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Hand Sanitizers & Snake Handling

K

kalena

New member
I keep bottles of Germ-X wherever I have reptile tanks in the house. I don't necessarily think Salmonella is going to get us, but I just want hands washed or Germ-X'd after handling the reptiles, petting the dogs, etc. I did a search here and found a couple of threads on Germ-X as it pertains to human safety... My 9-yr-old daughter tends to take this to the extreme - she'll handle one snake, use Germ-X, then handle another snake, Germ-X, another snake, Germ-X...

1. Is it necessary/recommended to clean hands before handling each indivdual snake? (Jennifer does it because she doesn't want the snakes to smell each other on her hands - she thinks they'll be jealous! LOL)

2. Is it safe for the SNAKES to handle them immediately after using Germ-X?
 
I always wash before I start working with my snakes. Cleaning hands between snakes isn't a bad idea. I don't personally do it every time when the snakes in question are established members of my collection. One should always wash before and after handling animals in quarantine for any reason, whether new to the collection or ill.

Hand sanitizer isn't bad, don't get me wrong. Soap and water is just better. I'm a chemistry teacher and I only use hand sanitizer when soap and water are unavailable. Students wash with soap & water after lab; rubbing added chemicals around doesn't make all the "bad" chemicals go away. Many flu viruses - and other sorts of virus -are encapsulated and are not killed by hand sanitizers. Sanitizers also leave residue on the hands. Old fashioned soap and water is still the preferred way to get thoroughly clean. Surgeons don't use Germ-X before diving into someone's body for good reason!

I don't know of any studies about the effect of sanitizers and/or their residue on herps. I doubt that they're a problem in reasonable amounts. That said, herps are more sensitive to many chemicals than are humans. For that reason, I again prefer soap and water.
 
Oh yeah - nothing beats soap and water - and ultimately, hands are washed in the end. But I know the kids don't always run straight to the sink every time they touch an animal, so I keep the Germ-X around as an additional precaution. I just didn't know if there was any chemical content or perfume in it that would hurt the snakes.
 
We recently went to a petting zoo, and when we came out, there was a bottle of hand-sanitizer for everyone to use - and everyone was using it and then diving into their corn dogs or popcorn or whatever. Kinda grossed me out - I don't think of hand sanitizer as being sufficient to get llama and pig slobber off your hands... Ugh...
 
I am glad you threw this out there because I have Purell in my snake room. I wash with soap and water first and sometimes in between snake handling I use the Purell, not between each and every snake though. I think I tend to use it more in between feeding the larger prey to snakes since they give off more scent and I also slit the prey. The llittle pinks and larger pinks and even small fuzzies to my nose don't seem to have as much scent as like maybe hoppers, weaned and adults. I also make sure the cleaner is completely dry on my hands because it just gives off such a chemical scent that it sorta bothers me. Probably nothing here that really means anything just what I do. Extremely curious to other input though
 
I'm not a fan of hand sanitizers in general. Working in both the criminal justice field and in EMS, I have lots of contact with lots of different people and their cooties all the time. Hand sanitizers, although maybe good enough for when there's no soap/water available, aren't a substitute for a good scrubbing - just my unsolicited two cents about that ;)

I would think that once the alcohol has evaporated, the residual stuff left on your hands wouldn't hurt the snakes at all.
 
When going to reptile shows you will see bottles of hand sanitizer at the tables. You are supposed to use it before handling any reptile. At least the tables we went to made you do it. We also wash our hands before and after "snake time" but we also use the hand sanitizer between each snake. Just a preference I suppose.
 
kalena said:
We recently went to a petting zoo, and when we came out, there was a bottle of hand-sanitizer for everyone to use - and everyone was using it and then diving into their corn dogs or popcorn or whatever. Kinda grossed me out - I don't think of hand sanitizer as being sufficient to get llama and pig slobber off your hands... Ugh...
Click to expand...

:puke01: You're right. It doesn't get anything OFF. It can kill some germs, but the substances on the hands in question don't go anywhere.

kalena said:
Oh yeah - nothing beats soap and water - and ultimately, hands are washed in the end. But I know the kids don't always run straight to the sink every time they touch an animal, so I keep the Germ-X around as an additional precaution. I just didn't know if there was any chemical content or perfume in it that would hurt the snakes.
Click to expand...

Indeed. One can't be too stringent in encouraging good hygiene, especially with kids and critters!

4riscorn said:
When going to reptile shows you will see bottles of hand sanitizer at the tables. You are supposed to use it before handling any reptile. At least the tables we went to made you do it. We also wash our hands before and after "snake time" but we also use the hand sanitizer between each snake. Just a preference I suppose.
Click to expand...

Yes, there's sanitizer available. That's to protect the animals from germ transfer as much as for the humans, IMHO!

You can call it a preference, but some "preferences" are clearly safer than others. The scientific truth is that hand sanitizer is far behind soap and water for actual removal of contagions, and preventing the transfer of disease. Sanitizer is FAR better than nothing at all, and I use it too. I'm glad it's becoming more available. But it doesn't compare to old-fashioned hand washing.
 
I was wondering the same thing. I don't want to hurt my snakes when I use it. I use before and after holding htem.
 
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