In fact, the larger your collection and the more incoming and outgoing animals you have the greater the danger of contracting or transmitting disease. The safest collections are those which are small in number and are stable, with no new arrivals. Large collections with many mixed species tend to have the much worse overall health records than small, stable and specialised groups. Quarantine all new arrivals for at least 6 months, preferably a year. Keep quarantine animals entirely separate from all other stock and feed separately using different utensils for each.
Mixed collections tend to have very poor overall survival rates.
When kept separately there is no such problem. It is the view of the Tortoise Trust that a combination of adopting good general hygiene measures and maintaining only naturally sympatric species in close contact makes a major contribution to the safety of any collection. Further Precautions Always use a high quality antiseptic routinely for cleaning food preparation surfaces, feeding utensils, vivarium accommodation and medical equipment. We recommend 'Betadine' which has good antibacterial and even anti-viral properties. Wash hands regularly after handling all animals.