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 My Quarantine Program


If you are acquiring new animals from outside of your current colony, you should set up a quarantine plan to protect your established animals from any problems that may arrive with the newly acquired animals. I am happy to share my methods here, but I am certainly not going to claim that my plan is the best or that it gives you a 100% guarantee of success.

As I explained in my section on mites, I have two levels of quarantine. If an animal shows any evidence of mites, it is restricted to a plastic container whereby I can monitor the situation closely and keep it isolated from all other animals. New animals without mites go into my main quarantine area:

This is a Sideways Blanket Box produced by Jeff Ronne. It has 6 shelves. Each shelf can take either 2 sweater boxes or 1 blanket box. This provides a lot of flexibility in terms of the size of boa that can be temporarily housed here. Animals will typically spend about 3 months here. This rack is downstairs and at the opposite end of the house from my main collection. Cleaning and feeding the quarantine area always takes place on a different day or following the completion of work in the main room. New animals must pass the following tests to make it out of quarantine and into the main collection:

  1. Mite-free
  2. Feeding on a regular schedule
  3. Defecating on a regular schedule
  4. Stools are normal
  5. Sheds normally
  6. Has good muscle tone
  7. Has good body control

It would be nice to add a complete vet check to this list, but it is just not practical for my circumstances. Your situation may be different.

I do keep some meds handy for dealing with problems that may present themselves. There is a local compounding pharmacy that will mix a suspension of Flagyl (metromidazole) and Panacur (fenbendazole) to my specifications. I have it made to 50 mg per mL. I also keep Fortaz and Tylan for respiratory infections. If you intend to administer meds to your animals, I would highly recommend acquiring "Understanding Reptile Parasites: A Basic Manual for Herpetoculturists & Veterinarians" by Roger Klingenberg. You can find it in my  book section. Fortunately, I have rarely had to resort to medicating my animals.