Mites?

Hey Guys,

I am nervous as hell right now! I just bought 5 het. Axanthic snakes off of a breeder who was getting out of the business. When we brought them home we hadn't bought enough substrate so we put a couple of them on craft paper. Today when I was changing their paper I noticed a couple of black dots on the paper. I looked them over and they all have black dots around their bellies! Now I've handled them probably more than I should have this week, but I never noticed any black dots on me, and I never noticed any blood. The dots are not moving and their vents seem to be clear. They have not been in their water dishes, although one likes to sleep over his dish.

I'm wondering if this is normal coloring or if I should be worried. We have the 5 snakes in quarantine (they came with a rack) in another room - I would treat them right away but they have had a very stressful couple of months (not being fed or housed properly) and I don't want to put them through it if I don't have to. Ill post a picture in a couple of minutes.

Thanks guys!

Chris

Pics would help so I'll check back in a few. Mites really are not hard to figure out what they are. Everyone says little black dots ect... Well they are not dots really you can see them on your snake. Looks like a little round bug on the snake. You can see them move around and if you find one on you or the tub squish it, if there's blood n stuff lol its a mite lol not dirt. ;) They like to hide in the vent and pits. Put your snakes on white paper or paper towels . Something that will show the mites if they have them. Also if you want just even as a precaution go ahead and treat them. I know it's stressful with the move already but it won't stress them that much to be bagged long enough for you to spray their tubs and substrate. Wash all hides and dishes and spray the rack. It wont take that long to do and they will be fine .

Pictures :(

http://ball-pythons.net/gallery/file...9/8/mites3.jpg

http://ball-pythons.net/gallery/file...9/8/mites2.jpg

http://ball-pythons.net/gallery/file.../9/8/mites.jpg

The dots that were on the paper they were on when I originally saw them were black but they were to small for me to make out as bugs or just dirt.. They came on old cocohusk and all five were housed together in a sweater box.. I was planning on feeding them on Wednesday since they haven't been feed by their previous owner in over a month and a half - and I'm pretty sure my little guy hasn't been fed regularly in his whole life.. He's 2 years old and less then 500grams. I know that if I treat them that they are not going to eat this week, and I'm really worried about that..

im far from an expert, but that just looks like speckling to me :)

thinking about it now, my computer may not be showing all the pictures though. i only seen the pictures of the snakes.

Ok well I can't see anything that looks like mites in the pics. The black flecking just looks like the snakes coloring.
These are some pics of mites. I found them on google and I just saved the pic to my phone and posted them. Sorry if I'm not sapose to do that.
http://tapatalk.com/mu/c6e4e009-c9bf-fcfc.jpg
http://tapatalk.com/mu/c6e4e009-c9dd-2230.jpg

Hope this helps.

This helps HUGE! Thank you so much you have made me feel so much better!! The dots that came off of him didn't look like that they were much smaller. It was probably dirt from the cocohusk. I'm going to keep an eye on them this week to make sure but that makes me feel so much better!

Thank you thank you thank you.

These are my first snakes so I'm still new to everything. LOL I knew of all these other problems surrounding them and the last thing they needed was another problem LOL.

Thanks Again!

I preventatively treat any new snake in Qt with provent-a-mite. I also treat my collection every other month just in case. I get the heepejeepies from bugs... I have ordered it online but I also get it at the shows.:D

I would treat them just in case, cause if they do have mites it would so suck to infect your other snakes and have to treat ALL of them. They could be carrying eggs even if they don't have visible adult buggies anyway. I am dealing with mites now, and it taught me not to trust anyone who wants to sell me something... (but I loves my baby Jackson)