microchipping pythons

I was thinking of getting this done to my adult BHP (incase he was stolen etc), does anyone else do this? can you see or feel the lump where its inserted??

Our pythons are microchipped......no, you can't feel where it is............it won't stop people stealing it....but if caught you can get the police and prove that it is yours....also when the vet is treating our animals...by the microchip he knows what animal is what and will have the history on it.

good idea...might look into that

I don't think it's terribly expensive either. Garthnfay, do you have a rough ball-park price you can give?

I think it cost us about $12.00 each snake.......$20.00 with worming etc

GARTHNFAY said:

I think it cost us about $12.00 each snake.......$20.00 with worming etc

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If it's that cheap why aren't more people doing it?

Can i also ask a few questions:

How is the info stored and retrieved?

Is the snake under an anaesthetic, or how is the chip installed?

Are there any known issues - ie long term health problems?

wormed ? do snakes need to be wormed ?

Microchips are usually injected under the skin (with a disturbingly large needle :s) Info on microchips is stored in the microchip (ID number) that can be scanned and recognised with a microchip scanner. The ID number is on your vets records, so he can keep an accurate history.

This is how it normally works. May be different for reptiles?

That is right PhilK...they are not aneathetised...they didn't even flinch so it musn't hurt too much!
This is about how much it cost us...but it always depends on your vet and how much they want to charge you....some they charge you with a standard visit and add extra on . We are lucky that we have a great vet that doesn't do that. Yes Mase...it doesn't hurt to worm your snake!
We breed our own rats and mice and they are wormed so the snakes don't really need it...but when we are a bit short and we need to buy some from other people we make sure that they are wormed.

thanks for all the info guys

Doesn't the necessity for worming verge on the debate for how long rats need to be frozen. I believe worms are one of the things killed in the freezing process (having said that I regularly worm my snakes)

is there a minimum weight-size that can be chipped?
its the disturbingly large needle that puts me off.

when i eventually get some pricey snakies i will be getting mine microchipped.

the needle has to be huge, the chip is about the size of a grain of rice - i'll be having my blondes done as soon as they are big enough (weighed them today - Ariadne is 10.5g, Virgil is 16)

Yeah needles hurt - but it'd hurt more for your snakes to be stolen by someone without you being able to prove they're originally yours!

Plus, reptiles have a higher pain threshold than people. Like GARTHNFAY said, they didn't even flinch. Needle pain never killed anything.

chips can be removed just as easily as they can be placed

Not as easily. (I dunno in reptiles, so forgive me if i'm wrong) - But removing them involves cutting them out, which leaves a mark?

If a reptile went missing or was stolen can it be photo identified by their markings? kind of like a fingerprint. Or is this not proof enough?