mites?

aconto · 07-26-04, 03:10 PM

Yesterday i cleaned out my snakes tank bleached everythig replace the repti bark i use small boxes inside my hides (umside down bowls with a hole in the side ) and replace those as well all seems well hes eating twice a week , gaining weight fine. humity is between 50 to 75 higher @ night... anyway today i find a some crap in one of the boxes so i went to replace it and i see a bunch of tiny bugs all ofer the crap... this it the first ive seen of em havnt seen em on him or in his water bowl... im a new snake owner so this is new to me what should i do .? I figure they are prolly coming from the live mice i am buying then again ive had the snake close to a month so he could of had then already ? is this external problem or an internal one ?

aconto · 07-26-04, 04:42 PM

and a second question if these are just mites and not some type intestinal thing should i also treat my anoles and geckos which are in the smame room

Big Mike · 07-26-04, 04:55 PM

They may be coming from the repti bark in which case they would be harmless to your snake. It's not likely that reptile mites would be coming in on mice either. You said you are buying live mice...I hope you are not feeding them to your snake while they are still alive.

I suggest that you scrap the repti bark for now. Put your snake on paper towels or newspaper. Keep the enclosure very simple and very clean. You should be able to tell if the mites are feeding on your snake. They especially like to hang around the head of the snake.

There are lots of mite remedies to be found on this site. Pick one and treat the snake/enclosure and then keep everything very clean for at least a month.

Big Mike · 07-26-04, 04:55 PM

Also, it wouldn't hurt to take a fecal sample in to a vet to get checked.

aconto · 07-26-04, 05:12 PM

So this could be as simple as pest coming from the repti bark??? Cause ive had no problem with my sbake otherwise he eats every monday and friday liek a champ... hes not agitated and ive not seen any mites till this point... could i just soak hime in some water and see if any are floating to tell? He did have a bad shed but i was having humidity issues (45 50 %) now withid 65 to 80 % depending if i have the overhead lamp on too? Ive examined other stool samples before havnt seen any and i just put more bark in yesterday which has been open and sittin in my garage?