Quarantine and acclimation

Quarantine - not just of WC animals but of any new reptile - is perhaps one of the most important processes a reptile keeper can perform when taking on a new pet. Diadem snakes bought at a pet store are likely to be wild caught... but actually, being captive bred guarantees nothing - some of the worst illnesses it is possible to introduce to your collection come from captive bred collections and can cross collections like wildfire; arenaviruses, nidoviruses, cryptosporidiosis etc. not to mention parasites like mites and nematodes. You don't know what another keeper has in their collection, especially in larger collections or pet shops where animals are coming into the collection regularly.

As such, as soon as I get any new snake(s), whether wild caught or captive bred, I follow exactly the same protocols. I keep new arrivals in a separate room. Upon receiving them I check them over for parasites and (if wild caught) I usually give them a quick wipe through a cloth that has been sprayed lightly with Frontline - even if I cannot see any mites or other ectoparasites. This will be repeated a week later (and enclosure cleaned at same time).

The animals are placed into clean boxes with a sheet of white printer paper and a clean water bowl and kept this way for a week. This serves two purposes. It makes ectoparasites like mites and ticks much easier to spot on the paper, and it makes collecting faecals easy.

This is so so SO important! Mites getting into a collection as large as mine, set up in enclosures as complex as they are, would be game over. It would be extremely time consuming to get rid of them again. Prevention is the best cure.

Once the snakes have defecated, faecals are sent for testing for internal parasites and crypto. This is much easier than it used to be, most vets will do it for you at a reasonable price, or you can send them directly to somewhere like PALS vet lab or Reptiland.co.uk. The price for this will vary depending on what you are testing for (simple faecal screens are cheapest; full parasitology a little more; nidovirus and adenovirus PCR a little more). Groups of animals that have been housed together can be tested at once. In the case of things like nidovirus and adenovirus it is possible to get false negatives, so generally you will want to test the animal three times throughout the quarantine period.

What is in our favour with Diadem snakes is that they come from desert and arid habitats, which are far less hospitable for parasites since many require water to undergo their life cycle; as such most desert snakes will be far ‘cleaner’ than snakes from tropical forests and wetlands.

Once faecals have been collected and you have ensured that there are no mites present, the animals can be moved to more complete quarantine enclosures. These will still be simple - when I say simple, I mean cheap, replaceable substrate like aspen or fine bark chips, a branch or two, a couple of simple hides, water bowl, lights and the heater. The purpose of this setup is twofold - to allow the animal to settle in, and also to allow easy observation on your part to ensure all is well, the animal is healthy, it is behaving normally and any potential issues are more easily spotted.

At this stage, any animals requiring treatment after tests come back are treated.

Another very important aspect for new WC animals is rehydration. Species from arid or desert habitats generally will do fine with a bowl of water and a humid hide, if they are healthy. However if they look dehydrated or seem to have problems eating, regurgitating food or have visibly lost weight, you may consider offering an electrolyte solution to drink from. MANY tropical reptiles come in dehydrated and looking otherwise fairly well, but never seem to perk up without specific rehydration therapy. A mere couple of days allowing them to get rehydrated can save an animal's life. This can be a huge issue for things like WC tropical species, for example and I suspect the majority of people that fail with these do so because they don't get rehydration right off the get-go. With arid land species, it should not be a problem.

I quarantined my initial group of Diadem snakes in 84L tubs. At the time, I used heat mats for warmth and no overhead lighting but I have since come to incorporate UV lighting into my quarantine protocols as it can help reduce stress and encourage more natural behaviour.

The animals are quarantined for not less than three months, and sometimes up to two years for problematic WC species from moist tropical regions, which might carry quite large loads of worms, subdermal parasites and so on.

Occasionally I may dress up the terrarium more depending on the animal, its origins and how stressy it is. I find some WC adapt better with more cover so they may get it, CB are generally unproblematic. However it is vital to allow for easy observation of the snakes during this period; that is, after all, what quarantine is for.

During this period you will discover whether the animals are eating well or require time to acclimate to the typical f/t lab mice, chicks and other standard snake fare we offer. Quarantine is an opportunity to make sure the animal is eating well and adapting to captivity as it should. Again, with Diadem snakes this should be unproblematic; I found that all my wild caught specimens took to lab rodents with gusto first try and never encountered any problems feeding any of them.

With wild caught animals, there is also the fact that they are likely to be more stressy and less tolerant of human interaction than bold, boisterous captive bred snakes. This is not always an issue - some WC do amazingly well from the beginning; I have had WC snakes snatch food off tongs on the first day. Some can take months to acclimatise and some can take years. Quarantine is a time to allow them to adapt to captivity. It pays to remember that snakes can go quite a while without food, and a wild caught animal will initially be more concerned about security than food. Keepers used to dealing with captive bred snakes may need to exercise some patience waiting for a wild caught snake to settle in and be ready to accept thawed prey items.

One other aspect of Diadem snake ‘personality’ that must be borne in mind is their preponderance to hiss loudly at any disturbance and strike at anybody outside the enclosure. Some specimens will do this even if you walk past the door of the room in which they are kept. Several of my specimens continued to hiss at my passing for some years after I acquired them, although eventually they did stop and accept my presence in the snake room without constantly kicking up a fuss hissing. This is loud and obnoxious enough that it may become a disturbance to others in the same house, as such it is a good idea to keep the door to the room the animals are in closed, and ensure they are kept in a low traffic room with no mammalian pets like cats or dogs that can disturb them. If this is the case in your specimen it may be worth masking the front of the enclosure with opaque paper.

If and only if you are satisfied the animals are healthy, have been checked for internal and external parasites, are behaving normally and are eating well, the time has come to move the snakes to their permanent enclosures.