[Cazador]

Hey Tim,

It's probably good that you said no at first. When (if) you bring home the new snake, you should probably quarantine it for at least a month. If the previous owners didn't want it, they may not have been taking the best of care of it. If it brings mites or internal parasites home to your red-sided, you would be very disappointed.

Your quarantine pen can be as simple as a plastic sweater box with air holes drilled into the sides, but you'll also need a heat source, water bowl (preferably white to reveal mites easier), simple substrate (such as white paper towels), and one or more hiding places. It should also be well away from your "resident" snake's enclosure to reduce the likelihood of spreading parasites from one enclosure to the other.

Justin's idea is interesting and makes a lot of sense. One could also introduce a bit of the "resident" snake's substrate into the other snake's cage to transfer the scent of the "resident" snake before making the introduction, but this seems like overkill... unless you just want to be very, very cautious. I've never had any problems adding one snake directly into another's pen, but these would be very conservative approaches. Mixing T.e. vagrans with another species might be a mistake due to their canabalistic tendencies, but that's about it.

Rick