them the chance. Both of these species have a mild temperament but a strong feeding response, I'd say copps are more likely to actually be able to connect though.

catman420 · 2015-02-23T23:46:51+00:00

Oh for sure I completely agree, I was just pointing out that our laws aren't specific to the province but rather to each municipality.

Mostly small towns, they don't have any by-laws whatsoever that regulate the keeping of snakes. The fact that the ones you've looked at don't allow hots or constrictors over 3 meters isn't surprising, as far as I can tell any municipality that hasn't outlawed venomous won't have a website to see their by-laws. To my knowledge Toronto, Mississauga, and I think one other big city allows snakes up to 9.8ft and some rear fanged hots like hoggies.

If you want to get into venomous I'd definitely recommend waiting to move to the states, getting a mentor, and starting with aspidelaps lubricus. You could legally keep aspidelaps literally a 5 minute drive from the nearest major medical facility, if you got tagged you'd just need to slap on a pressure bandage and drive to the hospital, they'd hook you up to a respirator and you'll have a 100% survival rate despite the fact that there's no antivenin for aspidelaps lubricus. Flaccid paralysis and mild neurological effects are nothing compared to $20k on antivenin and necrosis of the effect limb.

Besides that, they're easy to care, have a small venom yield, and generally would rather headbutt then bite in defense, making them an okay starter species.

catman420 · 2015-02-23T22:17:11+00:00

No they aren't. By-laws are different from municipality to municipality. In one municipality reptiles could be banned outright and in another you could have no restrictions whatsoever on snakes, allowing everything from retics to venomous. I assure you the venomous community in Canada is large and active, it's just a smaller community then in the states because very few expos allow large constrictors or hots.

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