Mr. Skittles

[lovemyskittles]

I just recently purchased my first BRB and despite what I've read about them regarding their resistance to scale rot - mine has a very mild case of scale rot. Here's the kicker - took Mr. Skittles to the vet today (I did my research on vets in the area specializing in reptiles and he seemed to be a great candidate) Anyways, along with our new BRB we got another boa and so he was checking both, once he was done he said "We'll be right back" came back, w/o saying anything, grabbed my snake and gave it a shot of ivermectin!! Then he grabbed our other snake and did the same and said "I think they might have mites, make an appt. for 3 weeks for another treatment, this a slower acting form of the medicine and isn't as harmful" and walked out. His tech was still in the room and I asked "what does he want me to do about the scale rot?" "oh, he said it isn't bad" - that's it. No advice about what to do for it, no discussing if we wanted the shots for our snakes (WHICH WE DIDN'T!! we'd prefer to try other methods first since this apparently doesn't have the best reputation;also, only treated our other boa because the BRB appeared to have them - not because the other snake appeared to have them), and I thought I was going to feel better after leaving the vet but I only felt mad and very dissatisfied with my experience since he did not answer any of my questions and did not spend enough time with our snakes! - anyways, obviously not going to continue going to him but I need to know what I can do for my BRB to stop/help with the scale rot - I've read to put neosporin on the snake (without pain reliever) but anything else I should do?

Also, since BRBs need higher humidity than other snakes why did he get scale rot? His humidity has been kept between 75%-85% (he also had a humidity-hide w/moss in it) but these are humidity levels that everyone seems to say to keep them at.

I also have a question about cypress bedding - we've had the snake for about 10 days now and no sign of mites but Monday night I put cypress bedding into his enclosure and this morning when I took him out to go to the vet he had white flakes on him - (which I know is a sign of mites) - they looked and felt like grains of salt. He did not have any signs of mites before the bedding - could he have gotten mites from the bedding? Should I not use cypress bedding or should I bake it? If I shouldn't use that bedding what should I use for the BRB?

Sorry so long and so many questions. Thanks in advance for any advice!!

[infernalis]

http://www.thamfriends.com/mat.jpg

[Aaron_S]

First off, there really isn't a need for a vet at this point for either of those cases. Waste of money. Also if you JUST got a snake I wouldn't be bringing both to the vet on the same day. You just mixed up your quarantine. You do quarantine right?

On the scale rot. Switch your substrate to paper towels for the time being. Keep the humid hide but use damp paper towels in it for now. You want to keep things sterile and so that nothing can rub against those scales. The neosporin treatment should work for you. You won't see an improvement really until the next shed. The reason your snake probably has scale rot is due to improper housing. You could be not cleaning enough as well as keeping the bedding too wet.

Mites aren't white. Nor does any flakes of white on your snake mean that there are mites present. What should happen is that you should run your hand down your snake. Look at your hand. Is it covered in little black spots? Then it's mites.

Do a search for mites or nix on this forum and you'll find your solution to that as well.

[lovemyskittles]

Please go through and reread my first post because your response about the mites did not actually address my question about the white flakes: if it is not a sign of mites (such as their eggs, feces, or an early stage of mites) then what could it have been? is there something in cypress mulch that is white and feels like salt? (I don't have experience with cypress mulch and didn't know if it had white flakes in it).

I know the common reasons for scale rot but didn't know if there was something that happens with BRBs or just a reason for scale rot that isn't typical. Also, we didn't take our snakes in the same container they were never together, I handled my snake and my boyfriend handled his (the vet did not touch one snake and then the other w/o washing if that's where you think contamination may have occurred). We did not buy snakes on an impulse and know how to take care of them but since there are people on this site who have more experience than me I thought I'd see if anyone had some insight to atypical reasons for scale rot, white flakes in cypress mulch, or any tips for treatment of scale rot since it isn't bad enough for a vet to treat. I appreciate your response and I don't plan on putting my snake back on cypress bedding (or any "bedding": wood, dirt, etc; just paper towels and what not) for a while. Also, I think that he shed right before we bought him (because he had two pieces of what appeared to be old skin on him) so when should he shed next? I really hate the way the two scales w/rot look.

[Nafun]

They say a picture is worth a thousand words, and I can't find my reading glasses.

[shaunyboy]

imo the white flakes could be mite poo.depends on the size of the flakes.have you got any pictures as this would give us all a better idea of whats happening.i wish you all the best in getting the little guys sorted out.imo your right to sack that vet,he sounds like a right piece of work.
cheers shaun

[Will0W783]

Snakes cannot get mites from their bedding. Wood mites do occasionally turn up in mulch, but they will not infest a snake, and if you buy your bedding from a clean source( i.e. pet store although it's much more expensive) you shouldn't have much trouble with wood mites. White flakes are not, as far as I know, a sign of snake mites. Black flecks, the snake spending more time soaking in its water dish, weakened immunity, weight loss, all these are signs, but not white flakes.

[shaunyboy]

marvelfreak on here has a brb also feebo on here has a huge 8ft 8year old brb so i'm sure once they read your post they will be able to help with the specifics of keeping brb's.you were right to come on here and ask folks about their personal experiences with their brb's.this is a great forum we always help each other out.it also helps to hear of each others personal experiences and how the individual dealt with said problem.a lot of the time breeders actually know more about certain problems than your average vet.
cheers shaun

[shaunyboy]

Snakes cannot get mites from their bedding. Wood mites do occasionally turn up in mulch, but they will not infest a snake, and if you buy your bedding from a clean source( i.e. pet store although it's much more expensive) you shouldn't have much trouble with wood mites. White flakes are not, as far as I know, a sign of snake mites. Black flecks, the snake spending more time soaking in its water dish, weakened immunity, weight loss, all these are signs, but not white flakes.


willow go to page 18 of whats wrong with my snake rossi & rossi.it will back up what im saying about silvery or white flakes may be mite feces.

cheers shaun

[lovemyskittles]

Thanks for the replies everyone. I do not have any pictures of the white flakes because I threw out all of the bedding (just in case there were mites present) and just put him back on paper towels for the time being - but they looked just like salt and were about half the size of a grain of salt. The mulch I bought did come from a pet store and was specifically for using w/reptiles. We fed them on Wednesday after the vet visit so once some more time has passed I can take pictures of the scale rot but as I said, no pictures of the "flakes" and there isn't any on him anymore. Thanks everyone!!

[marvelfreak]

Sound to me like it's something in the mulch that shouldn't have been. I am at a lose on what it could be.

[lovemyskittles]

Yeah. Rather than deal with trying to guess what it is and if it's harmful I'll just stay away from the mulch for now (which is lame since I bought it from a pet store) and keep him on lame-looking AstroTurf or paper towels :(

[Aaron_S]

...keep him on lame-looking AstroTurf or paper towels :(

You're better off just sticking to the paper towels and NOT the rough and scratchy turf stuff. If you snake has scale rot it'll only irritate the wounds more. Like I said earlier, paper towel and paper towel only.

[lovemyskittles]

You're better off just sticking to the paper towels and NOT the rough and scratchy turf stuff. If you snake has scale rot it'll only irritate the wounds more. Like I said earlier, paper towel and paper towel only.


By "AstroTurf" I meant the reptile carpet stuff that you buy at pet stores. I don't think that the reptile carpet is harmful and I know it definitely isn't as "scratchy" as AstroTurf and I've read many sites that recommend using the repti carpet.

[emseeKAY]

if its temporary or for an extended period or whatever why not save money and just use paper towel?

[lovemyskittles]

We've decided that we're going to use it until they're too big for their current enclosures and the reptile carpets aren't a one-time use (sites about the carpet and the box the carpet came is tells you to wash it every so often). For our enclosures the carpet runs about $10 - so it's really not expensive - cheaper than what I paid for my cypress mulch at the pet store ($12 for one bag that was a one-time use). The snakes will probably be kept on paper towels when cleaning our carpets though. Honestly - I REALLY liked the way the mulch looked but since I had a problem with it and don't want to use it for now I'd rather use the green carpet (also comes in brown) than paper towels since the carpet looks a little better.

[Aaron_S]

We've decided that we're going to use it until they're too big for their current enclosures and the reptile carpets aren't a one-time use (sites about the carpet and the box the carpet came is tells you to wash it every so often). For our enclosures the carpet runs about $10 - so it's really not expensive - cheaper than what I paid for my cypress mulch at the pet store ($12 for one bag that was a one-time use). The snakes will probably be kept on paper towels when cleaning our carpets though. Honestly - I REALLY liked the way the mulch looked but since I had a problem with it and don't want to use it for now I'd rather use the green carpet (also comes in brown) than paper towels since the carpet looks a little better.

I made the last line bold because it says that due to looking better than paper towel you're going to continue using reptile carpet. So you've put YOUR wants over the snake's needs. Yeah I don't I'll be responding to any more of your questions since you don't seem to want the answers.

[Kmef07]

Hey I had a minor scale rot problem when I first got my brb, and I found out that I was trying to reach the required humidity by keeping the substrate moist. That was the wrong thing to do. I found that I needed to keep the humidity up but keep the substrate more dry. I put a wooden box over my aquarium and that kept the humidity up and also I could keep the substrate dry. Just keep a nice area dry at all times so your brb can go to. Maybe a hide that you keep dry all of the time.

[lovemyskittles]

We haven't noticed the snakes minding the reptile carpet and how is it harmful/less beneficial for our snakes? I've done research on the carpet and I can't say that it seems harmful - that's why I said I'd choose the carpet over paper towels (neither is worse than the other but one looks a little better). I don't know what you're thinking the carpet is but the carpet we have is not a rough surface at all. But if you know how it is harmful for the snake and somehow I didn't find anything about it online let me know - I wasn't trying to say I'm putting the look of the cage above the need of my snake - just didn't see how the paper towels were more beneficial.



Hey I had a minor scale rot problem when I first got my brb, and I found out that I was trying to reach the required humidity by keeping the substrate moist. That was the wrong thing to do. I found that I needed to keep the humidity up but keep the substrate more dry. I put a wooden box over my aquarium and that kept the humidity up and also I could keep the substrate dry. Just keep a nice area dry at all times so your brb can go to. Maybe a hide that you keep dry all of the time.

Thanks - I'm guessing I could have done the same thing that you did when you first got your BRB. After taking the mulch out I did put in a dry-hide and of course put his humid-hide back in as well. A wooden box over it? Do you have a picture of that? Right now I'm keeping moist paper towels over the cage (on 3/4 of the screen top) and then have a towel over the paper towels. We live in a humid area so w/o anything extra to up humidity it would stay around 70-75% but with what I have going on now it's anywhere from 85-95%.

[Kmef07]

http://i285.photobucket.com/albums/ll51/kmef07/IMG_0215.jpg
this is the setup i used to have before i built my big cage. The towel on top is just to make it look better cuz the wood on the top was not very appealing. It really helped keep humidity in. I also had my lights in the wood box. I put a hole on each side of the box to help airflow and covered them up for more humidity and heat and uncovered them for less humidity and heat. I found that just putting a paper towel on the top was hard cuz it absorbed all the humidity and moisture and I constantly had to keep spraying it.

[lovemyskittles]

Thanks for the picture Kyle - we're going to build something similar to yours. Really appreciate the input and picture.

[dragunov.762]

another option to the repti carpet is fleece. i don't know how well it will work in a BRB cage but it is washable and soft (wont agitate any scale rot). like i said i don't know how well it will hold up in high humidity but it might be worth looking into a little bit

[totheend]

Reptile carpet is crap. It isn't going to help with humidity, gets dirty and harbours bacteria. It won't allow for airflow underneath your snake which will only make the scale rot worse. So if the carpet is damp, expect the scale rot to get worse.

[lovemyskittles]

Update on my snake: scale rot never got worse (by the way, it was two small points about the size of a pin-point) plus he shed a few days go. Since we're in the humid summer months of the year putting wet paper towels on the top of the cage (w/o spraying the enclosure at all) the humidity can get up over 95%. So until the dry winter months come in (which is when we plan on putting a wooden box on the cage as Kyle told/showed). I know how airflow works and understand that it wouldn't dry if it got wet; however, since the carpet isn't getting wet I can't imagine that it's going to harbor any more bacteria than mulch, aspen, etc would. Also, you're supposed to clean/replace the carpet - so if you don't do that then yes, as with any substrate, it will start to harbor bacteria. Maybe I'll look into the fleece if the carpet seems to bother him - but since it isn't a rough surface I think he'll be fine.