is it ok if water gets sprayed in my snake's eyes?

[maiden_canada]

hey im wondering if when i spray my BP's cage and him if its ok if the water gets sprayed in his eyes, he tries to hide his head but im just making sure. hes dehydrated from the petshop i got him at so just making him all better. also he had some mites from the petshop also and i think i got rid of them and im still spraying the cage with nix once a week and im wondering if thats ok to get in his eyes a little bit also. i try to spray him when his head is already covered by his body

also is there any ''special'' way to get him eating rats. he does seem to want them just mice.
thanks

[Invictus]

DO NOT get the Nix in his eyes. Regular water should be fine though. I think snakes just find the mist to be cold and annoying.

[mykee]

I'm with Invictus, you can get WATER in your BP's eyes, they don't necessarily like it, but it won't warm them. As I told you on the other site's forum, DO NOT get Nix in the snakes eyes, that could be dangerous. As for switching over your mouse eater to a rat eater, do a search on this forum and I'm sure you'll come up with many many different ways to do this. Good luck.

[BoidKeeper]

I didn't think you could get anything into a snake’s eye considering it's behind a modified clear scale and therefore protected. Isn't that why we see the eyes looking blue during a shed cycle? I always understood that the blue liquid that separates the old layer of skin from the new layer is especially visible in the eyes because the scale over the eye is clear and that's why we see the blue so well. Also that's why we check our sheds for the eye caps. So if my understanding is correct and the eye is covered by a clear protective scale, how could you get nix into the snake’s eye? Please correct me if I'm wrong.
Cheers,
Trevor

[emroul]

That would make sense Trevor, I'd have to say I'm with you on this.... but I don't know the "scientific" answer, just the common sense answer. Although, another part of common sense would tell me that spraying chemicals into eyes would definately be harmful. But the way you put it Trevor, yeah, it makes sense. :-)

[Jeff_Favelle]

My question is, how can you be so talented with a sprayer that you can hit the eyes, but miss the heat pits and mouth?

[eyespy]

The eyecaps are just made from keratin, the same stuff our hair and fingernails are made from. They can absorb water and chemicals and tend to store absorbed materials much longer than ordinary skin cells would, so you need to avoid getting any chemicals on the eyecaps.

[BoidKeeper]

Thanks for the clarification.
Cheers,
Trevor

[maiden_canada]

ok thanks guys, sorry mykee i didnt get your post saying not to get nix in their eyes, today i got some smaller pinkie rats for him so hopefully he will take them once i get home

[Linds]

Usually if applying Nix to the snake (which I only do in the initial treatment, if it all), I find it best to be applied by hand. Just squirt the mix in your hands and rub your snake down with it, avoiding the face. This way you can be sure to get your snake coated (whereas a spray will leave droplets unevenly on the snake), and it is also a lot less stressful for the snake. Many snakes do not enjoy being sprayed with anything. As well as you do not want to risk getting it in to places you don't want to ;)

[lilyskip]

Originally posted by Jeff_Favelle
My question is, how can you be so talented with a sprayer that you can hit the eyes, but miss the heat pits and mouth?
Yeah, it seems like that's the main point. Whatever covers the eye or doesn't cover it, chances are the mist/spray of the Nix will get into the snake's mouth somehow. Plus, if you're spraying the snake while it's in the tank, you're covering all of its stuff with Nix without giving it proper ventilation time before putting the snake back in the tank. If you're disinfecting the tank with any type of chemical, the snake shouldn't be in it.

[mykee]

Lilyskip, when you apply Nix to an enclosure, you simply spray on, leave for a short time, and completely wipe away. There are no harmful fumes to have to air out.

[Jeff_Favelle]

Yeah, exactly what Mykee said. NO real fumes with NIX. Kind of fragrant, but its really just a soap. That's why its so safe.

[lilyskip]

oh, okay. my mistake then.

[mykee]

Maiden, I also noticed that you said you feed your BP pinkie rats. I would up the size of your food items to at least a fuzzy rat (15-25g). A hatchling right out of the egg can eat a food item larger than a pinkie (5-12g-ish?). When my hatchlings were 100g, they were eating two fuzzy rats every 5 days, and are doing just fine now.

[Corey Woods]

You'll want to spray the snakes head with nix. Mites love the eyes, heat pits and the scales under the chin.......so, you'll want to make sure you get all those places......you can spray the head without problems. Make sure you spray the vent as well as mites love to hide their too. Snakes eyes have a protective covering which can be compaired to the glass covering on your watch.....so you won't hurt your snake. If you don't get rid of the mites they will come back so don't hold back on the nix. You'll want to spray the snake, inside of the cage (everywhere) and outside the cage as well.

Corey