In the first week after an animal arrives, the most common beginner mistake is doing too much — opening the enclosure to check, handling it early, and swapping food or rearranging the setup the moment it refuses a meal.
Each of those comes from good intentions. Together they are a continuous stressor, layered on top of what was already the most violent environmental change of the animal’s life.
The correct procedure for this week is mostly restraint.
1. Quarantine first, everything else second
If you already keep animals of the same group, the new arrival must be housed separately for 30-60 days. This is not an optional step.
Doing it properly:
- A separate enclosure, ideally in a different room — at minimum not sharing ventilation with your existing animals
- Its own tools: tongs, water dishes and thermometers should not be shared
- Always attend to existing animals first and the new one last — never the other way round
- Wash your hands after handling the new animal, before touching anything else
Why 30-60 days: cryptosporidium, mites, mycoplasma and chytrid can all have incubation periods longer than a month. A short quarantine is barely better than none.
Any abnormality during quarantine — refusal beyond the normal range, unusual droppings, visible parasites, audible breathing — means a vet visit, and the quarantine clock restarts.
2. Arrival day
Before opening the box, confirm the enclosure is already running properly: temperature and humidity in range, hides and water in place. If those are still being adjusted, every change you make now stacks more stress onto the animal.
The handover:
- Set the transport container beside the enclosure for 15-20 minutes so temperatures converge
- Open it and let the animal walk out on its own — do not reach in and lift it
- Refresh the water, then turn the lights off and leave
- Do not open the enclosure again that day
A reptile or amphibian that disappears into a hide for the entire first day is behaving completely normally.
3. Week one: observe, do not disturb
| Do | Do not |
|---|---|
| Observe once a day, at a fixed time, from a distance | Open the enclosure repeatedly or lift hides |
| Change water when needed | Handle, stroke, or photograph with flash |
| Record temperature and humidity | Change food or rearrange because it hasn’t eaten |
| Remove obvious waste | Invite friends round to see it |
On not eating: going without food for the first few days, or the whole first week, is normal while transport stress wears off.
- Snakes: wait 5-7 days before the first feeding attempt. If it refuses, wait another week
- Geckos and lizards: offer a few insects around day 3-4; whether they are taken does not matter
- Birds: the exception — a bird must start eating on day one. A bird that is not eating can be in trouble within a day or two, so watch closely
- Small mammals: usually eat the same day or the next. More than 24 hours without food warrants attention
4. Four things to check daily
You do not need to disturb it. Look through the glass:
- Breathing — any open-mouth breathing, any audible sound
- Posture — normal resting position, or limp, head-tilted, hunched
- Droppings — form, colour, any blood or mucus
- Body surface — wounds, abnormal scales, visible mites or dark specks
Note those four alongside the day’s temperature and humidity, one line per day. After a week you have a baseline, and every later change can be measured against it.
5. After the first week
Once week one is behind you, build the routine up gradually:
- Week 2: start regular feeding, still no handling
- Week 3: short contact sessions, 5-10 minutes, supporting the whole body
- Week 4 onward: normal husbandry routine
The pace varies by species. A ball python needs a longer settling period, a leopard gecko is usually ready for interaction after a week, and a fancy rat actually benefits from gentle contact as early as possible. Follow the advice on the species page.
6. When to override the leave-it-alone rule
These take priority over settling in:
- Visible injury or bleeding
- Open-mouth breathing or audible respiration
- Severe diarrhoea, or blood in the droppings
- Visible mites
- A heating or humidity equipment failure
- A bird not eating for half a day, or visibly lethargic
All of these need acting on immediately, and the rest-and-quiet principle gives way.