Monty Been In the Water Bowl All Day (I think)

Hi everyone, so when I got up this morning Monty was in the water bowl. I have had him for just over a week and he has never been in the bowl before to my knowledge. I have come home this eveing and he is in the water bowl. Not sure if he has been in it all day or not but He does not seem keen on getting out. he ducked his head right under when I opened the glass door.

There were a couple of black specs in the water and there is a little black tiny bug crawling on the side of the water bowl. So can I assume mites?

What should I do next my friends?

Also - He is due a feed tonight. Should I still go ahead?

Here's a link to Lll reptile's video about dealing with snake mites, it really helped me when Jynx had mites last year... Hope it helps!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4CX0Dki0yAA

Do I need to do this tonight or can it wait till the weekend ? I'm worried about him sitting in the bowl

Post a picture of him and what you think are mites.

Currently at dentist. Gonna go to pet store on the way home then try and get a picture

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ShaggyRS6

Do I need to do this tonight or can it wait till the weekend ? I'm worried about him sitting in the bowl

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If it is mites, just make sure he has luke warm water to soak in until you can treat him. Jynx had to wait a couple of days and he was okay, also try to switch any bedding to paper towel until you are sure the mites are gone.

Ok so I got him out - He was really cold I looked him all over and to my untrained eye I could not see a thing. I wiped him down with reptile spray. Now I did take one shot him, it does not really show anything but the water bowl does. I have kept the picture large. Zoom in. See those brown things? Are they mites? They are tiny. For the big pic of the bowl you need to go directly to this link. www.shaggysworld.com/snake/bowl.JPG

http://www.shaggysworld.com/snake/m.JPG

http://www.shaggysworld.com/snake/bowl.JPG

And Can I feed him tonight?

You can offer food, just be prepared for a possible refusal.

Well he took food and its in his belly :)

That's good!

I'm gonna have to clean the cage out this weekend and give Monty another run down :) where should I keep him when I clean the cage ? I'm assuming if he can spend a good few hours in his water he can spend an hour in a tub ?

yup. Just move him to an appropriate size tub with a locking lid or some other method to keep him from escaping (I would put him somewhere with low foot traffic as to reduce the stress). There are a ton of great guide on how to deal with mites, some can be found on this forum. Two things I will emphasize;

1. Be extra thorough. Mites can be a pain in the butt...what makes thing way worse is if you do a poor job of cleaning the first time and they infestation comes back.
2. Switch Monty onto paper towels. Will be easier to spot the mites as the treatment works to kill them, will be easier to clean.

From reading your post you seem really attentive, I'm sure you caught this before things got really bad. Be as thorough as you can and Monty will be mite free soon enough.

I have two train of thoughts here. Leave it for another week or start now. What I have just ordered is the Mite Spray from Pro-Products, that wont arrive till next week. I have everything.

So do I wait until next week so I can do this properly. Or do I give Monty his treatment this weekend (Sunday) get rid of the substrate in the tank, use paper towel and then do him again, and spray the cage next week. I am thinking leave it all to next week? unless I can find a can of that spray in Petco on the way home (which I doubt)

What you think?

Well leaving it all till next week would not be 'criminal' but I would recommend getting a move on things. Really good that your got the mite spray coming but the other treatments will also be effective in making Monty more comfortable and starting the eradication process. Progress is progress. If he does not have mites all over yet or a bunch near/on his face you could make it till next week but he’s soaking in his water bowl because he's uncomfortable. With the weather getting cold you really want to discourage him soaking, will just help make sure he does not get sick.

Ok fair enough. Man I need your number. Your fast becoming my snake Whisperer :) That sounds like a plan though. What I will also do is spray any new substrate with that Mite spray before it goes in the cage.

Plan of attack on that would be to buy a bag of Cypress mulch - Stick it in a bucket and spray it, seal it with Cling Flim. I will do this a good month in advance of putting that substrate in the cage. Sound good or a step too far?

There is a simpler way to accomplish the goal of ensuring the new mulch is mite free. Get a large tub and fill it with about 3 in. of water. Then take what you think is the appropriate amount of mulch for your enclosure, break it up and put it in the water. Let it soak for about an hour. That being said...I would encourage you to just make a full switch to paper towels for the duration of treatment (a good rule of thumb is to stay on paper towels for an additional 2-3 weeks after you have seen the last mite). The paper towels are much easier/cheaper to replace while doing the cleaning and %100 better for spotting the mites. This will give you a much better idea of how far along the infestation is and will provide information on how far/near you are to fully getting rid of those little pest.

I am more than happy to help Shaggy. the way i see it, us 'werid snake people' have to stick together :)

*note: I know several people who use mulch and soak it prior to use. You seem a little on the paranoid side (a good thing in my mind) so after you switch off paper towels you can make this a general practice as an additional step to preventing mites in the future.

Nice!! Thanks :) Yeah I am a risk manager by trade, so its in my nature to mitigate any risk :) Will get started on the cleanup on Sunday as I fed the little chap yesterday.

When I was still in college we had a guest speaker give a talk on risk management...by the end I may have been the only person awake lol but I was so interested by it. Two years later my father was dropping hints about wanting to purchase a motorcycle. I hit him with soooo many quotes from that speaker haha

Nice!! Yeah makes you question everything :)

Another tip I can offer, once your mites are cleared up, you can use zoomed mite off once a month or on the enclosure and your snake. It's not chemical, so it won't cause any of those issues, but it does keep arthropods like mites away. I do that with both of mine as a preventative measure.

Well he is back in his water. I cant do anything until tomorrow at the earliest as I fed him yesterday. Question. Should i give him extra water so it covers the fattest part of his body? I noticed there was one mite on his back that was not under the water. I flicked that into the water.

So project Mite Away has begun. Cleaned the entire cage. Not got the Mite Away spray yet but treated his Royal Awesomeness with reptile spray. He is exploring what he thinks is a new cage :)

http://www.shaggysworld.com/snake/mite1.jpeg

Yes let him full soak put two bowls in there though, his reg size but another one with more water. Take him out of his first one while in it and put him in the larger one so he can pick.

Yeah he is soaking now in the big bowl. I will treat him again in 3 days time.