Royal/ball pythons are one of the most popular pet snakes, due to their gentle and docile nature, and wide variety of beautiful patterns and colours. They originate in the humid grasslands of Africa, and this is the environment that we try to replicate when keeping them. As hatchlings, they are usually about 30 cm (1 foot) or so long. As adults, they normally grow to between 1 metre (3.5 feet) and 140 cm (4.5 feet), taking around 2 to 3 years to obtain that size. They should normally live for 20 to 40 years. Like most snakes, they are constrictors, and are not venomous.
Royal/ball pythons rarely bite, even if frightened or hurt. Instead, they curl into a protective ball, hiding their head. If they do bite, it can be enough to draw a little blood, like several tiny pin pricks. In practice, these snakes bite so infrequently that this is not something to worry about. The rare ones that do bite usually grow out of this behaviour within a couple of months after hatching.
Royal/ball pythons are burrow-dwellers, living under the ground. They are crepuscular (awake at dawn and dusk), and spend most of the day sleeping in their hides. They usually become active shortly after their lights go out.
A snake's enclosure is its home. The place where it is happy to spend its time, and the place it feels safest. Snakes are generally happiest when kept in an appropriately sized enclosure. Royal/ball pythons in particular can become quite stressed and afraid if kept in an enclosure that is too large, and may refuse to eat. In nature, these snakes adopt a rodent burrow as their home, and rarely - if ever - leave it. As pets, this needs to be catered to. Small spaces make these snakes feel secure. The enclosure needs to be fairly well ventilated, with several air holes. Snakes are very skilled at searching for openings in their enclosures, and can easily escape if their enclosures are not properly closed, or have gaps that the snake can squeeze through. Escaped snakes can live for several months or even years, hiding in a house or a garden, but can be difficult to find, so try not to let it happen in the first place.
The general rule for most snakes is that once the snake reaches a length that is greater than one length and one width of the enclosure, it is time to get a larger enclosure. For example, an enclosure that is 45 cm (1.5 feet) long and 30 cm (1 foot) wide, should not be used for a snake that is longer than 75 cm (2.5 feet). Royal/ball pythons, however, defy this rule, and may want an enclosure that is somewhat smaller than the rule would suggest. Snakes will not stop growing just because they outgrow their enclosure. An ideal enclosure for a hatchling is a faunarium (plastic box with air holes), such as one that is about 30 cm (1 foot) long and 20 cm (8 inches) wide. Eg. the Exo Terra Medium Breeding Box.
The enclosure needs to have an unscented substrate (bedding) on the bottom that is designed for retaining humidity, such as bark chips, cypress mulch, coconut fibre bedding or old newspaper. Aspen, hemp, lignocell, beech chips and sand are not suitable. Bark chips are a popular choice, but old newspaper also works very well. Non-newspaper beddings should be perhaps 1 or 2 cm (less than 1 inch) deep.
A heat mat must be placed at one end of the enclosure. Ideally, this is stuck on the outside (not the inside) of the end wall of the enclosure. Alternatively, it may be placed on the table surface below one end of the enclosure, outside the enclosure not inside it. This heat mat should be about one quarter to one third of the overall size of the enclosure, but if you have a heat mat that is too big, just put the enclosure partly over it, so that the correct amount of the enclosure is over it. The heat mat must be an electric heat mat (not a heat rock or microwaveable heat pack), designed for use with reptiles. Examples include the Habistat, ProRep or Lucky Reptile 7 Watt heat mats. Most faunariums have feet so that if the heat mat is placed under the faunarium, they will provide the essential air gap between the heat mat and the faunarium. This helps to spread the heat, and prevent any hotspots from forming, which could burn the snake. If your faunarium does not have these feet, use small pieces of plastic or wood to lift the faunarium about 0.5 cm (¼ inch) above the heat mat. Heavy bodied snakes like these may make contact with a large surface area of the heat mat, and can easily burn themselves if the mat is too hot. The heat mat should be checked regularly for hotspots. The intention is to have a temperature of about 30°C (87°F) at the heated end of the enclosure, and room temperature at the other end. This heat gradient provides lots of choices of temperature, allowing the snake to warm up when it needs to, and cool down when it needs to. The snake will choose which temperature it wants to be in. A mat thermostat or pulse proportional thermostat can help to ensure that the temperature never rises too high inside the enclosure, and is recommended if putting the heat mat under the enclosure instead of on the wall.
Note that heat mats, like most heaters, work by radiated heat, not by heating the air. Thermometers usually measure the air temperature, so will give a false reading. The important temperature is the one that will be reached by an object - the animal or something representing it - when it is placed near the heater for long enough to absorb the radiated heat (a number of hours). Infrared thermometers allow you to measure the temperature of the substrate, ornaments, and animal, rather than the temperature of the air. Wet substrates will appear to be colder than dry ones. Test dry surfaces when measuring temperatures.
The enclosure must contain a hide for the snake, and a water bowl. The hide should be only just big enough for the snake to curl up inside, and should have an opening appropriately sized for the snake to get in and out. If anything, the hide should be slightly too small, so that the snake can feel the walls pressing in on it. Typical hides are made of stone-like resin, plastic, curved cork bark or halved coconut shells. The hide should be placed at the warmed end of the enclosure, or one can be provided at each end if there is space, so that the snake can choose which one to use.
The water bowl should be big enough for the snake to curl up inside it, completely under the water, without spilling the water out. For a young hatchling, a bowl about the size of an open hand should be sufficient, filled half way up the bowl. The bowl size needs to be increased as the snake grows, and should take up about a third of the size of the enclosure, to help increase the ambient humidity. The bowl should ideally be heavy enough to prevent the snake from tipping it over, and should be located at the cold end of the enclosure. A hygrometer is useful for checking the humidity (these can become inaccurate over time, and may need to be replaced).
Other ornaments and artificial plants can be used in the enclosure if there is space, allowing the snake to explore around them. Do not allow the snake to climb too high and fall, as their heavy bodies can be easily hurt. These snakes can be very sensitive to changes, and changes must be made very slowly, in small steps. When moving a snake up into a larger sized enclosure, it may help to place the old enclosure inside the larger enclosure without its lid on for a few days, so that the snake can get used to the larger space. If the snake stops feeding for a while after such a change, go back to the old setup, and try again at a later date. Enclosure sizes should be increased in small steps as well.
The enclosure should not be placed in direct sunlight at any time of day, and does not need any dedicated lighting - the ambient light in the room will be enough to promote the snake's daily cycle. At all times, the animal and enclosure must be kept away from smoke, fireplace and cooking fumes, aerosols, chemical/alcohol sprays, air fresheners, and any scented or fragranced products that are not safe for use with reptiles.
Royal/ball pythons need a higher humidity than the average home, reaching 80% at one point during the day, then dropping to 55% or 60%, like their natural environment. This cycle can be simulated by spraying the enclosure with a little fresh, lukewarm water once per day or two, with a handheld spray bottle - one that has never contained toxic chemicals. Depending on the amount of ventillation in the enclosure, the water bowl may provide enough humidity so that spraying is not required, or is perhaps only required a couple of times per week.
The water should be replaced every couple of days. Weekly, or immediately if the snake has left faeces in it, the water bowl should be cleaned with a reptile-safe disinfectant, and the water replaced. Normal disinfectants can contain dangerous toxins.
Snake faeces usually appear as a black and white clump. Remove faeces from the enclosure whenever they are seen. Once every month, or whenever the substrate becomes too dirty, clean the enclosure and ornaments with a reptile-safe disinfectant, and replace the substrate.
Once a royal/ball python outgrows the largest faunariums, it needs a larger enclosure. The best option is to use a Really Useful Box (RUB), available from stationary suppliers. The lid is lockable and has an air gap around the edge, so additional air holes are not usually needed. A 50 litre RUB is sufficient for most adult royal/ball pythons, and can be used in the same way as a faunarium. Alternative boxes may be found, but most will need some additional ventilation holes, or something to hold the lid down, and prevent these extremely strong snakes from pushing it open. A dedicated wooden enclosure called a "terrainium" replicates this style of housing, while looking more attractive; examples include the Monkfield Terrainium and Vivexotic Repti-View.
Alternatively, once a royal/ball python is about 90 cm (3 feet) long, it can be moved into a wooden display vivarium with sliding glass doors, available from pet shops. All wooden joints should be sealed with aquarium silicone to avoid water damage. An appropriate size for an adult is about 90 cm (3 feet) long, and 45 to 60 cm (1.5 to 2 feet) wide and high. Examples include the Vivexotic Repti-Home vivariums. The enclosure does not need any lighting, but LEDs or a regular compact fluorescent light can be added, if desired. Protect non-LED lights with a heater guard to prevent the snake from touching them. If lights are used, patterns should match the sun, switching on in the morning and off in the evening, eg. 7:00 AM to 7:00 PM, with no difference between summer and winter day lengths. Note that many royal/ball pythons never become accustomed to living in an open vivarium, and may need to live in a RUB for their entire lives.
A display vivarium should be heated with a ceramic heat emitter, suspended from the ceiling at one end of the enclosure, protected with a heater guard to prevent the snake from touching it. Alternatively, a large heat mat can be stuck to the wall (not the floor) at one end of the enclosure, using brown packaging tape stuck over the edges to hold it in place if it is not a self-adhesive type - ensure that the snake cannot get behind it, and get stuck to the tape, since it can tear their skin. Snakes cannot detect heat very well, and can easily suffer fatal burns from heaters, without them even realising it is happening. A mat thermostat (for heat mats) or pulse proportional thermostat (for heat mats or ceramic heaters) can help to ensure that the temperature never rises too high inside the enclosure, but is normally not required for wall mounted heat mats. Consult your pet shop to see what they can supply. Old aquariums do not make suitable enclosures for royal/ball pythons, due to the difficulty in heating and ventilating them, and should not be converted for this purpose.
For best results, a display vivarium should have several hides and multiple shelter ornaments like plastic plants, to the extent that almost none of the floor is visible, allowing the snake to get from one location to another without feeling that it is on show. The hides need to make the snake feel like it has several burrows to choose from, or a lengthy burrow system. Cork arches are the easiest approach. The clutter will boost the snake's confidence, making it more likely to come out to explore, and more likely to feed.
Another alternative is to use a low, wooden terrainium instead of a vivarium or RUB. Examples include the Pro Rep and Monkfield 30 or 36 inch Terrainiums, and the Vivexotic Repti-View terrainiums. These are attractive wooden enclosures with a top-opening lid, usually with a glass window at the front and on the top. Most designs have a slot for a heat mat at the back, which must be used with a thermostat since it is placed below the animal - most designs intentionally leave a small air gap above the heat mat to prevent hotspots. Lighting is not used, since the windows allow enough ambient light into the enclosure. This provides conditions very similar to a RUB, and normally works well for royal/ball pythons, even the ones that do not like the open space of a vivarium.
Display vivariums and terrainiums need air vents, but must not have any ventilation mesh holes, wire holes or gaps large enough for the snake to squeeze out through. They can squash their bodies to fit through surprisingly narrow gaps and can injure their nose trying to investigate gaps, so any gaps that can be pushed larger than about 6 mm (¼ inches) should be filled. Unwanted holes can be filled with aquarium silicone or draught excluder. Sliding doors need a lock (either built-in or a sliding glass door lock) that prevents the snake from being able to slide the doors open, or a rubber wedge may be used in the gap between the glass doors.
These snakes prefer their own territory, but if needed, hatchling and juvenile royal pythons can sometimes live together, as long as they are of similar sizes. If one snake begins to bully the other, they should be separated into their own enclosures. As adults, these snakes become territorial in breeding season, and can harm each other. Adults should therefore not be kept together. Male and female juveniles should not be kept together, as they are likely to breed while the female is too young, causing medical problems and stunted growth. Repeated breeding from living together permanently can also cause a large amount of stress to the female, and will shorten her life. Sexing young snakes can be inaccurate, and the sex should be re-checked by a specialist as the snakes mature.
For snakes that are co-habiting, a larger water bowl is needed so that both snakes can bathe at the same time, and additional hides are a good idea, so that the snakes can be alone when needed. This can be very difficult given the small space that these snakes require. It is best to give each snake its own enclosure, no matter how old it is.
Our snakes are quite used to being handled on a daily basis, but they may take a few weeks to get settled in to their new home. Avoid handling them until after they have accepted their first couple of meals, or for the first few days after moving to a new enclosure, or at any time if they are refusing food while younger than 3 years of age. Royal/ball pythons are one of the most tolerant snakes, and are very unlikely to bite, especially as they grow older (individuals vary, of course). Avoid handling them on the day that they are going to be fed, to clearly separate the feeding and handling. Avoid handling snakes for at least 48 hours after they feed, as this can cause them to regurgitate their food. Regurgitation is a serious thing for a snake, and must be avoided.
With young snakes, the first few times you handle them, do so over their enclosure, so that if they fall, they will land in their enclosure. Once you become more familiar with them, you can handle them wherever you want. Begin by handling them for only a few minutes at a time, once per day. Over the course of a few months, progress to handling them for up to an hour, or a few times per day. Give them at least an hour to warm up and rest in between handling sessions. Try to pick up the snake confidently, without nervously jerking your hand backwards and forwards towards the snake - this can frighten it. Snakes in general dislike having their heads stroked, and their tails suddenly grabbed. If the snake is refusing feeding for whatever reason, avoid handling the snake until it begins feeding regularly again. All other pets should be kept away from the snake, especially cats, dogs, birds and rodents.
Before handling snakes, always wash your hands to remove any possible smell of rodents or other food from your hands. After handling snakes (or just touching their enclosures), wash your hands again, to avoid catching any illnesses from the snake. While you are much more likely to catch illnesses like salmonella from your food, there is a small chance that you could catch these from reptile faeces.
Snakes may hold on tightly if placed around your neck, in the same way as they hold on to a tree branch. Avoid placing snakes around your neck unless you are certain that you can safely remove the snake, if it begins to hold on too tightly for your comfort.
If a snake has coiled around an ornament and needs to be removed, uncoil them gently from the tail end first. Avoid pulling snakes backwards if they have hooked themselves around something, or squeezed themselves through a gap; this could rip their skin or injure them. They need to be allowed to finish so that they can be gently taken out head first, or they need to be allowed to give up and decide to back out on their own.
Royal/ball pythons should be offered one meal every 7 days until they are about 3 years old. Adult royal/ball pythons of 3 years old or more should be offered one meal every 14 days. The snake will usually start regularly refusing food at this age, and that shows that it is time to begin the slower feeding schedule. With adults, most of the food will be wasted, so when multiple snakes are being fed, it is often beneficial to prepare food for just one, so that another can be fed when the first one refuses. Many owners will also choose to own another species of snake which reliably eats the same size of food (affectionately known as a "dustbin snake"), such as a dwarf boa constrictor, so that unwanted food can be given to the more reliable species, rather than being thrown away. If a snake refuses food, it should not be offered food again until the next scheduled feeding time (7 or 14 days later).
Royal/ball pythons normally eat mice as hatchlings, and move on to rats as soon as possible. The size of the mice or rats should be chosen to suit the size of your snake. Their food should normally be about as fat as the widest part of the snake's body. An alternative approach to working out how much to feed is to select the size of mouse or rat that is about 10% of the weight of the snake (when weighed after producing faeces). A normal meal would be just one mouse or rat, but the snake may be fed two or more smaller mice/rats in place of one larger mouse/rat, if needed. Frequent over-feeding gives faster growth, but halves the snake's lifespan. Available mouse sizes are normally "hopper" or "crawler" (6-9 grams), "small adult" (10-15 grams), "medium adult" (15-20 grams), "large adult" (21-30 grams) and "extra large" or "jumbo" (30-45 grams). Smaller sizes are normally too small even for hatchlings. Available rat sizes are "rat pup" (4-10 grams), "rat fuzzy" or "rat fluff" (11-25 grams), "small weaner" (26-50 grams), "large weaner" (51-100 grams), "small rat" (101-150 grams), "medium rat" (151-250 grams), "large rat" (251-355 grams), "extra large rat" (356-450 grams) and "giant rat" (451-900 grams).
Avoid feeding live prey to your snake, to prevent the prey from harming the snake, and to avoid potentially unnecessary suffering to the prey (UK law requires that vertebrates are not caused any unnecessary suffering; consult your vet about the use of live food if there is no other option). Their food can usually be bought frozen from pet shops and online suppliers in a variety of sizes. Consult your local pet shops.
Defrost the mice or rats in water that is a little over 39°C (102°F, the temperature of a reasonably warm bath). Refresh the water if needed, so that the eventual temperature of the food is close to 39°C - the natural body temperature for a mouse or rat. This is quite important with this type of snake, as they rely on their thermal sensors when identifying food, and it will help the snake to realise that it is food. Ensure that the food is thoroughly defrosted before feeding it to the snake, and not so hot that it will burn the snake. This can take half an hour or more for large mice, and even longer for the larger rats.
Dry the food on a paper towel, then offer it to your snake using feeding tongs (large tweezers), moving it near the thermal sensors around the snake's mouth. Using your hands will teach the snake to associate fingers with food, and could train them to accidentally bite you. The snake may take the food immediately (strike feeding) and constrict it before eating, or they may need to be left overnight with the food in their enclosure (drop feeding). Some snakes may be easily distracted or frightened, and may not want to be watched while they are eating. Some may need to be put into a smaller box (without any hides) to settle for a while, before being left with their food overnight, while others will find this so disturbing that they will refuse to eat. If multiple snakes are kept together, these should be separated into separate boxes for feeding, then put back together after they have finished swallowing. Once snakes have fed, avoid putting hands near them for at least half an hour, as they can become very excited, and mistakenly bite a finger, thinking it is a second meal.
Royal/ball pythons can be very fussy eaters, and may refuse to move from mice to rats. It can help to defrost them in the same water so the snake gets used to the new smell at the same time as having the old one. They may refuse to eat either mice or rats, and may insist on being fed the less common multimammates - a rodent that their wild counterparts would naturally eat in Africa, which can be difficult to obtain in the UK. It may take many months of refusals before a snake finally gives in and switches to the new food. Naturally, these snakes will invade a burrow, eat the inhabitants, then lie in wait for as many months as it takes, hoping that another rodent will visit the burrow. A 2 to 5 month gap between such meals is not uncommon. In captivity, these snakes are quite capable of waiting for similar lengths of time between meals, either because they do not like the new food that is on offer, or just because they randomly feel like taking a break. It is normal for snakes to refuse a meal or two after moving into a new enclosure, or to permanently refuse food if moved to an enclosure that is too large for the snake to feel comfortable. Even hatchlings can last a couple of months without food. Do not re-freeze or reuse uneaten food.
If a snake has refused to eat for 2 months or more, it can sometimes help to put them in a transport tub, and take them for a journey in a car, preferably for half an hour or more. After returning home, give them only a few minutes to rest, then try offering them very warm food (50°C) while still in the transport tub. The vibrations from the engine, and jostling about, can sometimes stir them up enough to make them want to eat. After several months of refusals, their metabolism slows, and their organs shrink, so that they can survive for longer without food. They might not be able to cope with a normal sized meal. Dropping down the food sizes, or temporarily switching back from rats to a mouse for a meal or two may encourage feeding and get their metabolism raised again, but too many meals of mice can cause a snake to refuse to take rats again. Experienced keepers may have other tactics to encourage feeding, but the best approach with an adult royal/ball python is not to worry about it, and let them eat when they want to eat. It is normal for them to refuse food for several months at a time. Regular weighing and health checks can help to work out if there is something wrong, or if the snake just does not need to eat at the moment. After 8 months of refusals, an experienced keeper may try gentle assist feeding, but this is a very difficult tactic to master, and can cause some snakes to refuse to eat simply because they find it disturbing. Pinkie pumping may be used for a very sick snake. Force feeding is a truly last resort, and usually gives the snake negative associations with food, making it even less likely to resume feeding.
From personal experience, we monitored a number of adult royal/ball pythons for a decade. During that time, all randomly refused food for at least 4-5 months, and more than half took an occasional 8 month break from feeding, then started again once they decided that they wanted to. This is normal! One ate just two jumbo mice in an entire year, and lost just 2% of his body weight during an 8 month fast. On average, these snakes only need to eat a few times per year, but they will choose when that is going to happen; some years they might eat 12 times, while other years they might eat just twice.
Check with your vet if the snake appears to be ill, or persists in refusing food. If a snake has regurgitated a previous meal, avoid feeding it for a couple of weeks, then begin the normal (eg. weekly) feeding routine, building up from the smallest possible meal up to their normal size of meal.
Royal/ball python hatchlings usually shed their skin once every month or two, becoming perhaps once every few months to half a year as an adult. Before they shed, their colours will fade a little, and their eyes will turn hazy or blue. Avoid handling snakes whose eyes are blue - they are essentially blind, and can be very nervous. Snakes may refuse to feed as they approach a shed. It is best with this type of snake not to feed it once the snake's colours have faded or the eyes have turned blue, as the snake uses water to digest it, and this makes a bad shed more likely. When the snake sheds its skin, it should ideally all come off in one piece, though the large body may sometimes cause it to rip. If it comes off in many small pieces, or parts are still stuck to the snake, the snake is having problems shedding. This can cause problems if the skin fails to shed from the snake's eyes, or the tip of its tail. Once the snake's eyes have turned blue, increase the humidity by spraying more often, or adding moist sphagnum moss into the snake's hide.
If the snake has failed to shed completely, and unshed skin is still stuck to the snake, put it in a faunarium or transport box which contains several scraps or sheets of damp newspaper (preferably a couple of months old), and allow the snake to move through it for as much as an hour. This is usually sufficient for it to complete shedding.
Royal/ball pythons are generally healthy snakes, with few major problems. Like all animals, they can get ill sometimes, and may need veterinary care. A clean enclosure helps to keep snakes healthy. The humidity requirements can sometimes cause problems, and a constantly dirty or overly wet enclosure can cause health issues. Common signs of problems include:
Rarely, snakes may fail to close one side of their mouth properly after eating, if their jaw does not fold back properly. The day after they eat, if it is still wrong and the snake is struggling to close it, carefully hold the snake behind its head with one hand. Gently push a pencil or credit card sideways into the snake's mouth (not pointing down its throat) so that it opens its mouth very wide, and the pencil/card is resting against the jaw hinges at the back of the snake's mouth. Remove the pencil/card again, and the the snake will usually close its mouth properly. Before trying this yourself, ask a specialist to show you how it is done.
On a monthly basis, or whenever you suspect they are ill, you may wish to weigh your snakes, after they have finished digesting any food that they recently ate (eg. the day before they are due to feed again, or after they produce their main faeces after feeding). This is known as their empty weight. This record of their weight can be very useful for a vet, if your snake appears to be ill at any point.
Reptiles can be quite sensitive to non-reptile medications. Only use medications which can be safely used with reptiles, or which are prescribed by a vet. They are particularly sensitive to alcohol and solvents. Any use of treatments where alcohol is used as a solvent must be done in a well ventillated environment, not in the confined space of the animal's enclosure.
Reptile enclosures often have harmless winged and wingless small flies that are attracted to reptile faeces, and harmless tiny speck-like springtails which can float on water and clean up waste. Small black bugs that crawl on the animal, particularly if they are rounded in shape and found in the bottom of the water bowl after the snake has been bathing, are snake mites. These are the reptile equivalent of cat fleas, which bite the animal and cause significant discomfort, but which cannot affect humans or other animals. If squeezed between hard surfaces, they normally burst, leaving a small smear of red or brown blood (their last meal). Snakes often bathe just to keep clean or cool, but persistent bathing is also common when a snake has mites.
They are normally spread between animals via direct contact, human clothing (which also allows them to spread between animals in different locations), migrating short distances between enclosures, or they can pass to an animal when it is placed into an enclose which was recently used by another animal. They cannot live for more than about 2 weeks without a host animal, and despite the popular claim, they cannot be caught from bags of unused substrate unless they fall into the bag shortly before using it. Most often, infestations start when a new pet reptile brings them into the house, or from your clothing after you held a reptile at a shop or a friend's house, or brushed against someone else whose pet had them. Many owners will encounter mites at some point, but they are easily dealt with.
Effective treatments for snake mites are available without a prescription from pet shops. Many are based on ivermectin (such as Beaphar Insect Spray) which is applied to the animal, pyrethrins (such as White Python No More Mites) which are applied to the enclosure without the animal in it, and synthetic equivalents like d-Phenothrin (such as Callington Mite Spray) which are applied to the enclosure while the animal is inside. With a prescription, there are other effective treatments based on fipronil (preferably alcohol-based such as Effipro, rather than sticky like Frontline Spray for Dogs, since sticky types need to be rinsed off afterwards) which are applied to the animal (usually sprayed onto a cloth then wiped onto the animal) and provide longer-term protection. These are far more effective than traditional cooking-oil-and-water baths, which do not normally stop an infestation. The old trick of smearing vaseline around the air vents and gaps can help stop migration between enclosures, but surface treatments have the same effect with less mess.
Always consult an expert and read the documentation before using these treatments, as each has its own usage restrictions and re-treatment schedule. Most require the water bowl to be removed for 24 hours, to prevent the animal washing off the treatment, and potentially drinking it. Some, such as ivermectin, cannot be used with certain types of reptile. Most cannot be used near tarantulas and scorpions. All are used only after an animal is affected, they are not used as a regular preventative. (Note that other surface treatments such as Provent-a-mite and Ardap Universal Pest Control - based on pyrethrin and synthetic equivalents like permethrin - may be recommended by some reptile keepers, but they are not certified for use with reptiles in the UK, at the time of writing.) Some owners prefer to use predatory "defender" (Hypoaspis miles) or "Taurrus" (Cheyletus eruditus) mites, which eat snake mites then die once there are no more snake mites to eat; these are not as effective as dedicated treatments, but may be preferred if the treatments cannot be used for a specific animal.
When an animal is being treated for mites, avoid handling them, and avoid touching their enclosure or ornaments as much as possible, until the treatment schedule is complete. This limits the transfer of adult mites, invisible young mites, or invisible eggs to you and your clothing. If you do need to touch them, do not let them touch your clothing, and immediately wash hands with plenty of soap and hot water, to try to remove or suffocate any mites that have climbed onto you, before they have a chance to migrate. Avoid touching other reptiles afterwards, as you can spread any mites that you failed to detect. Mites breed in the bedding, but the bedding should not normally be removed from the enclosure when using dedicated treatments; removing it makes it much more likely that you will drop mites and their eggs everywhere. It is normally better to let the treatments kill any mites that are in the bedding, either directly, or when they come into contact with a treated animal.
Quarantine is not needed with your first reptile. However, as you gain more reptiles, it becomes more important. The general idea is to keep newly acquired animals away from your existing animals for long enough that you can be sure they are not bringing in any illnesses which could harm the existing animals. This quarantine period could last around 2 to 4 weeks for a basic quarantine, or as much as 6 months for an ideal quarantine. If any existing animals become ill with a potentially communicable disease, they can also be immediately moved into quarantine to protect the other animals.
A basic quarantine would simply be to keep the animal in a separate enclosure from existing animals, even if they will end up sharing an enclosure later. A more advanced quarantine would be to keep the quarantine enclosure in a separate room, using bowls and feeding tongs that will never be used for the others. Disposable rubber gloves can be worn when touching the animal or any part of its enclosure, and thrown away after each use. Changing clothes after handling can also help prevent any mites from spreading. Although animals in quarantine need to be monitored, all work with quarantined animals should take place after any other work has been done with non-quarantined animals, to avoid carrying illnesses back to the non-quarantined animals. If food is refused by a quarantined animal, the leftover food should not be offered to a non-quarantined animal.
A quarantine enclosure would ideally be made of something that can be easily and completely disinfected, perhaps even steam cleaned or covered with boiling water, leaving nowhere for any diseases or parasites to hide in it. A RUB with paper towel substrate normally serves this purpose very well. All ornaments should be similarly easy to clean and disinfect, and considered disposable, so that they can be thrown away if an occupant turns out to be carrying a communicable illness.
If an animal (whether in quarantine or not) is to be put into an enclosure that was previously used by another animal, the enclosure and ornaments should be thoroughly cleaned and disinfected with a reptile-safe disinfectant first, and any substrate replaced. If the previous occupant died from a communicable disease, it is perhaps better to dispose of the old enclosure and ornaments, and purchase a new one. Although rare, some of the most serious parasites (such as cryptosporidium) can survive for 2 years in an empty enclosure, and cannot be killed by simple disinfectants.
Snakes can travel for many hours in a small, ventilated box, with tissue for bedding. Alternatively, they may travel in a fabric bag such as a knotted pillow case, which may optionally be placed inside an open box. The box or bag should be placed on your lap in a car with the heating on if needed. They should not be heated from below with anything hot. Hot water bottles and electric heaters should be avoided. If they soil the box, replace the tissue.
This is just a quick guide to get you started. It is not intended to be a complete book, and cannot replace a well written book, or the advice of an expert. It is based on our own best knowledge at the time of writing, and advice may change over time as new techniques, technology, or medical advice becomes available. Owners are responsible for ensuring that their knowledge is kept up to date. This guide is based on the British Isles, but the basic principles may be applied to other areas too.