Problems with mites and general questions
So about a week ago my boy Larry started on some weird behavior. He was spending hours at a time in his water dish. His eye caps also just turned blue so I thought it was just a incoming shed. Then I noticed the dreaded mites in his water dish. So after work that day I went to my local petstore and bought the highly recommended natural mite killing spray.
First I removed everything from his home, and placed it in a quarantined 35 gallon tub. For all non wood items I soaked them (submerged) for 2 hours in a 10-1 Water to bleach solution then put them outside in nearly freezing temperatures and/or my deep freezer. The wooden items got 250 F in the oven for 3 hours and then were put outside or in the freezer as well. His tank got a 10-1 water-to-bleach cleaning and was sprayed down with the mite killing stuff. His bedding is currently paper towels with literally nothing else.
I am treating the snake itself with the mite killing spray once every 3 days as the bottle says to do and allowing him to soak for 15 minutes a day while I am removing his paper towels and respraying the tank with the natural mite killing spray.
It has been about a week of this pattern and I have not seen a mite come off him in a day or so now but I can see the black specks under his scales not moving at all. Also again about a week ago his eye caps turned blue, as of today they are back to normal.
So here are my questions.
1. When will I know he is mite free?
2. Should I try to feed him or wait unit he is mite free?
3. Why did his eyes change color if he didn't shed?
4. Is there anything I can do better?
I am currently at home with a broken ankle so I have time to kill and make sure my Larry can be healthy.
Re: Problems with mites and general questions
Welcome to the ball-pythons.net forums, Aether.
Understanding the snake mite's life history will help. Fortunately, snake mites do not like the taste of mammal and bird blood. http://vpi.com/publications/the_life...of_snake_mites
"Natural" is advertising speech for "toxic." Try to keep Larry from drinking any water contaminated with the mite spray.
Mites will walk out of the cage. So if you have one snake with mites, all your reptiles (if there is more than one) will get mites sooner or later. Put the cage on something that has been treated with the mite spray to kill the wanderers. Or provide some sort of water barrier. Water with dish soap will drown a mite a lot faster than plain water or water with bleach.
Good luck.
Re: Problems with mites and general questions
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Deborah
This will only treat the adult stage which is great for instant relief but in the long term will mean re-infestation.
That's what the other steps of bleach extreme cold/heat.
Re: Problems with mites and general questions
Larry doesn't even have a water dish currently. He gets soaked once per day in a clean container during that time his bedding is replaced and tank is bleached and sanitized.
Re: Problems with mites and general questions
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Aether
Larry doesn't even have a water dish currently. He gets soaked once per day in a clean container during that time his bedding is replaced and tank is bleached and sanitized.
Did you take the water dish out of the enclosure? He needs to be able to drink!
