Provent-a-Mite Questions

My brother just used provent a mite on his snakes cage and put him in a feeding container but he just called me and asked "how long do i have to wait before i put my snake back in his cage".So how long? Then the guy at the store told him to leave the water bowl out for 2 days because the snake can get some on him then go in his water bowl and make the water deadly to the snake. Is this true?? A snake without water for two days i dont think is deadly but i dont belive it.

Spray the cage down without the water bowl in it.

Let it DRY COMPLETELY, usually anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour just to be on the safe side.

There's no reason to leave the water bowl out for 2 days.

All of this without the snake in the enclosure of course.

PAM is only dangerous while it's still WET, not dry.

thanks so put the water bowl in right away

Yes, as soon as the PAM dries, it is ok to put the snake and waterbowl back in the enclosure...

I wait an hour to be sure, then the snakes and water go back in. I've been treating 8 tubs this way for 5 months with no trouble, so I'm going to say it's ok.

I think the back of the can even says to wait an hour.

Gale

I spray some PaM and take my BP downstairs and we watch about an hour of TV before putting everything back in. I usually take that time to also clean and sanitize the water bowl.

My albino king had mites and the gentleman at the pet store offered to use PAM to treat her for me. He took her home over night and brought her back yesterday. She's lethargic, keeps lying on her back, barely moving and losing her bowels. I'm terrified! Is she going to die? What can I do? I've already removed everything from the tank and washed it really well and given the snake a bath.

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Originally Posted by Jenny4

My albino king had mites and the gentleman at the pet store offered to use PAM to treat her for me. He took her home over night and brought her back yesterday. She's lethargic, keeps lying on her back, barely moving and losing her bowels. I'm terrified! Is she going to die? What can I do? I've already removed everything from the tank and washed it really well and given the snake a bath.

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You might want to repost his as its own topic in the colubrid section of the forum, but I would definitely get it to a vet right away. If the guy sprayed her directly she could be having neurological issues. PAM is essentially an insecticide and is very bad for your snake to breathe in or have applied to its skin or put into a still-wet, PAM-treated enclosure.

I sure don't want to freak anybody out, but I used PAM and my 2 snakes, 1 a 200g BP's cage and the other a 50g Hognose. I followed the directions and even left the snakes out for 3 hours before returning them to the cage. When I woke up the next morning and checked on them, my BP was fine, but the Hognose was twitching and obviously in distress. I called the vet, but he was out of town and the other vet and tech said they do not recommend using PAM on young/small snakes and that he was suffering from neurlogical effects from the PAM, clearly a toxic reaction. I did what the techs told me but the Hognose died that evening. My point is, some snakes are more susceptible to PAM toxicity. Most do fine with it, but be very careful and extra cautious when using it. Just my 2 cents.

Unfortunately AFTER my Hognose died I did some research and digging and found that Hognoses, Tree Boas, and a few other species of snakes are extra susceptible to PAM toxicity.
That stuff scares the sh*t out of me now.