For most pet owners, the suggestion that they use tongs to handle their animals seems silly. But if you own snakes, there’s a good chance they can help you. After all, even the most docile snakes can be problematic from time to time. Getting them used to being handled and fed from snake tongs decreases the chance of an accident. Here’s a look at some of the situations that are right for snake tongs, and when you should use them. Below you there are a few options if you need to know where to buy snake tongs. After reading this you should understand why so many people use snake tongs.

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Great deals on these Snake Tongs! Your search ends here:  Check out these guys if you want to find quality products. They may not be the cheapest, but you get what you pay for! Visit their site below:

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Feeding Your Snakes

Many people feed their animals by hand. Most of the time, dropping prey into reptile cages with your bare hand doesn’t result in any problems. But even tiny snakes can make a mistake. If your reptile start associating your hand with food, there’s a chance that it’ll bite you before it’s even realized what it’s doing. After all, snakes often strike first, and think later.

Most constrictor bites aren’t likely to be damaging to you, but they can hurt the snake. Plus, no one likes to be bitten. Feed your animals prekilled prey using tongs, and you cut down on the risk of being bitten, stressing your snake, and treating your reptile for tooth loss. Feeding with tongs is just a smart idea.

Handling Your Snakes

Handling your animals with snake tongs is a little less common than tong feeding, but it’s still smart. This is the way most zoos and professionals handle their snakes, and for good reason. Even snakes that don’t associate human hands with food may attack something moving quickly in their cage, especially if they sense that it’s warm.

Using tongs to remove animals from reptile cages means that you don’t end up being bitten. This is a particularly big concern for larger snakes. Tongs can also help you handle snakes that don’t have a great attitude. Not every snake requires tong handling, but some of them are going to. It’s a good idea to have the tools on hand before you need them.

Which Tongs To Use?

By now you probably see there are good reasons to use snake tongs. Some people use regular kitchen tongs but for handling, special snake tongs are required. Be sure that you use the right size for your snake and for your reptile cages. A small, twenty-five inch tong will work just fine for many snakes, but it’s not the right choice for a full grown Burmese in a deep tank. You may also wish to use rubber cushions for your tongs to make them more comfortable for your snake.

Just remember to observe basic safety rules with any snake, especially the bigger ones. Remember, your reptiles aren’t always thinking clearly. They react on instinct. It’s up to us to keep ourselves and them safe. Fortunately, as long as you make sure you take a few basic precautions and handle your snake right, you won’t have any problems.

Now here’s a tool that no one usually thinks about until they need one. Whether it is for a pet snake, or wild snakes that are trying to get cozy in your turf, knowing where to purchase a pair of snake tongs is something that many people are asking these days.

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Great deals on these Snake Tongs! Your search ends here:  Check out these guys if you want to find quality products. They may not be the cheapest, but you get what you pay for! Visit their site below:

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Look above and you can see a few options if you’re not sure where to buy snake tongs. People living in rural areas may be able to pick a pair of these babies up at the local supply store, but most of us would probably need to buy them over the internet since few stores carry a good selection of quality products.

My preference is over the internet for several reasons. First off, you can usually get a better price, have more selection to choose from, and can even check out some of the product reviews BEFORE you make a purchase. In my opinion that’s worth a few bucks in shipping (and sometimes it’s still cheaper after paying shipping).

When buying a pair of snake tongs, make sure you don’t only shop price. Shopping “VALUE”  is a totally different thing. If you save $25 on a pair of snake tongs, but they break in your hand due to shoddy materials and you get bit by the rattle snake you are holding, then they’re cheaper, but not such a great “value” after all is it. I’m not saying to go crazy spending the most you can, but check reviews, as well as price and make a wiser decision.

Keep in mind that there are different types of snake tongs for different size snakes and differing lengths. Knowing what size you might need in advance will ensure you buy the right product to meet your needs.

Everything your Baby Beardie’s Parents want you to know…

 Bringing home  a baby Bearded Dragon is a joyful event, but being aware of what they need to not only survive, but to be healthy and happy is crucial. Just like any young baby there are things that they need and things that will hurt them if either neglected, or mishandled so read, on and you can be confident of what to expect and where to buy the supplies you need.

When you first buy your baby beardie hopefully you ask and are informed of some of the basics at the pet store or wherever you get your bearded dragon from. I know when we got Rocxee (our beardie) the pet store clerk acted like having a beardie was easy and we didn’t need much to have one…boy was he wrong. Maybe the fact that he looked like he was still in high school and had “all the answers” should’ve gotten our attention (no offense other high schoolers), but it didn’t and our little beardy was sick and hurting the first week or so after we brought her home

The good thing was that lead us to find out the truth from various sources and to verify, verify, verify. Hence this article is based on what we learned and hopefully this will be a good start for a new owner of a fine bearded dragon.

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Resources:

Here’s some great resources I wish I knew about when we got our beardie. They are full of good info, dirt cheap, and have a 100% money back guarantee if you don’t like them. These are not my products, but I felt it helpful to point you in the right direction. I found a few decent ones you can check out. Be aware, the websites that offer them have a bunch of info about the ebooks, but you may just scan through some of the main points and see where to get them at the bottom:

• Bearded Dragon Care Made Easy- This is a basic ebook full of good info to make sure your pet doesn’t suffer and is healthy and happy. Click Here!

• Basic Bearded Dragon Manual- Here’s another resource for beginners with tips to make sure you are giving your pet all the things they need to enjoy a happy life with you. Click Here!

• Advanced Bearded Dragon Manual- This resource covers all the basics and also some of the advanced topics of being a beardie owner. It even covers breeding beardies to some degree and is a good add on to the others. Click Here!

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 Here are some basics you’ll need to have prepared BEFORE you bring your beardy home with you (or at least at the time you get them). We will list them no real order, but this will be enough to get you started:

Lighting- You’ll need UVA & UVB bulbs and make sure the wattage is good enough for the size tank/cage you have for your pet. We started with a 10 gallon tank and had a 50 watt UVA in the beginning them a few months later moved up to a 75 watt. Check with your pet store clerk (not the high school kid!) and let them know the set up you are planning. Also keep in mind there are the “Night heat bulbs” which are red or black and just keep the beardie warm at night you may want (optional).

Substrate (flooring)- We started of using sand with the calcium powder so it would automatically dust the crickets when our beardy was fed, but our baby kept getting sand in the mouth and it was not good for her. We used some of the “carpet” type material for the tank and it is great and recommended, plus easy to clean.

Basking Area- Within the cage/tank you want to have an area that is designated for basking and also the other side that is a little cooler for the beardy to be able to retreat to when it’s hot. Also remember to have thermometers on both sides to keep the temperature right. We have the hot side at between 98 to 108 degrees and the cooler side between 89 to 96 degrees. This can vary and check with your vet if you’re not sure, but we have found this to be optimal for our little baby bearded dragon.

Food Supply- Please also make sure you don’t get those HUGE crickets for your little beardie at the pet store. Start with the little ones and also try to include some romaine lettuce or something like it. You won’t really know what your pet will like at first and their tastes change so be open and don’t buy a month’s supply of anything until you know they like it. DO make sure you have the crickets either calcium dusted or have the cricket food that adds nourishment to them for when your beardy eats them. You want to make sure your pet is getting all the necessary nourishment from it’s food.

Schedule- Make sure you have the lighting and feeding schedule at least considered. Make sure you don’t give the beardie more than 12-14 hours of the basking an UVB light and make sure you feed them enough to where they aren’t going too long between meals. We would feed our baby beardy every few hours until it stopped getting hungry, but realized they can eat forever! So we now feed her a 2-3 times a day and switch between veggies and cricket or superworms or we give a little of both. Test and see what works for your pet.

Bath and Soaking time- Not sure this is a necessity, but putting an inch or 2 of warm (NOT HOT) water in the sink and letting your pet soak is a good idea and can also help them digest their food a bit and help them when they are beginning to shed their skin. Just thought I’d mention it.

Lots of Love- Above all…love your pet and hold them. Pet them and spend time with them. It might sound corny, but doing this is what helps them mature and stay docile and friendly with you. It’s probably also the reason you got one in the first place.

Check out a place where you will find tons of supplies for reptiles AND they will match prices if you find them cheaper somewhere else!  Click here to Buy Reptile Supplies

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I really hope this article helped you get a general idea of what life with a bearded dragon looks like and what you can expect. It was not intended to be exaustive, but a good starting point for info on the subject. If you found this article useful Re-tweet or pass it along another way and help someone else out.

Best of Luck!

This is a question that has MANY differing opinions. Not only what IS a good snake repellent, but where to buy snake repellant is another thing that seems to be hard to answer, but read on because this information will help.

 If you spent any time online researching I’m sure you’ve realized a few things.

1) There are a million different snake repellant products out there that are supposed to be the magic bullet.

2) All these products pretty much talk about them being the only ones that work and the others are a waste of money.

3) All the pest control articles out there say NONE of these products work and they are the only answer.

That is enough to frustrate anyone. It really stinks when you have all these differing opinions from people and you just want a simple answer. I mean obviously they are not ALL right or else they’d all be wrong…right? Well let me try to give a more simple answer to the question based on RESEARCH done by the Wildlife Services program which is part of the USDA’ Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (bet you didn’t know there was one right?)

Basically they’ve found that their research and application of several chemicals/oils has helped deter snakes (in some instances) and at least cause them to flee when they come into contact with these chemicals. They are subject to State regulation depending on where they are being used, but appear to be exempt from some federal regulation that governs other types of pesticides. That said they are probably safer than most.

The three types of chemicals/oils are:

1) Cinnamon oil
2) Clove oil
3) Eugenol

They can be obtained from most retail or wholesale chemical supplier. There are certain requirements for their use and application and rather than trying to reiterate all this information check out the link here that references the Wildlife Service’s publication right here:

Snake Repellent Publication

Hope this helps…