To chip, or not to chip?

[moosenoose]

I?ve brought this up in another thread, but has anyone had any experience with chipping snakes? The reason I?m interested is, from time to time I see ads on certain sites saying ?python stolen? etc, etc. Imagine the look on the rotten sods face when you showed up at the door with the cops asking for your snake back! What does it cost? Who does it? Pro?s/ cons. I must say they can nick my T.V and stereo?just don?t take my snake.

 

[africancichlidau]

I put a rather high value on my snake also

 

[Fuscus]

I THINK it is about $55 a snake.

 

[Guest]

Hi,
Snakes NT offers free chipping with every snake they sell. un-educated people may think this is a 'cruel' process, but I have seen it done at my Vet and is a simple and quick process, also all the major researchers up here put radio trackers in their snakes, which are probably around the same size, if not a bit larger. once I get the money I will be micro-chipping all of my reptiles especially my croc.

 

[Fuscus]

I think I should piont out that the $55 is the cost of microchipping not africas high value

 

[moosenoose]

$55 isn?t too bad. They slip them under the skin under a local or something don?t they, and staple to close the incision?? I?m wondering what the range is for locating purposes!

 

[africancichlidau]

I'd willingly pay the 55 but I have been waiting years for some stranger to make off with my snake! Nobody touches my snake !






Sob

 

[sxereturn]

I have a BTS that is chipped, and you can see it...looks disgusting. I'm getting it taken out soon.

 

[Guest]

I imagine if my BTS were microchipped it would look pretty bad as well. I have one of my waters chipped and you cant even see it. you can feel it when you run your hands under the snakes body though

 

[moosenoose]

What?s the procedure with getting them chipped Baritji?

 

[bigguy]

Chipping is safe for snakes, but has little or no effect on their security. It works great if you have a large study group of the same species to tell which is which. Its great for the officials to check your collections. But thats about it.

Thieves can easily remove the chips if they are seen or felt. Its just like popping out a skin worm. I know one keeper who has a chipped Carpet Python. Trouble is he has removed it twice and it is now in a third Python.

If your snakes are stollen and the chips have not been removed, then they are a great way to identify your snakes. But only if they find your snakes. I have a good friend who had his chipped snakes stollen last year. They have no idea who took them so the chips are useless. And this is normally the case. Stollen snakes are rarely every seen again and all that money spent on chips was just a absolute waste.

 

[NCHERPS]

As Bigguy stated, I have heard the same thing about the chips being removed from snakes if they can be detected from the outside, but it is another form of security worth considering, again only worth it if your snake can be identified visually first.
For this reason, I have started to take alot of photo's of my snakes and any distinguishing markings or blemishes are noted, head shot's, body shots the lot, and these will be catalogued and updated as they grow.

 

[instar]

how would a micochip help you find your snake? if somone stole it they wouldnt be telling anyone and it wouldnt be on there license, you would have to know who stole it, its a waste of money, nobody will hand it in, probably kill it with a shovel.

 

[womas4me]

Bigguy and NCHERPS and right. Microchipping is next to useless unless you know who has the snake and can get access to it to scan it. Radio transmitters only have a short range, at most i think between 5 - 10 km, so again unless the thief is near you your out of luck. And if you do pick up a signal there is nothing to say it wont just be someone elses animal that they have put a transmitter in. How many snakes that are stolen actually get found I wonder?

 

[bigguy]

Womas4me

I would say 1 in 1000 are every found. Most are never ever heard of again. Its as if the ground just swollows them up. Micro chips just dissapear with the snakes which makes them next to worthless.

 

[ad]

Hi
If the snake were sick and went to the vet, would the vet be able to detirmine it is stolen, do they have a registry that all vets have to catch these people?
I guess people who steal snakes dont go to vets.

 

[bigguy]

I have never seen any vet ever scan one of my snakes. I have heard of one vet doing this, but unless they record the number down and report it, its as good as useless. But think about it, why would a vet report to the authorities of a chipped snake anyway.

 

[peterescue]

One reason why microchipping could be useful.
I/we occasionally pick up obvious escaped pets with no way of knowing who the owner is. This is becoming more common place with a couple of olives a water and lots of Antareisa. not one chip so far and as for diamonds. I reckon that I and other rescuers a often releasing captive bred diamonds into the wild without knowing it.
Apart from the slim chance of getting an escapee back if it gets picked up I cant see any realistic reason to get your snake chipped.
Peter

 

[westhamsc]

D.S.E has been having talks about this. because there has been a high number of thefts around victoria lately. they are thinking of making it manditory. and are willing to pay for half the cost. but this is still in the early stages.

 

[womas4me]

Chipping is just like a dog collar and tag. Good for id but no good for getting a stolen animal back. You have a good point there peter. Id would get escapees back to their owners