Mites and mice...oh my!!!

[Zhakrin]

Hi everyone,

I am new here and have a theoretical question. The Pet store that I am currently buy my feeder rats n mice from is a "HELLISH DEN OF ANIMAL CRUELTY" and the herp they have are so covered with mites one has gone blind in its left eye (but they are still trying to sell it)

Anyway my question, can my Ball and Corn possible get mite from the feeder rats?

My Ball as yet will only take fresh kill.

Thanks!

[sophia]

Yes they can and will. If you want to do frozen, then you are going to have to use a little persuasion with the snake to get it to take it, we've converted all of our snakes to frozen. I just put the frozen mice in a towel lined basket on top of the fridge for several hours to let them thaw and warm up, they get nice and toasty up there after about three to four hours. Then we move the snake into a rubbermaid container to feed and using tongs, we grab the mouse by the tail and dangle it over the snake. Sometimes you have to drag it over the snakes body and lay it on the head for a minute or two to intice them, then slowly drag it away, if they are starting to take an interest in the mouse, lift it up a little and dangle it so that they will be able to strike the head.

From time to time we've had to rub mouse all over the container to get the smell going and add extra heating by blowing the mouse with a blow dryer set on the high heat setting for about five minutes to increase the warmth and get the smell going.

I hope that helps.

Tay

[Jeff_Favelle]

That's a long time to wait for rodents to thaw!!! I put mine in a ziplock and then in a bucket with the hottest water that can come out of your tap. 15 minutes later, perfectly-warmed rodents!

[Zhakrin]

Thanks guys, I cant wait til he eating frozen rats. I hate having to pre kill the rats.

Thx again.

[sophia]

Jeff I just lay them out a few hours before I need them, so I can feed them when I get the chance. Yes it takes a little longer but no muss no fuss sort of thing and I don't have too many to feed yet *G*, just 8 snakes at present.

Tay

[Jeff_Favelle]

I like the "yet" Sophia!! :D

[sophia]

Hehe... I'm working on it *G*

Tay

[Linds]

You have to be careful when using anything from stores like that. For the most part rodent parasites are host specific, meaning your snake wont get them, BUT snake mites can be carried home on just about anything - substrate, feeders, your clothes, etc.

[jason h]

hehe i dont even use a ziplock just toss em in the hot water to thaw plus i find they thaw faster without the ziplock

[Jeff_Favelle]

I agree, they thaw waaaayyy faster. Only problem is, I switched my Ball Pythons and Colubrids to aspen chips and there is no way I trust a $2,000 snake not to get aspen in its mouth and die!! Wet rodents are like a frickin' magnet to aspen chips. So when feeding those guys, I have to keep the rodents dry. Rainbows and Carpets are still on newspaper, so yeah, they go straight into the hot water.

Also though, and I'm not THAT paranoid yet, but hot water from your hot water tank has major heavy metals in it. I don't drink it or use it for cooking, but I haven't stopped using it for the rodents yet. But I've thought about it!

:D

[Lisa]

We toss ours directly into the hot water, makes for a soggy rat, the snakes don't seem to care. Though to get around the impaction from the mulch we feed in empty tanks, buckets, and rubbermaids. We also feed out of the regular tank to avoid having a competition for the food and a feeding response in the tank.

[AaliahReed]

We have just been through the worst mite outbreak,
and a very experinced breeder over here tol me that they don't live anywhere else but on reptiles, when i rang him and said that there were mites on the rat pinkie's he told me too shut up and listen, then said THYE DON'T LIVE ON ANYTHING ELSE BUT SNAKES, so Sophia, thankyou, i thought i was loosing my marbles,
we have no mites left now, but the whole thing was worse than a living nightmare,

[squatncough]

I came across a post on the web about using a kind of predatory mite (Hypoaspis ssp.) to get rid of snake mites. Supposedly these super mites only feed on bad mites (including the common snake mite), and then die out when their food source is gone. Has anyone tried this? The post is at:

http://forum.**************/caging/messages/3227.html
and you can buy them at:

http://www.biconet.com/biocontrol/hypoaspis.html