• Hello!

    Either you have not registered on this site yet, or you are registered but have not logged in. In either case, you will not be able to use the full functionality of this site until you have registered, and then logged in after your registration has been approved.

    Registration is FREE, so please register so you can participate instead of remaining a lurker....

    Please be certain that the location field is correctly filled out when you register. All registrations that appear to be bogus will be rejected. Which means that if your location field does NOT match the actual location of your registration IP address, then your registration will be rejected.

    Sorry about the strictness of this requirement, but it is necessary to block spammers and scammers at the door as much as possible.

Can I use my old tank??

R

RedAlbino77

New member
I had an escapee not too long ago, and was wondering if I could use my 50 gallon for a ball python without changing/cleaning everything?? Is it necessary to remove my corn's smell from everything before I put my ball python in the tank? Thank you for your help!
 
I can't say for sure what kind of effect this would have on your new friend, but I'd give it a good cleaning just in case. That way if something comes up, you can eliminate "Maybe I should have cleaned the tank first" right away. :)

Plus it'll be the best new start for your ball that you can give!
 
I also second cleaning the tank before putting the BP in it..

There's no reason not to give your BP a FRESH new home, and I also wouldn't want to risk passing any unknown ailments onto your BP..from the corn. The best thing you could do is strip the whole tank and give everything a good vinegar and water/bleach and water soak.

Better safe than sorry I always say, especially when lives are at stake!
 
I am with them, give your tank a really good cleaning and fresh substrate and clean hides, rocks and decorations, everything. Why take a chance?
 
Yes you have to clean it, with either 25% ammonia/water or 10% bleach/water. Don't mix those two things, and rinse well.

Then read the sticky down in my forum about Ball Pythons.
 
^^ What she said...:uhoh:

The threat of infection is certainly there, so why risk an animal you care about? Sterilize everything, then you know for sure if something does happen it came with the ball, and isn't a result of sloppy husbandry. You'd quarantine a new snake anyway for the same reasons - the deep clean is just the short form of that quarantine.
 
You know what, if I move any snakes, even snakes I've had here for years, I always sterilize the old enclosure and everything in it, with either bleach or ammonia, just to be on the safe side.
 
Taking everybody's advice, I will sterilize. However, I don't have a vehicle that can drive right now, so I'm stuck without any new bedding. I had cleaned the enclosure (full sterilization/monthly clean) about 4 days before my corn escaped, so I think the BP will be fine in there until tomorrow, or this afternoon, just whenever I can get a ride to the pets store. Thank you everyone for your input! Also, the pets store said the BP had not fed the past two times they've tried, and he fed this morning!! I'm glad!
 
Sterilize the tank and use paper towels until you can get new substrate. If you put the Boa initial with old substrate you are wasting your time cleaning the tank.
 
Well done on the feeding - that's a good sign.

I agree with Kaypar - just use paper towels until you can get fresh bedding. In fact, it's not a bad idea to do that for any new animal so you can monitor poops and such more readily.
 
I agree. Paper towel would probably be one of the best substrates to use for a new guy. It's often the substrate of choice in quarantine, making it easier to keep track of the new addition, their behavior, biological functions, other anomalies, etc. Definitely a good choice for a temporary substrate for a new snake before able to acquire something else.
 
Doesn't matter if you cleaned it right before the corn snake escaped. You need to clean out the whole thing and bleach it before putting ANYTHING else in there.
 
AliCat37 said:
Doesn't matter if you cleaned it right before the corn snake escaped. You need to clean out the whole thing and bleach it before putting ANYTHING else in there.
Click to expand...
Yeah that ^^ If your corn snake had anything and was in that tank for 5 minutes whatever it had is in that tank now!
 
I didn't even think about paper towels. What I've done: I use my smaller tank with new leftover substrate to house the python while I cleaned the big tank. Everything has been cleaned and sterilized with bleach water and will be reassembled with new substrate tonight. I'm using reptibark instead of aspen though to retain moisture. Also, should ball pythons be fe with small mice rather than fuzzies?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top