Having Real Trouble With Humidity Of Hot Side Since Substrate Change

I am treating Monty for mites at the moment which mean he is running on Kitchen Towel (Paper Towel) - Cool side Humidity stays around 65 (its where the big water bowl is) warm side drops to 40 over night. I got no way of controlling it as I will be in work.

Any thoughts as I go through this phase of fixing mites?

I wouldn't worry about it, it's not low enough to be an issue. You could also just mist the cage late at night.

I would just mist as well 40 percent is still relatively decent. Gotta hate those little things worst thing ever luckily I haven't ran into them personally yet in my collection.

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Ok thanks, good to know. I am so protective over this little fella and I only had him 2 weeks. I found 2 mites today on the paper towel and squished them. And there was one in the water bowl in which he has been all day. He is out now so I got him out just for 5 mins and got one off of his mouth. He is so chilled out. Let me do anything within reason, as long as I am slow.

My wife even attempted to hold him tonight. She almost did, but just could no go the entire way!!

You could try adding another water bowl to the warm side, assuming there is room in the enclosure for it.

You could put a small container with a lid with holes in it filled with water if you didn't want another water bowl. Why not just move the water bowl closer to the warm side?

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Originally Posted by bcr229

You could try adding another water bowl to the warm side, assuming there is room in the enclosure for it.

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I put a little one on the warm side. Not making any difference though. Might have to get a bigger one.

I would probably just go with misting once or twice a day, if he's soaking anyway the small drop on the hot side shouldn't be a problem. The advice I got when my guy had mites was that you want it a little dry for a little while to help kill off the mites since they thrive at the same humidity your snake does.

Unless it's actually causing a problem, I wouldn't worry about it. If fact when treating for mites it's usually advisable to remove the water bowl.

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Originally Posted by gaitedappy

I would probably just go with misting once or twice a day, if he's soaking anyway the small drop on the hot side shouldn't be a problem. The advice I got when my guy had mites was that you want it a little dry for a little while to help kill off the mites since they thrive at the same humidity your snake does.

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That gives me some piece of mind! Thank you.

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Originally Posted by MarkS

Unless it's actually causing a problem, I wouldn't worry about it. If fact when treating for mites it's usually advisable to remove the water bowl.

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That's interesting Mark. He spends a good portion of the day in the bowl at the moment. I only found 4 mites on the paper so far and one in the bowl. Why do you say remove the bowl?

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Originally Posted by ShaggyRS6

That's interesting Mark. He spends a good portion of the day in the bowl at the moment. I only found 4 mites on the paper so far and one in the bowl. Why do you say remove the bowl?

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Whatever poison you're treating your snake with is going to be on the snake. When he soaks in his bowl, it's then going to be in the water. When your snake drinks the water, he'll also be drinking whatever poison got washed off in the water.


When I've treated for mites, I've always removed the water bowl and only give them access to it for short periods of time so they can drink.

Gotcha - Ok, will empty that bowl tonight.

Don't worry, you'll get through this! Ball pythons are hardy little snakes, mites are just nasty little creatures, and it's really good you caught them early. Also I use mite off now that I have no mites every once in a while on everything in my enclosures since it's non-toxic as a preventative, though I would not recommend it by itself as a treatment.

http://zoomed.com/Library/ProductDBImages/miteoff.jpg

Ok - I removed the big water bowl tonight. Will leave it with him tomorrow. I will treat him with the reptile spray again tomorrow. Only found 1 mite today on the kitchen paper.

Shaggy, do you think the mites came with him from the pet store?

Well here is the thing. I want to believe that but he did not start bathing in his water until a week after I had him. So maybe the substrate ? What's the zoomed cypress mulch normally like ?

Second treatment for Monty tonight and cleaned all the paper towel out. Vacuumed cage. I have the Provent a mite spray and will do that at the weekend.