Green Tree Python Basic Care Information

Basic care - what seems the most obvious and despite that the most common culprit when problems arise. The most important part of basic care is to establish a routine of checking on your animals regularly - here at Spruce Nubble Farm we check on every animal at least once per day and often two or three times.

Inspection of the animal is the most important part of basic care - look your animal over very carefully every time you have the chance. Look for any sign of distress or problems, problems caught early are much easier to deal with. Remember that the only way to know what "normal" looks like and when your animal is being "weird" is to spend lots of time observing.

Cleaning

Diseases and parasites are spread through fecal matter and on hands - cleaning is your opportunity to control this. We recommend removing stools and shed skins as soon as you see them as well as planning a regular cleaning of the cage about once a week.

A basic cage cleaning for us starts with removing the animal (on it's perch) from the enclosure. Typically Green Tree Pythons will sleep through the entire cleaning process. We then remove the water bowl and the substrate. We usually spray the cage down with novalson, also known as Chlorhexidine - the best price we have found on it is here. $8 plus a 32 oz sprayer for $3 and you have 32 bottles of cleanser (1/4 ounce of concentrate to fill the sprayer) which is probably a lifetime supply. Having sprayed the surfaces we then wipe them all down with a paper towel. Some cleansers require a rinse with plain old water as well but nolvasan doesn't. In our display cages we'll clean the glass as well, regular cleaning will prevent build up of minerals from your water. We usually use just plain water to clean the glass (having already cleaned it with novalson) but sometimes a bit of commercial glass cleaner or vinegar/water mix is used to make things sparkle.

So once we have a clean empty cage we replace the substrate with a fresh piece of paper. If you use mulch you need to carefully spot clean and plan to change it completely every few months or so. If any piece of a live plant has a stool on it we remove it and throw it away.

Next comes a "new" water bowl - we keep two water bowls for every animal here. When we clean each week we remove the soiled bowl and soak it is a 10% bleach solution for at least 15 minutes before rinsing well and then air drying. This bleach soak works well on any piece of cage furniture and it is a good idea to do it regularly.

We also use Disintegrator, as well as other standard cleansers/disinfectants. We try to rotate what we use to prevent any resistant organisms from forming - using the same cleanser all the time can encourage creepy crawlies that develop immunity.

Always wash your hands with hot water and antibacterial soap before handling your animals and after cleaning cages.

Records

As you might have guessed from looking at our collection or animals for sale pages we are fastidious record keepers. We use a MySQL database and PHP pages to display the info, this allows us to do some neat things with our data which can help us improve our husbandry and breeding programs.

For the individual pet owner records are no less important and it is a good habit to get into. When it becomes important you won't remember and records are often so assuring when something seems amiss. A complete record makes it so much simpler to understand and solve problems along with recognizing patterns. The first thing a good vet will ask for is your records. We record sheds, stools, cleanings, feedings, weight, and anything else that seems worth noting including moods.

A simple wall calendar is a great way to keep track - some of those round colored stickers you can get at any office supply store can make it even easier. Red for stools, green for sheds, blue for cleanings - whatever works for you is just fine.

Failure to keep records - no matter how much of a routine you use (always clean on wednesdays) - will be detrimental to the health and well being of your animal.