Mite infestation

I had a very old rat named Ben. He lived in a two story cage and while a bit skinny during his last few weeks, appeared healthy. When we found he had passed away, he was covered in mites. My friend needed his cage so I washed it thoroughly and sanitized it very well. She housed her old male, Lenny, in it. Everyone in her colony appeared healthy but Lenny's age was unknown but you could just tell he was old. My friend found him dead this morning. Lenny's son, Bryan was cuddled up with his dead body. She went to remove Bryan from the cage and found mites all over Bryan and Lenny's body. My new male, Bryan's brother, Bradley is fine. I checked him over well and as far as I can tell, he has no mites.

So basically, Ben dies, he's covered in mites. Lenny dies, he's covered in mites, but everyone that is healthy is fine. Bryan died this morning as well. Anyone know what we can do about this?

Apparently 1 mite stayed alive and was able to find its way onto the rat, made a bunch of eggs and slowly killed it. I haven't had any mite problems with rats, but i can imagine its not much different than on a mouse or any other rodent. At work we have a mouse that has had mites for months and we consistently treat him with different ointments (vetropolycin and now vetrachloracin), but it hasn't really gotten better. Mites are terrible in rodents so if i was you, stay away from that cage cause there is a little crevice that they are getting into.

Are these just pets?

I thought there was something you could put on rats to deal with mites?

Like some kind of drops or something.....

The last time I had rats with mites (my first colony) it was recommended to use a frontline flea and tick spray. I took a Q-tip and dabbed it into the spray and then dabbed some onto the back of the rat. The mites were gone not long after and I never had mite problems after that with that colony. My friend is sanitizing the whole cage with bleach. I still have some of the frontline spray so would it be a good idea to treat everyone with it, just in case? She said the mites were red in color.

These rats are pets as well as breeders. She breeds rats to feed her snake.

if they are pets, use a diluted Nix solution and spray them with a bottle.

feeders, it gets a bit ugly

Nix solution?

If they are just pets put a drop of selamectin on their neck. Selamectin is Revolution flea and tick medicine for dogs and cats. It will get rid of the mites fairly quickly and prevent them from coming back for a month, just like in dogs and cats. If you see mites on one rat then they are probably on them all. Give it a week after treatment and then completely clean everything they have come into contact with. If they are feeders I would not recommend feeding them to anything for at least a month after treatment.

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Originally Posted by Jay_Bunny

Nix solution?

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head lice shampoo


the flea drops are hit or miss because of coverage...


the diluted shampoos....bath them in it, put them off and pat them dry.