Soaking a LOT?

Hello, I have a question about my Boa and soaking. My boa has been with us for about 4 months now. When we got her, she had mites. We treated her for the mites, and her new enclosure and again as suggested by the local reptile shop and the spray treatment. All has been good with no sign of mites since. She is an avid eater, always taking her food without an issue. Generally, a happy and well taken care of animal. How ever, the last two days she has been in her water dish, soaking. She took her meal yesterday while in the dish, and seems to have not left the dish at all. Even her head is under the water, with just her nostrils out of the water. I know that shes still alive as she moves and adjusts herself.

She has shed for us once already, so Im not sure if she is about to shed again, if she is having a problem with a bowel movement or if the mites have somehow returned.

I don't want to disrupt her, as she only ate 24'ish hours ago, I generally wait 2 - 3 days before handling her after eating to allow for proper digestion and all that.

Any suggestions? I have not seen her do this before, but I do know the RTB's like to soak once in a while. But for two days.. I think that is a little much.

Well some Boas will spend ages soaking in a bowl but some others also will soak if they have MITES ...

We she comes out I'd check on the bowl to see if there are any in the bottom . I'd also get some white kitchen roll and let her slide through your hands holding the kitchen roll and check if there are any mites on the paper ...


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Given the timing I'd bet that you missed a few mites during the last go-round. What products did you use to treat for mites, how did you treat, and for how long did you treat?

Yup, I'll bet you missed a few......they are a nightmare to get rid of.


Do yourself a favor however. Change the substrate (whatever your using) to clean, white computer paper OR bright white paper towel temporarily (but do not feed on paper towel).......this will help you see easily if you still have your problem.

THAT is a great idea. I will do!

Soooo... Its mites. Her water bowl had quite a few little black "Flakes" in the bottom.

We decontaminated a "Quarantine Enclosure" for her, removed her from her tank, "Decontaminated" her using the Reptile relief Spray. We applied it to a towel, and made her squirm threw the towel to ensure her WHOLE body was covered.

We then removed all the substrate, and put all the "Furniture" in the laundry tub filled with warm water and bleach solution. THAT all will soak all night. we used the same spray to "Decontaminate" her tank. Let it dry for 20 min, then sprayed her again inside the Quarantine Enclosure, and did a 2nd wipe down of her tank. 20 min later we lined the bottom of the tank with paper As suggested by Tinyballs and placed one hide in her tank with her (This hide had been soaking in the bleach/warm water solution for over an hour by this point.)

No water dish for 24 hours to allow for the spray to really work.

This was an immediate reaction drill, tomorrow we pick up the supplies to do a NIX treatment to her on Friday along with our 2 Ball Pythons and the areas immediately around their enclosures.

We will repeat the NIX treatment every 5 days for 4 cycles to ensure we get the mites..

This REALLY sucks, but.. Our BCI had mites when we got her. We treated her.. but not well enough. This time.. its all out warfare! :taz:

Good luck ... Sadly mites are just one part of snake keeping ...


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Quote:

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Originally Posted by Hotwire

Our BCI had mites when we got her. We treated her.. but not well enough. This time.. its all out warfare! :taz:

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A mite egg can take up to 30 days to hatch so you have to continue to treat your snakes, the enclosures, etc. for a month after you stop finding them on your snake.

My first ball python got mites. Looking back, I swear it was from a batch of aspen or something I bought at the pet store. (A very cool, locally-owned exotic pet store, but not the cleanest in the world!)
I tried prevent-o-mite, it didn't work, as the mites would hang out on his eyes and face and I din t want to put the chemicals on his facial area. Then I thought about how a snake would deal with mites in nature. I noticed the mites after he started soaking in his water bowl and leaving behind black poppy seed things. I then, logically, put a larger water bowl for him to soak his entire body in. He soaked like a crocodile, with only his nostrils above water to breathe, and the rest of him submerged under water. I stopped using any treatment, I changed his bedding daily, and cleaned the tank daily. I let him soak in his bowl all he wanted. He continued to submerge his entire body.
Every day, I cleaned out the dead mites from the water bowl. Within a week or two, all the mites were GONE! He drowned out two generations, firstly the mites, then he drowned all their hatched eggs!

RAGNAROK cured his condition and committed genocide on the mites, using only water, his natural go-to if he lived in the wild. This was two years ago, and I haven't seen a mite since and he never soaks in his water bowl any more. Snakes know what to do with mites, you just have the to give them the environmental opportunity.

Thank you everyone for your help and support. Getting these snakes happy is my primary goal at this point. :snake:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by bcr229

A mite egg can take up to 30 days to hatch so you have to continue to treat your snakes, the enclosures, etc. for a month after you stop finding them on your snake.

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Thank you, I have read a LOT of contradicting information like this. BUT, the 30 days is the best I could average out as well. This is why I will be doing 4 cycles of the NIX treatment, every 5 - 7 days. 5 treatments (One initial treatment, then 4 cycles) at 7 days will cover that 30 days, PLUS a few for good measure.

Thanks again.

Sorry you have to deal with it, mites are such a pain.
One treatment of PAM (provent-a-mite) would fix it as well.
:gj:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Godzilla78

My first ball python got mites. Looking back, I swear it was from a batch of aspen or something I bought at the pet store.

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I know FOR A FACT that I've gotten them from a bag of Zoo Med Forest Floor Cypress before.

100% guaranteed.

....a great reason to switch to newspaper or (even better) indented kraft paper.

To this day if I use any sort of substrate besides kraft paper I will bake it (sanitize it) in large disposable turkey pans and let it cool down before using...strictly because I know how much of a pain mites are to get rid of.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Tinyballs

I know FOR A FACT that I've gotten them from a bag of Zoo Med Forest Floor Cypress before.

100% guaranteed.

....a great reason to switch to newspaper or (even better) indented kraft paper.

To this day if I use any sort of substrate besides kraft paper I will bake it (sanitize it) in large disposable turkey pans and let it cool down before using...strictly because I know how much of a pain mites are to get rid of.

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Maybe the mites were on the bag of substrate as I've heard of a few cases of a similar thing , picked up from the pet store where mites can be prevalent ? I read somewhere that they can't survive in bags of substrate for any length of time ... could be misinformation of course ,


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Judging by the sheer amount of them with a few days time, I would definitely say they came inside the bag of substrate.

I run a sterile snake room, use good quarantine practices (and at the time I had no new snakes). I didn't bring in any new hides, plants, etc. None of my animals had been outside or in any position where they would have picked them up.


I know it's not a super common ordeal, but I am 100% certain I picked them up from a bag of forest floor. It wasn't a case of "Oh look there's a few mites in the water bowl"..........rather it was a case of "holy sh*t there's thousands of them all over the place".

Took me MONTHS to get rid of.