Tips :: Alaska Reptile Rescue

Bearded Dragons - Water Dragons - Snakes - Iguanas
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BEARDED DRAGONS

Tip -- Limit the Crickets

When feeding crickets to insect-eating reptiles and amphibians, don't overfeed so there are still crickets wandering the cage a couple of hours after feeding. Crickets have been known to nibble the toes of delicate herp species, causing damage or even loss of digits.

WATER DRAGONS

Wonderful World of Water Dragons

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SNAKES

Feeding a Finicky Boa

Is your boa or python steadily refusing to feed? Place its cage in a dark, undisturbed location and try feeding it a variety of rodent prey items, in a variety of colors. If the snake refuses to feed on dead prey, try feeding it a live meal. Dead rodents dipped in chicken broth often persuade reluctant feeders to eat. Also try feeding live chicks.

Caring For Your Snake

A) Shedding

When your snakes begins the shedding process you will notice several changes, the eyes will look cloudy, and their skin will not have it’s regular bright shiny color. The shedding process takes place because, your snake is growing or, it may be caused by a stress related situation. The shedding may take place once a month or only a few times a year, depending on the age of your snake. The younger they are, the more often they will shed during their growth process.

When you notice your snake staring into a shed, you should try to give your snake a bath every day. Bathing, helps to soften the skin and, helps the shed come off easier and more completely. Bathing your snake, also gives you a good excuse to spend some time with your snake. You can soak your snake in your bathtub, sink, or we use a pot with a lid. We use a pot with the lid because some of our snakes are afraid of the bathtub because of the size. Soak your snake once a day in warm water (about 100 degrees) for about a half an hour, or longer if they want to stay in the water. Just make sure they do not get too cold!!!

When your snake gets done shedding, look very close for any shed that may be left behind. Make sure you check that the eye caps have come off along with the old shed, and also, check the end of the tail to be sure, all the shed has come off too. Another area to check is the nostrils. Make sure the nostrils are clear of any remaining shed because, they may sound like they have an upper respiratory infection.

A few things that help you help your snake through the shedding process are a semi rough surface to rub on or a log with a branch and some bark, (just make sure it is not too rough or pointed), a stone like water dish, or even a nice wooden hide box. We have used all of the above and find that all of them work very well. We even gave our big Burmese, a cinder block to rub against to help her out. If you decide to go with the water dish, you have covered several things with one piece of furniture, because you need to provide a large stable water dish for drinking so why not get a stone one for shedding too.

One other trick we learned is, if your snake has a tough time with shedding, try a wet hand towel with warm water, and allow the snake to slither through it several times while you are holding the towel. This helps in that, you will be able to see where the problem areas are, and be able to help your snake through any rough or hard to shed spots.

I hope all of this comes as a help to you at some point, we learned it from many people and want to pass it on to you.

B) Housing

This area is really up to your imagination, you can be very inventive, or fairly simple, but keep in mind, your snake will have to look at it most of the time. Try to provide as many stimulating things for your snake to do as your housing will allow. Don’t build anything permanently attached to the inside of your snake’s enclosure. Keep in mind that you still have to be able to clean it easily.

While you are thinking of things to do for your snakes enclosure, think about where they came from. This may give you a lot of ideas so, go with your imagination from there. If you have the room, bigger is better, when you consider the size of the snake. If you acquire a baby snake, their enclosure should be enlarged to accommodate the snake as it grows. Enclosures for your snake should be about twice as long as the snake, to allow room for them to move and grow. REMEMBER, if you have a ground dwelling snake, floor space is more important than height. If you have a climber(also known as arboreal or semi arboreal) height is more important than floor space.

Please provide a hiding place for all snakes. This can be as simple as a box or as elaborate as you want it to be, but is very important for the health, comfort, and feeling of security for your snake. They want and need the security of a hide box to be alone too. A hiding place is just that, if they feel stressed they will hide, if they just want to ignore the world they will also hide too.

One thing I do stress is to be careful when you are deciding on the substrate you use. Some substrates may look really cool, and may seem to be just what you want. Keep in mind you are not the one that has to live in it, and it may not be safe for the snake. We do not recommend any of the bark type bedding. Some snake owners who have used bark type bedding have reported infections due to splintering of the bark which imbeds itself between the snakes scales causing wounds that could fester. Above all, DO NOT, under any circumstances use, CEDAR, OR ANY OF THE AROMATIC WOODS! Use of Cedar or any other aromatic woods, or shavings, that may contain cedar oil or extracts, can cause your snake respiratory distress or death. We even discourage the use of may kinds of the bedding sold in the pet stores, we have found that newspaper, paper towels, freezer paper, and even butcher paper works very well and are very easy to clean up and to purchase. *** We personally use the fuzzy type fleece cut to fit the bottom of the enclosure with, either tile, or the glass, from the tank to prevent moisture from getting on to the wood bottom of the enclosure if you have one. We wash the fleece in the laundry in hot water and soap and bleach, wash and dry as normal. When cleaning your snakes enclosure, use a mixture of bleach and water, (about ¼ cup to a gallon of water) this is the best cleaner for bacteria and a good germ killer. Also, you want to be sure to clean the enclosure really good, and keep the snake out of the enclosure after cleaning with bleach for about one hour. This allows the fumes to dissipate. If you can smell the bleach, DON”T put your snake in their enclosure! Wait until you don’t smell any of the bleach fumes. While waiting for the smell to go away, this gives you a good reason to spend some time with your new friend.

If you decide to build an enclosure using wood, (do not use particle board ++ see above Aromatic wood) or something similar, be sure you seal it with a odorless paint such as acrylic latex or a clear sealer, inside and out. This will stop the humidity from being drawn into the wood. Constant moisture on unsealed wood will result in mold and fungus on the wood. In addition, Chlorine bleach on unsealed wood soaks into the wood fiber, and will almost never dissipate from of your snakes home. Also make sure you provide enough ventilation to prevent over heating or over humidifying. You can do this by placing one vent down low and another one up high, this creates cross ventilation. One way you can help to keep humidity in is to put a plant in a wide bottom type vase or container and fill it with rocks (for weight) and then add water, this helps keep the humidity level up and looks good too.

Snakes are known to be very good at escaping form enclosures, (even if you don’t think they can) make sure you have a very secure lid or door on your enclosure. We have found that even when you think they can’t get out they will prove you wrong when you are not looking. You may need to put several locks on an enclosure door in order to keep every one inside.

Be very careful where you place the enclosure, if you get it to close to a window you may over heat your snake and cause serious health issues or even death. With that being said a window in the winter is not a good idea either, it will make it hard to maintain heat and could cause your snake to get a chill and again you may cause health issues or even death. Remember, snakes cannot regulate their own body heat. They are dependant on you to keep the proper heat they need.

When you are making the decision on lighting, pick lighting that is easy for you to change the bulbs when they blow out. Do not use a uva\uvb bulb unless you have consulted a veterinarian and they tell you to do so. We use florescent bulbs, they do not create any extra heat and are very inexpensive to run. If you choose to use an incandescent bulb make sure that your snake cannot come in contact with the bulb or the fixture, for fear of a severe burn. When you are looking for heating devices be very careful not to get one the is to large or to small, we use human heating pads, but again you have to be careful with these also some of them have an automatic shutoff design and will do you no good. Please never use a heat rock for any reptile, they are used to being heated from above and will not move off of them until they may have caused very severe burns that may be to severe for any medical treatment. Put the heating device under the substrate or under a blanket that is not easily moved out of the way. Make sure that your snake cannot come in contact with the heating device at any time.

We hope all of this information is as helpful to you as it has been for us.

C) Feeding

We beg of all of our snake owners to feed frozen thawed food products from the beginning. This helps with picky eaters and with aggression, if they do not have to fight for their food they are more open to eating peacefully. We also try to persuade all of our owners to feed in what we call a feed box or something of the sort. We use a plastic box (not see through) of appropriate size for the snake to move and to last several years. we have also used the bathtub for feeding. You can then clean the tub with bleach and water solution, then rinse thoroughly. For the bigger snakes, you can even use the kitchen floor or any area large enough for the snake, as for the 16’ foot Burmese python we have, when we feed her we put a plastic table cloth down on the floor to keep the mess contained. We have also suggested to use a paper bag, like the ones you get from the grocery store, just remember to staple the top closed, you do not want your shake deciding to go for a romp thru the house. One other reason to feed in a feed box or other location from their enclosure is that you will find that if you feed in the enclosure you may be mistaken for a food item and receive a very nasty bite and then both of you are not in a very good mood now, and then the confusion is not an issue. Who wants to fight with its food, it tires us out and makes us grumpy and we are not as likely to eat as good as we normally would. Imagine the bite wounds your snake may get and all the vet bills you may have if your snakes food decides to fight back, and some of the wounds we have seen are not repairable and the snake dies because of this.

Don’t over feed your snake, this is also known as power feeding, your snake does not get enough out of the food item and may put on fat where they do not want or need it, (we all know how this feels). Start small and grow with your snake they will let you know when it is time to move up in size. One rule we use is when our snakes are eating 3 – 4 of the same size for at least 4 – 6 feedings then move up to next size, and use this rule of thumb for the rest of their life. Keep in mind that when you move up in size of food your snake will not eat as often, until he needs more food for growth. Your snake can eat something 1&1/2 times the largest diameter of their body, so don’t judge food size by the size of their head alone.

When your snake gets to adult mice and is eating 3 – 4 at a time you will want to move them to rats, rats come in many sizes, try to start with a rat (one at a time) that is about the same size as the adult mice you have been feeding. You may find some resistance at this point but please do not give up, we have had some that will resist but only for one feeding. We have done a very neat trick we were taught, we thaw out the rat with a mouse in the same water and this almost always will work to get them to eat rats. We were taught a really great way to feed your snake and not get into trouble with any health issues, feed your snake and wait for it to poop and then feed again, by this time schedule you will not over feed and your snake is happy and healthy. When you keep this kind of schedule you get to know how often to feed and you know that your snake has used all of the nutrients it needs out of their food. If you find that you need to put a little bit of weight on your snake feed one size larger for a few feedings or put one extra feeding in between normal feedings, but only for a short period of time, if the problem persists see a reptile veterinarian as soon as possible. This rule does not apply to all species of snakes, the Burmese python and some of your larger snakes will eat as much as possible. Please try not to make the same mistake we did with our first Burmese python, we fed her on this schedule and now she is very over weight and very hard to get down to a good weight for her size (she is our 16 footer) no one likes to be on a forced diet, and as we all know dieting is not all its cracked up to be.

We all know a picky eater, and snakes are no different. There are many ways that have been suggested by many different people, but I found one way that seems to be full proof, at least for every one that has tried it. This part applies to getting a snake to go from live to frozen thawed, if you can keep the sizes as close as possible. Try moving very slow at first, stunning the mouse just a small amount and feed that. When you try the next feeding stun the mouse a little more this time. After this try to get the snake to eat a humanly killed mouse, usually at this point you have converted a picky snake to frozen thawed. When trying this you may want to wait out your snake for an extra few days to a week to make sure they are really hungry and are maybe not as picky. We have had many of our rescues switch from live to frozen thawed in one feeding, but I do count myself very lucky, but don’t give up to early. *** You will find that Ball pythons are going to be the hardest to convert, they are very shy and usually scared of everything. You will find that most of your snake species are very easily switched over and usually more inclined to eat larger food items that fit their size.

D) Health Care

Assume your snake needs veterinary care as soon as you acquire him or her, this will help you to get to know your snake and help you get acquainted with a reptile veterinarian in your area. We all know how hard it can be to get into a vet with a dog or cat, just imagine how hard it will be to get into see a specialist. Before you acquire your new snake talk to people that have a reptile vet and use them as a reference, this will keep from looking in a panic, and friends that have snakes will be very glade to share. We have also formed a list of veterinarians in the state that are willing to help and most are reptile specialist. In the years we have been doing this we have found many veterinarians that will help and are very knowledgeable and some of them have a discount for new pet checkups.

We try to keep our snakes as close as possible to their natural environment, this helps them to grow and to thrive. If your snake needs low humidity keep the door to the room open where they are kept, if they require high humidity you may want to put a humidifier very close to the enclosure. Try to keep them out of drafts what ever their environment may be, and as close to natural as possible.

Make a mental check list every day of your snakes enclosure, heat, humidity, and general condition of the enclosure and of course the owner of the enclosure. Do a quick visual check of your snake and see if they are getting ready to shed, may have pooped or left you some uraites, or even maybe he or she needs some water. See what the humidity and heat look like and make sure he or she is doing well.

One thing a veterinarian taught me was to keep a book of all the important things that you may not remember if you need to go to the vet. Some of the most important things are shedding, eating, pooping, health issues, mites, ticks, any medications you have given recently, and reactions to medications in the past. This, as we all know, will help you to keep a running check on your snakes habits and health. We all know that in times of medical issues our memory is not as good as we would like it to be, take your book with you to each vet visit and show it to the vet, it will help the vet in determining a plan of treatment, and give the vet a lot background on the past medical history of your snake.

If you notice any changes at all in the activity level or eating, keep an eye on your snake for a day or two, check the heat and humidity levels to ensure proper levels. Call your veterinarian and ask what to do in the particular case you have happening. If things do not change a day or two PLEASE go to a veterinarian as soon as possible, reptiles do not show signs of distress until they may be very far into the illness. If you notice any swelling at all anywhere on the body of your snake, take her or him to the vet immediately, this is a sure sigh that something is very wrong and in need of medical treatment immediately. If the swelling is around the face this could mean mouth rot or a mouth infection and could, if not medically treated, cause death to your snake.

If your snake sound like it rattling when it is breathing or may sound congested (like we do with a cold) and worst of all sounds like a whoopee cushion, get medical treatment immediately , this is the signs of a upper respiratory infection. An upper respiratory infection can, and will cause death if not treated immediately, and can be very costly if not caught early. An upper respiratory infection can be treated very easily if caught early on. When you notice your snake rattling or acting lethargic, try, for one to two days, to elevate the heat in the enclosure, and also make sure the heating device is working properly. This also works with a snake that has quit eating for one or more meals. You only want to raise the temperature one to three degrees and only for a few days but no more then four days in a row.

We do hope that we have helped you in any way we could and answered most of your questions. We hope you enjoy the web site and come back to see us again.

IGUANAS

Green and sometimes Mean

Green and sometimes Mean