please help - i have 2 possibly related problems going on

Okay - so PAM is a spray based treatment? Since I want to do this ASAP, I may have to pick up a different product directly from the pet store. does anyone know if zoo med's "mite off" is a good substitute? or perhaps natural chemistry brand reptile spray?

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Originally Posted by vintod

Okay - so PAM is a spray based treatment? Since I want to do this ASAP, I may have to pick up a different product directly from the pet store. does anyone know if zoo med's "mite off" is a good substitute? or perhaps natural chemistry brand reptile spray?

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That stuff won't keep the mites gone for good. They will just keep reappearing every few weeks.

The NIX spray is sold at almost every drug store.

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Originally Posted by stratus_020202

Humidity should be 50% all the time. You can bump it up to around 60% during sheds. Some do, some don't and still have good sheds. I do, because I think it makes it easier for the snake to shed.

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Actually, humidity should be 60% all the time, and can be bumped up to 70 to 80% during sheds. Remember, bad sheds are caused by low-level dehydration. Not something you want to subject the animal to when it's NOT in shed, either. If the snake cannot shed normally at the humidity your generally keep your enclosure at, then your humidity is too low. It's fine to raise humidity during a shed to make things go even smoother and make the snake more comfortable, but they should be ABLE to have a normal shed at the humidity you keep them at all the time.

Order PAM online. Remember that it is for spraying the ENCLOSURE, not the snake. Do not let the snake come in contact with it until it is COMPLETELY dry.

If PAM is illegal in New York, you should just use the NIX spray you can buy at any drug store.

It is important NOT to treat the snake, just the enclosure. Spray or wipe down all surfaces of the enclosure with the NIX, allow 1 hour for it to dry, then replace the snake and water bowl and substrate. It really would be best to use newspaper or paper towels until the mites are gone.

The reason you don't need to treat the snake itself is that mites will leave the snake to hide and/or lay eggs and contact the NIX and die.

It is possible your snake could be getting ready to shed again, stress and poor health will sometimes cause rapid shed cycles, as will injuries.

Gale

well.. I read some of this too late. first, I came home to only see a few bugs in the tank (barely visible, small white color) NOT on the snake. So my cleaning from the day earlier did an okay job.. but not godo enough for my psychotically anal personality. I sprayed a good layer of Mite Off around the enclosure and let it dry while I ate dinner.

Afterwards, I mixed one small bottle of NIX with a gallon of water and pretty much soaked everything that was in the tank, including the snake, who hung out in a rubbermaid container while I cleaned. I hope this isn't bad, but I read that as long as it is diluted it won't hurt the snake. I dried the tank and then lined it with paper towels. i put her a hide back in (little rock bridge), and also an empty water dish (so she doesnt wash off the nix "shampoo"). I let he slither through a paper towel to dry off as well before putting her back in. I put about a dozen golf ball sized, smooth sterilized rocks down so she doesnt get under the paper towels and in direct contact with the under-tank heat source that I have under her hide.

Everything else (fake plant, zilla green liner, wood items, more rocks, light fixture) is drying on towels nearby after extremely liberal soaking with the nix mixture and mite off - and I wont set them back up for 3 days. I plan to use a NEW zilla green mat and leave the one I soaked down in the basement to dry for a while. I even put one of the smaller wood items into my oven for a half hour to dry it out and "cook" it. Hopefully all this will do the trick without causing any harm. Thanks for all your help and I will keep you posted on the results.

Please let me know if theres anythign drastically terrible that I did her, and how to remedy it. I really appreciate everything.

it looks like my humidity is at about 70-75. right now i just have a cheapy but i have it on top of the snake tank, on the screen. i figured the humidity is lower there so i dont get false positives on the humidity levels if i stuck it to the glass inside the tank. looks like i am safe even if its off by a few %s

Idk about those treatments, but how will measuring the humidity inside the tank, where the snake is, lead to a false reading?

I've read that sticking a cheap humidity gauge to the wall of a tank gives false readings that show humidity as higher than it actually is. I figured that, by leaving it on top of the tank screen, where the humidity is slightly lower than inside the tank, I would be playing it safe and getting a more accurate reading of what is is likely to be inside the tank. not sure if that logic will work but its better to be mroe humid than less humid, right? So if my humidity is at the right levels ABOVE the tank on a cheap gauge, then it should be fine inside the tank where it is definitely more humid. other thing I can do is just put the damn gauge inside the tank and subtract 10 from whatever it says and play it safe that way. haha

I can't say from experience here, but it's been said over and over in the short time that I've been around that the dial gauges aren't worth a damn for measuring anything. I suppose that strategy would work if you knew that it was reading 10% higher than what the humidity actually was, but I don't think anyone can say about any particular gauge that it's any degree accurate one way or the other. The accuracy may even vary depending on what the humidity is, too. At 10%, it might be right on, but at 70%, it could be so much off high or low.

If that's too long and you didn't read it, the best thing to do is probably to get something digital that's not branded for reptiles (overpriced), rather than trying to guess what this gauge thinks it's doing.:rolleye2:

Just an update:

I returned from my trip to find NO bugs in the tank, and the snake had a nice, even, complete shed in one piece. Excellent. She looks good but is still being a little bit "muscley" when I handle her (when she isnt just chilling in a loose ball).

Thanks for all the help. Going to try feeding her this week - this is the first time I am feeding her since I adopted her. The previous owner said she gets 2 small fuzzies once a month, but I plan to feed her a little more frequently because that didn't sound right to me.

Any thoughts on feeding frequency?