thank you! thank you!!

[MorbidMindset]

this is morbids mom again. wanted to say i dont capitalize cause its a pain to put all the puncuation in and i stunk at engish in school anyway.besides you can understand what i type even if i dont capitalize. i dont use chat speak and i try to spell good!but this is besides the point! please read on!!

dremora finally shed and i cleaned her cage up really well and i have her branch submerged under a brick and under water for the next 24 hours to make sure any mites on it are dead before i put it back in her cage. we got mite medicine from the vet and so far have not seen one since dremora shed so i am praying that they are gone. dremora seems to be very heathy and has no parasites internal that is and hopefully if the mites are gone external either. the vet gave dremora pretty much a clean bill of heath other than the mites! the only shed left on dremora is a little on her nose and a little on the tip of her/his tail. she wont eat again for 2 weeks because i fed her a few days ago before the shed and right after i fed her she finally shed all. but now shes looks great and when i fed her/him she ate the biggest mouse i ever seen and i wasnt sure she could....but she did. i forgot to ask the vet to sex her and still dont know the sex yet so bear with me! i dont mean to sound like a biatch but sometimes i feel like noone here gives a dang about how hard i am trying to catch up here for my sons impulse to buy the snake. i am doing my best here and i dont feel like i am getting any help from my son but he gets all his enjoyment from the snake and i am doing all the work! i know you get upset about us not knowing what we are doing and we should have read up on the snake before we got it..but i didnt know we were getting it til after he brought it home! so now i gotta play catch up. everything i learn weather from the manual or from here or the man at the uni i am talkin to i teach to my son so he will know it too! please bear with me and all my questions..at least i care enuff to ASK questions so i know i am doing the right thing. if i dont follow directions very well..well i am actually doing the best i can do! i am sorry but i AM disabled and sometimes have a hard time understanding things. if i did wrong feeding dremora before the shed i am sorry. but she was looking like she was getting ill and it had been over 3 weeks since she ate and i thought it would help. looks like it did thankfully. i wont do it again since now i know it takes longer than 5-7 days for a shed like the pet shop had told us. i really like this little bugger and i dont want it to get hurt or sick. we have become very attached to it! so please before you snap..just try to understand that YEA we are playing catchup but with your HELP we are doing good now! thank you to everyone on this forum so far that has taken the time to give us good advice and know that dremora will prob. be the only snake we own and we are not gonna breed..lol. like i said..thanks for the advice so far and for the advice you will give in the future!~:blink::blink::p:p

[mykee]

too long. i only have one thing to say about your entire post though...that is you cannot kill mites by submerging them in water, you will need to turn your oven on to 400 and cook the branch for 20 minutes or so to rid it of mites completely. i also recommend that you don't use an expensive mite spray in the future should this issue ever arise again, you can pick up nix from a drugstore (same stuff you use on human lice). it works just as well as any vet product and costs much less. also, get your ball onto rats, it's just easier. and feed more often than once every two weeks. hatchlings eat every 4-7 days. don't stop reading, you've got plenty to learm

[freetv-5]

Just a thought, MorbidMindsets mother why not become a member to make it easier to know who we are talking with? I haven't posted on this thread only read and followed but still found it confusing.
Like I said just a thought?

[MorbidMindset]

Just a thought, MorbidMindsets mother why not become a member to make it easier to know who we are talking with? I haven't posted on this thread only read and followed but still found it confusing.
Like I said just a thought?

thanks free..i was thinking that myself! i will do that in a few..i have been offline for a week now almost and i need to get set back up again! :blink:

[snakeyacres]

i also recommend that you don't use an expensive mite spray in the future should this issue ever arise again, you can pick up nix from a drugstore (same stuff you use on human lice). it works just as well as any vet product and costs much less.
I agree that nix solution works very well and would be a cheaper option.It should be mentioned however that it must be mixed with distilled water at the ratio of 1 jar of nix to 4 liters of water.Using nix full strength would very likely kill a Snake.

[DaemoNox]

I can bet the majority of the people who have been in this hobby for a long time started out very uneducated too, I know I did. While researching first is great, the big thing is that your seeking out answers now - too many people just dont seem to care; nor too was it your choice to bring it home. Its too bad your son doesnt have any more involvement, I feel a lot of the enjoyment is being able to care for them, not just handle them. It is of my opinion too that whomever is providing care, it is theirs. So congradulations on a nice healthy ball (once you get used to it things will come a lot easier, almost a second nature, give it a few months and you may be enjoying it enough to feel the need to get another one; very very few people can stop at just one).

[mykee]

Just a quick word, Nix doesn't need to be mixed with distilled water, I mix it with tap water at a concentration of 2 tbsp. to one liter of water.
Never encountered Nix in a jar either...

[snakeyacres]

Never encountered Nix in a jar either
It's a cream rinse,don't know how else it could be packaged,although the bottle comes in a box.Perhaps the bottle doesn't count then.
I was told to use distilled water so the the solution can be stored for a while.The important thing isn't what water you use but that it must be diluted for the safety of the animal.

[mykee]

"I was told to use distilled water so the the solution can be stored for a while"

Are you saying you "re-use" the Nix solution after treating an animal? That's not only disgusting, but unsanitary as well.

[DaemoNox]

I think he means that in disstilled water it has a longer shelf-life, so if more is made then needed the extra can be stored for later use, or it can be made before hand (at least I hope).

[snakeyacres]

Are you saying you "re-use" the Nix solution after treating an animal? That's not only disgusting, but unsanitary as well.
How do you figure that? The nix treatment should be repeted 2 or 3 times to be 100% effective.I don't know what you mean by 're-useing" the nix solution.It is sprayed on the animal so I don't understand how it could be re-used,unless you bathe your snakes in it!! (I hope your smarter than that).
You may want to read this thread to learn exactly how to proprely treat with nix.
http://www.ssnakess.com/forums/general-python-forum/80839-help-mites.html

Pay particular attention to this section.
OK thats the rant now the solution. Visit ANY pharmacy & ask for NIX. NIX is a creme type shampoo that is used in the treatment of snake mites, its "real" purpose is for use in humans treating head lice. I'll provide a link for its proper use. All is reuired is a 2 ounce bottle of NIX (thats the way it comes, its in a blue & white package & runs around $12 up here in Canada), a new spray bottle ($1 at any dollar type store, "Loonie" store in Canada) & water. Distilled water (again cheap) is the best as it gives the mixture a longer "shelf life", but I have used tap water more often than not. Not that I have mites here, but I do use NIX as part of a preventative quarantine for new aquisitions. Anyhow the link, Mark
http://www.albertareptilesociety.org/caresheets/nix.pdf the first time I went it said the file was damaged & would not come up, but I "refreshed" the page & it worked right away.



Mykee I don't know what exactly your problem is but you obviosly have one.I suspect your ego is threatened be anything resembling criticism.Keep in mind that many of us have been keeping reptiles longer than you have been off your mommas tit.

[snakeyacres]

------------------------

[gonesnakee]

Now guys quit your "nit picking" LOL ya I know bad pun, but I just had too, Mark

[Aaron_S]

You're terrible Mark.

[mykee]

Firstly, keeping reptiles has never proven knowledge. I suppose through osmosis SOMETHING would stick, but that's not always the case.
I do in fact soak my ball pythons in the Nix as it is the only way to completely rid the snake of mites that may be hard to remove. I 1/2 fill a shoebox rubbermaid with lukeawarm water and a third of a bottle (jar?) of Nix. I leave them to swim around for 10-15 minutes. Works like a charm. This is the prefered method of treating a snake ( ball python in this case) with mites. Spraying is a half-assed, lazy way to do it usually resulting in a re-infestation.
As for me not knowing how to deal with criticism, that's not the case, in the above example, I was just trying to clear up some misinformation for those that are unaware that there is so much of it floating around here.
Fact: "wetting" a mite will not kill it, submerging it and drowning it will.
Fact: distilled water is not necessary.
Fact: Nix does not come in a jar.

[DaemoNox]

I would personally be very concerned about actually soaking a snake in it because they will most likely ingest some of it, they will submerge in it. Personally I wouldnt even use Nix, I've had great luck with Provent-a-mite.

Your fact about wetting a mite is true - about water. The surface of the mite causes a bubble to form around it. Put a little bit of soap in the water and it breaks that surface tension so the mite will drown. Again though this is only with plain water.

Chemical sprays are different, you dont need to drown the bug for insectcides to work.

Re-infestaction doesnt happen because you spray, it happens because you only treat the snake, or dont clean enough, or dont kill all the eggs and mites out of the enclosure. Soaking a snake in Nix I feel is more or less dangerous for the snake, and soaking in plain water with a little soap would be just as effective, or coating the snake in olive oil.

[gonesnakee]

P.A.M. & NIX are inadvertantly the same thing as they both have the same active ingredient. Most people do consider Jars to be made of glass, but does it really matter? As for "dipping" or "soaking" being less lazy than spraying its a matter of opinion. If sprayed correctly the end result is all the same, I would have to say soaking is actually lazier as it takes less effort than pulling the trigger on the spray bottle a few hundred times ;). The biggest concern with soaking is ingestion. Quite often the NIX treatment is used for a new snake that may have just been shipped from somewhere. Its best to offer them a fresh drink prior the treatment so they won't be drinking the NIX whether it be from a tub of mixture or from droplets on the snakes themselves from being sprayed. In the case of a large collection being treated quick dips or soaks are faster & more efficient than spraying them all down. Whatever the method if the snakes end up being "soaked" in the solution they are soaked with NIX right? As for distilled water as stated its not a requiremnet but is supposed to give the NIX longer "shelf life". As long as the solution is kept in a cool dark place it doesn't really matter if the waters distilled or not. As for coating a snake in any type of oil its a bad idea in this guys opinion. Anyhow enough nit picking from me, Mark