Pregnant Wife?

[billwalsh]

Originally Posted by John_White

Basically, my kids grew-up with herps and many other critters and as you can see, they turned-out fine.

Hahahah perfect =)

[morti]

Originally Posted by majkill

Im sure PETA have something to say about it

In fact they do. They use live feeding as further rationalization of why no one should be allowed to have pet reptiles.

But back to Salmonella... I have read accounts of people who were diagnosed with salmonelloses ... The doctor asked "Do you keep reptiles?" If the answer is yes, then no further investigation was conducted about other possible sources of the disease.

Some reading material:

http://jrsm.rsmjournals.com/cgi/reprint/94/3/124.pdf

Reptile-Associated Salmonellosis --- Selected States, 1998--2002

Disease Listing: Salmonellosis General Information | CDC DFBMD

CTTC - Salmonella Prevention

California Zoological Supply | Salmonella

Most of those links have some real info and some scary propaganda... sorting out what is what is a real challenge. Notice that most of the cases of salmonella are from water turtles and iguanas.

[Ophiophilia]

I read that your chances of getting salmonella were higher with food rather than reptiles.

[jtmoney]

Originally Posted by Ophiophilia

I read that your chances of getting salmonella were higher with food rather than reptiles.

DING DING DING ... CORRECT

Better keep your wife away from all uncooked meats and eggs and ect ect ... All kidding aside just take the normal precautions (handwashing and that good stuff)

[spix14]

I went through the same thing when I got pregnant. We had 2 snakes and a cresties at the time. I was a little worried, moreso when my midwife handed me a 5 page pamplet that she printed off of the internet detailing a bunch of horror stories. But she also told me that she understood that pets were family too, and that as long as we were careful, it was no worse than keeping the cat. It's a well known fact that pregnant women are not supposed to clean litter boxes, but you don't see nearly as many people being told not to have a cat in the house. Our solution was this-we had, at the place we lived in at the time, a very large walk in closet. So all the herps got moved into their own mini herp room for the duration of the pregnancy. My husband stepped up to the plate and took over all the cleaning and feeding responsibilities (as well as the litter box) and I didn't handle the herps. I also got even more careful with our sanitation procedures. There were bottles of germ-X next to every cage and my husband knew he had to go straight into the bathroom and scrub up after messing around with the herps. We figured better safe then sorry, and it was tough for me not to handle my scaley kids for 9 months, but I didn't want to get rid of them or end up as another name in one of those booklets, so it was worth it to me. And you know what? Everyone is fine. Not a single problem while pregnant, and not a single problem with my daughter, who is now a year old. In my opinion, if the salmonella risk was as high as they make it out to be, there would be a LOT more reptile owners popping up sick. With all the irresponsible or uneducated owners who probably handle their BP and then go eat a big mac, if the risk was that bad, we'd be dropping like flies.

Bottom line, don't let them scare you. As long as you follow proper sanitation procedures and are willing to take over a few more responsibilities, just to err on the side of caution, everything will be fine and you'll have a new little herper in training.

And by the way, congrats!

[TheBoaGuy]

I think this falls into the category of the government over exaggerating. Its like them pamphlets when you were in school about marijuana. All of them said if you smoke marijuana it can kill you. Now Im not saying that smoking marijuana is a good thing to do but it sure won't kill you. Same applies here. My nephew who is 6 now pretty much grew up in my house. Since the time he was old enough to walk he was handling my snakes with a great big smile on his face. Now it may be a good idea to keep your wife and newborn away from the reptiles just for precaution but thats about it. I can honestly say that my kids(when we have em: ) ) will all be introduced to my snakes and a young age. Just my 2cents I could be wrong.

[leoares27]

Originally Posted by John_White

When my wife was gravid she didn't enter the reptile room or building. We kept her as far away from herps stuff as possible. We continued this throughout the infancy of our yard apes and experienced no issues.

LMBO ~ Yard apes!!

[texasmade]

i had three adult bp when my girlfriend was pregnant and never had a problem with her or anything when my son turned one he was holding and taking care of the bp's too so i dont see the big deal