Is it safe to take a corn to "reptile night"?

One of the pet stores has reptile nights each month where people are encouraged to bring their reptiles in and talk to other pet owners. We went last night, and Alli loved meeting the various ball pythons, beardies, and leopard geckos, and wants to go back next month with Wadjet.

Is it safe to take a corn to something like this? The other animals seemed very calm and comfortable being handled, but I'm not sure Wadjet would be up to it (she's calm for a corn, but she's still a corn, and when I've had her out for co-ops with the homeschool group, she's only been out of her viv a short time), and I don't want to risk exposing her to anything that might make her sick.

most of us would probably recommend not. besides potential illness transmission, it can be quite stressful for an animal to be transported to a new place. it won't hurt her, but could weaken her immune system a lil bit.

I certainly would never bring one of my snakes to a reptile night. You never know what baddies may be lurking around.

If one person has mites in their collection, you may get them too!

And that is on top of the aforementioned stress it would place on your snake.

SquamishSerpents said:

I certainly would never bring one of my snakes to a reptile night. You never know what baddies may be lurking around.

If one person has mites in their collection, you may get them too!

And that is on top of the aforementioned stress it would place on your snake.

Click to expand...

Agreed, it's not worth the risk.

Yeah, just because others are comfortable with it doesn't mean its necessarily a good idea

Corn snakes are not social so there is no benefit to the snake and only risk in the trade off. I don't think it would be worth the risk myself.

They are social...not with other snakes but generally interact with people quite well...it's why they make such good captive pets. I take my cornsnake as well as my green tree python and amazon tree boa to do talks at schools and for the boyscouts. The only one I don't allow to be handled is the Amazon as it stresses her out and she may bite. With other reptiles in the place though you do have a small chance of exposure to mites or other disease but I'd hope that people wouldn't bring an animal that is ill to something like this. It also depends upon the animal. I wouldn't take just any green tree python to the talks, I take Tempest. She is calm and not bothered by handling and does very well at the talks I do. Some of my others might not handle it as well. If you think your snake is not comfortable with the handling then don't go. If she is...take her. My first cornsnake was very mellow and loved to be out. I took him to visit people all the time and he now lives in a school where he is the mascot and loved by the kids there.

A docile temperament is not the same as being a social animal. Just because snakes respond well to human interaction doesn't mean that they are a social animal. If you never interacted with your snake it would not seek out human contact.

That is true, but we are also expecting them to interact and most do without any issues at all. Again, this depends upon each individual snake. Some of mine seem to enjoy the interaction and appear to want to be out more than be in the cage. Some don't. Those are not handled. for the most part, when I owned large numbers of cornsnakes, the majority seemed to enjoy being out and about. The few that seemed stressed were left alone and usually as they matured, that changed to not being upset about it. I do not see the harm in taking out your snake and handling it...which is usually the reason people buy cornsnakes in the first place.

My fear would be for cross contamination... That small chance of mites, but also the chance of parasites--just as an example, beardies are infamous for carrying assorted parasites... It just comes with the territory of eating live insects as a significant part of their diet. And, of course, the risk of other illness...

If you do it... Bring and use lots and lots of hand sanitizer, and have anyone who interacts with your snake use hand sanitizer first.

All of that said, it does sound fun! And goodness knows it's hard for us proud snake parents to resist showing our babies off to people who "get it." If you want to do it, do it! Just be very, very careful about sanitation and make sure you bring a snake bag or travel container you can stow Wadjet in during the meeting if she starts to seem stressed.

MegF. said:

That is true, but we are also expecting them to interact and most do without any issues at all. Again, this depends upon each individual snake. Some of mine seem to enjoy the interaction and appear to want to be out more than be in the cage. Some don't. Those are not handled. for the most part, when I owned large numbers of cornsnakes, the majority seemed to enjoy being out and about. The few that seemed stressed were left alone and usually as they matured, that changed to not being upset about it. I do not see the harm in taking out your snake and handling it...which is usually the reason people buy cornsnakes in the first place.

Click to expand...

This is a frequent misconception pet owners have. The truth is when you take your snakes out they are just reacting to the situation you are putting them in. In truth, if you were to take your snake out and leave it alone to see what 'it really wanted', you would find they want the same thing as they do when in their tanks 90% of the time. And that is a nice, dark spot to sleep. Owners project thoughts and emotions onto animals that just don't possess them.

Just showing up to the place can mean bringing something home...this includes going to reptile shows. The risk is always out there that you could bring something to your animals just by being in places where there are other reptiles. However, I think it's important that the reptile community know each other and touch bases so that they are a more cohesive community. This can also lead to connections that can help in the rehoming or rescue of other reptiles in the area as well as fighting anti-snake legislation. I require people at shows to use hand sanitizer before handling any animal they potentially want to buy, or even to just see and hold (children especially are always encourage in order to foster better "snakey" relations). I also treat the containers or cages they are in with Provent a mite if I feel there is any risk of them picking up mites at the venue.I've never had a problem yet though and I've been selling at shows for nearly 10 years. I also am doing a lot of talks at schools and clubs. When I was in California I used to bring either a cornsnake or even my green tree python to my local petstore for the reptile staff there to see. They loved them and I was able to sell a lot of babies to the staff as well believe it or not. There are risks to everything and you have to decide if that is enough to avoid all things that might bring in something. You should take precautions though such as hand gel and making sure your cages remain mite free. Simply treating with provent a mite monthly as directed kills any mites that might get on the animal and if you aren't going to the venue with your snake, I'd just change clothes before entering your snake room or handling your snake.

I wouldn't. I never transport my corn if I can help it. Your snake could get stressed, catch some horrible disease, be injured, or maybe escape.