This really bothered me...(Ignorant pet shops)

[Will0W783]

Well if you seen the Deuc Bigalo the movie, I'm like that in many ways but not just with fish but reptiles as well.
You guys picture that and a guy that talk to himself alot and has F words before a sentence lol.

Hahaha...good for you, flamingmoe! I am adamant about proper care of animals too. I have ripped people apart at pet stores before, and cried over animals in poor care that I couldnt' do anything for. I hate seeing any living thing suffer, no matter what it is.

[Freebody]

i have had my many bad experiences with poor pet owners,ill tell you a couple.
I had a fish tank way back with 2 full grown oscars and my folks i was living with were at a pet store where they seen this fresh water fish with teeth,knowing i would surely like to have this fish in my collection asked the pet store owner a few questions about it which they were told. oh yeah they live in the same waters as them same everything they will get along np the tank which was 150 gallons will be fine for it when i reaches full size with the oscars in it np ill give you a great price my folks were buysing it when my dad got the bright idea to call me on my phone..the fish they had at the counter was a baby vampire tetra for you who dont know what this is its a 4 foot long fish that swim behind packs of pihana and eat them with teeth about 1 inch long ....good thing he called me 1st no sale.
my neighboors see an add about a albino "snake" for free good home with cage,knowing i have just paid $2000 for my albino dwarf retic run over and tells me i should get it which hes seen it already. i ask him what it is he does not know and the owner does not know so i ask him what it looked like how big it is how long they had it and he leaves i do a process of elimination and conclude it could only be a albino patternless burm,or i was pretty darn sure it was from the info provided, as im getting ready to go next door and tell him what i had figured it was he pulls up with, guess what?A patternless albino burn not worth nothing but maybe $100 if hes lucky to find a buyer and he has always said he would never get a large snake like that..hell his boa hes got is housed in a 100 gallon tank if that and his corns hes got are in 50s, sad thing is he got rid of it to some short time later to im sure, another idiot

[Freebody]

oh yeah the breeder with snake mites i read about..
i got snake mite on my 2 boas i had when i was young, i got them from feeding live rats from the pet store, this is the only way i could have gotten them.well they were SO bad nothing i could do to get rid of them they multiplies by the billions, i did everything i could, i bathed them every other day with some soap i can remember which was costly and rare, i gave them shots to kill them at $75 a shot each for each every 2 weeks by my vet not including the $40 per visit which my vet felt bad for and started just charging for the shots, strubbed the cage all the time took out the substrate and tried varrious diff types, near the end i started blow tourching my cage to kill the eggs in the cracks n cravases, at the end i decided to gave them to a guy my vet recomended becuase i just could not afford all the shots and vet checks anymore.in the months i fought the mites i must have paid at least $1500+and at 12-13 years old.... I assure you all i did everything right from when i got them at 1 foot long to when they got might as 7 feet i had them from when i was about 7-8 to around 13/14 years old, Heart breaking to say the least. I wish i would have won that battle and nursed my babies back to health.
im not saying that breeder you spoke of was not a bad breeder selling a sick snake to an ususpecting constomer is sickening at best, but this post is just food for thought.

[Will0W783]

Wow, I've never heard of treating snake mites with shots...
The best treatment that I have found is the Nix method. You buy a 56g bottle of Nix (its' the human lice shampoo cream rinse) at your local drug store and dissolve it in a gallon of distilled water. You then pour it into a clean (preferably never used for anything else) spray bottle. You empty out the snakes' cages, and throw out any bedding and furniture that cannot be sanitized. You then spray down the cage really well, inside and out, and lay down white butcher paper or paper towels. Then spray the towels down, making sure that all corners of the cage and towels are saturated.
Then you get the snake and spray the snake down thoroughly, making sure to get really well around the eyes and face and throat. Put the snake back in the cage and spray it all down again. Take the water bowl away for 24 hours, and then put it back in.
Repeat the treatment again in a week, and then again in another week- for 3 weekly treatments. Ideally all mites are dead after the first treatment, but the 3 weeks ensures it. Nix is really the only stuff I know of that kills the eggs, larvae and adults. It is cheap ($12USD) and it smells nice and is non-toxic to the snakes.
You can store unused solution in a dark place- light breaks down the active ingredient- for up to one year.

[infernalis]

Never heard so much BS, shots for mites?? picked up from rats??

Firstly, no shot can kill external parasites, and secondly reptile mites feed on cold blooded animals, not rats.

I treat the cages with a commercial product made specifically for snake mites, Also light virgin olive oil not only kills the mites, but gives the snake a nice sheen.



DeFlea Reptile Relief

[Freebody]

no joke i really did have to get them shots i would not bs you
ya i cant remember the soap i used but it was pretty much the same thing as you posted

[Freebody]

i never had the cage dirty i spot cleaned it all the time i never took them anywhere other than my house so i figure the pet stores rats where house in with the snakes they had maybe a mite or 2 was out wondering around and when i took it home and gave it to my boas which sometimes would not eat there rat for days got on and did its thing.
snake mites dont live around here and they dont just creat themselves its the only logical conclusion i came up with

[Freebody]

i did everything you 2 just said i swear to god! the mites just would not go away i tried everything i could read of or was told to do by my vet.

[Freebody]

it could have been my vet sucking me dry being young and willing to do anything in my power to help my snakes....

[Will0W783]

I would imagine the vet was somewhat BSing you there. Like infernalis said, snake mites live on snakes and only snakes. They do not infest lizards or other reptiles, just snakes, and definitely not rats or other mammals. There is also no shot that treats them. My vet sings the praises of the Nix treatment. There is also Provent-a-Mite. Mites can be very hard to eradicate, especially if there is a heavy infestation, but I've always found the Nix will work if you give it enough time. I just got a female GTP and a male ETB, and when they arrived they had the worst infestation of mites I've ever seen. I had to give them nightly soaks in warm water with a bit of dish detergent and Nix sprayings. I changed the paper towels every night to keep an eye on what was coming off of them. It took a few weeks, but the mites are gone now. And when I say heavy infestation, I mean it. I could see the mites moving on them and the box they came in had black specks running all over. It was disgusting and really ticked me off.
If the mites you had absolutely would not clear, there must have been something in the cage they were laying eggs on and thriving- and the shots obviously weren't working. I'm so sorry you had to be taken advantage of like that. In the future, go with Nix- you won't be sorry.

[infernalis]

Originally Posted by Freebody

no joke i really did have to get them shots i would not bs you
ya i cant remember the soap i used but it was pretty much the same thing as you posted

Sorry you misunderstood me, I meant that the VET was bullshipping you.

[Freebody]

sweet thx this is why i love this site i wish i had found this site back in the day,so many good people with helpfull info.
the reason i had gotten for the mite shot was to poisen the snakes blood so the bugs would drink eat and die or lay infertal eggs....this inccdent scared me right of of owning reptiles for 10 years untill my neighboor which had just moved in with their 8 foot boa which looked just like mine and after a few months of pure jellousy i just had to get "bella" my new baby girl i still think i got the mites from a mite hitching a ride on a live rats back to my place now i feed nothing but prefrozen food just to be safe

[infernalis]

Never in a million years would I take this moderator thing as a power trip or a permission slip to start talking down on my friends.

This is the first time I ever heard of shots when mites are so easy to eradicate, even the old method of rubbing the snake down with olive oil really works well if done properly.

Even though money can be tight, I empty out the cage and throw away everything that cannot be soaked in bleach, even if I have to put a couple old tee shirts in the cage for substrate to get by until I have some money to get substrate, it's better than letting the bugs eat my snakes.

[Will0W783]

Rubbing with olive oil? I haven't heard that one. Better hope you don't have any Italian friends coming over to visit....you'll end up with python parmegiana!

[infernalis]

The oil chokes the mites, they cannot breath and suffocate.

Makes the snake shiny too.