Traumatic Experience

Well, we’ve had our baby BP for about 5 or 6 weeks now.
We’ve been meticulous in our husbandry. We monitor temperature gradients and humidity with digital thermometers/hygrometers (I'm constantly checking), change water daily, etc. (Ambient temps range across the tank from 80 to 85 with the substrate temp at around 92 in his hide over the UTH. Humidity around 60).
We treat him like it’s one of our children. My wife talks to it like it’s a baby.

So a week ago we noticed his eyes turn cloudy so we start preparing for his first shed.
I changed the substrate (eco earth coconut stuff) and raised the humidity to around 70.

He started spending quite a bit of time in his water dish around the same time and I thought it was because he was soaking for the shed.

Well, it turns out it was MITES.
We noticed them today on his skin…where did they come from??????
We haven’t handled any other snakes. The substrate was the compressed eco earth stuff. I washed and cooked all the stuff that went in the tank (hides, silk plants, etc).

We got the snake at Petco, so the only thing I can think of is that he has eggs on him when we brought him home.
Is that possible? We never noticed anything until today and we have handled him a lot over the last few weeks.

Anyway, we start reading this forum regarding mite eradication and watching “Youtube” videos on the subject.
Our experience was nothing like the videos or the writings on here.

I don’t know who was traumatized more…my wife or the snake.
As I emptied the tank to give everything a bath in bleach water in the tub, she lightly sprayed some mite stuff on the snake then started to wipe him off with a damp cloth.
Well, I guess he was getting really close to shedding because his skin started peeling off.
So as she’s soaking him in a lukewarm bath, the snake’s skin is peeling, my wife’s wiping it off, and the snake defecates a couple times (maybe from stress??).
Now my wife is freaked out that she’s traumatized the snake.

I washed everything in a bleach bath, rinsed it all off well, then baked it in the oven at 225 for about 1.5 hours.
The snake is back in his tank…very sparse tank, just his 2 hides, water dish and white newsprint for substrate, but he seems to be moving around quite a bit checking things out.

I don’t know what to think, but our experience was not easy…actually a bit of a disaster.

Anyone else have this situation?

Nah, your snake will be fine so long as you treat him to get rid of the mites. Snakes (and lizards) seem to defecate while soaking- more often than not. I think it may be the warm water that just helps them to go. And as for his skin coming off, thats fine- he was ready apparently. There's been times (like an hour ago) that I have had to manualy help one of my snakes shed.

Also, the mites probably came from the substrate. So just keep doind what your doing, keep things clean and treat him and he sould be good. And don't worry- you don't have to change the substrate when he does in to shed, just make sure your humidity is good.

You sound like you're doinf the right things- great job with how well you're keeping everything clean!! Sounds like you did your research :) Very good!

what was this "mite stuff" that you were using on him?

Although I've never had a mite outbreak (yet), everyone suggests P.A.M.....not the cooking spray....Prevent-A-Mite

We bought something called Reptile Spray made by Natural Chemistry.
I called around to some vets and different reptile shops looking for PAM, but no-one seems to carry it.
We didn't want to wait for the product to arrive by mail...we wanted to nip this in the bud immediately, so we got this stuff.

We read where the ZooMed "Mite Off" was garbage.

Hopefully with the warm bath, the spray, the bleach water washing of everything and the cooking in the oven afterward...well, hopefully that does it.

We feel like terrible parents...my wife's freaked out.

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Originally Posted by deltaneutral

Hopefully with the warm bath, the spray, the bleach water washing of everything and the cooking in the oven afterward...well, hopefully that does it.

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Most likely, no. Buy a can. I'm sure you'll be glad you have it in 30 days when they're back ;)

I'm ordering a can right now.

Don't feel bad. You and your wife are certainly not the only people to buy a snake from PetCo and get the "free case of mites" deal. :rolleyes: Here's a link to a write-up on mites to understand your enemy....

http://www.vpi.com/publications/the_...of_snake_mites

Personally I'd have the little one on plain white paper towels for a substrate until you know the mites are gone (after another month or so of no hatching/new mites). I like the Viva brand for it's clothlike softness. If you use natural hides I'd switch over to something in plastic that can be sterilized and cannot harbor mite eggs. I'd order P.A.M. simply because killing off the adult mites is one thing but if you don't get the eggs (much harder to kill than the adults) then in about a month or so you are going to have mites again.

Treating the snake, dealing with the shed, being pooped on are just things that happen so don't worry on that. Just like we have to deal with our kids when they are ill and don't want us fussing over them or giving meds, there is just stuff that has to be done with snakes - so best to do it calmly and just get it over with quickly and efficiently.

You might want to consider a good, fine shred aspen once you go back to natural substrate. I buy ours from a store that stocks bedding but no snakes and have yet to see a problem with mites coming in on the bedding. Do watch yourselves though, if you visit pet stores or snake shows and handle snakes, that you don't become the ride home a snake mite utilizes.

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Originally Posted by deltaneutral

We feel like terrible parents...my wife's freaked out.

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Don't feel bad. You did nothing wrong, other than buy a chain pet shop snake, and it sounds like you're doing your best to help the poor animal.

This is one of the many examples why we recommend to buy a snake from a breeder as opposed to a petstore.

Happens all the time. Hope it passes quickly.

most likely the snake already had mites before you bought it. PAM is the way to go! good luck getting rid of those blood suckers. if you need any advice about how just ask!

I appreciate the feedback.
This forum has been a great source of information and it's awesome to get people's personal experience...Thanks everyone.

We're going to follow up with PAM...it's all out war.

I'm thinking I may even buy a couple bags of substate and wrap them in a garbage bag/quarantine it for 30 or 40 days.

Since we're going to be using white (non ink) newsprint for the next 30 or 40 days while we deal with this mite issue, it might be a good idea to always have some available that has been quarantined.

I'm now concerned that anything we get from a pet store may be contaminated.

It's probably better to be over cautious.

i would spray your 'quarantined' substrate with PAM too let it air out and then bag it. just in case.

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Originally Posted by crystal

i would spray your 'quarantined' substrate with PAM too let it air out and then bag it. just in case.

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I was hoping as I read that you sprayed the snake, that it was something that could be sprayed on the snake..you do mean Reptile Relief?

The idea above is one that I incorporate. Buy by the bulk and spray inside the bag (divide into two bags ..garbage bag) and shake well and leave until ready to use. When I was using paper an idea that was given to me was to pre-cut and treat the paper.

Either method works well.

Reading this brought back some bad memories....we also got the buy 2 snakes get 5 million mites free deal from petco. I have never had any problems with snakes bought from local stores and have yet dealt with buying directly from a breeder. We used PAM on all the tanks and "reptile relief" on the snakes...been about a month now and no return visits (fingers crossed).

Wow. It's so hard when you are new to snake keeping and are hit with so many 'firsts'. I think that you and your wife did a really super job of identifying the several issues that were happening and dealing with each of them in order of their priority.

As mentioned, Provent-A-Mite is really the wat to go with mite eradication. If you follow the directions very well, your mite issue will be over with. The suggestion for spraying all new incoming bedding is a very good one.

As for shedding, bumping the humidity is right on target. I think I would have waited until after the shed to treat the snake, but that is just my own preference and in no way suggests wrong-doing on your part.

That your snake poo'd while soaking is totally normal and is nothing to be concerned about. In fact, some might say you lucked out since you didn't have to clean and re-treat the snake's enclosure! ;)

Finally, things will calm down and the mites will be killed (get PAM) and you and your wife can return to learning about these fascinating animals :D~~ with little adventures along the way! :P

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I was hoping as I read that you sprayed the snake, that it was something that could be sprayed on the snake..you do mean Reptile Relief?

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It's just called "Reptile Spray" by Natural Chemistry.
It did say to use directly on the snake...

We'll have the PAM shortly...

Damnit pet shop snakes always seem to have mites on them though your doing the snake a huge favor by getting it out the pet shop and into the comfy home you have given it!!I hope you win the war on them damn mites!Ahhhh its making me itch!

Tht's so true...I've been itching like crazy since we found the mites:)

Welcome to BP.net!! I'm sorry you and your wife are having such a traumatic first snake owner experience, but you both are dealing with it in a very responsible way. :) It sounds like your BP has some very doting parents. :gj:

its also a good idea to treat an enclosure with PAM whenever you get a new addition whether it has mites or not.

whenever i get a new snake thats what i do. along with proper quarantine proceedures of course. dont want mites infesting the whole collection!

We got our can of PAM today and I just finished treating everything.

So far so good.

I am changing the white newsprint daily. Yesterday when I changed it, I put him in a lukewarm bath again. There were only about 5 mites in the water compared to uncountable a couple days ago.

Today when I changed it and gave him a bath, there was one in the water.

I have treated everything with the PAM and have kept all the silk plants and wood log in a plastic bag and will leave it there for a while. I'm keeping the tank to a minimum...just two hides a water bowl and the newsprint.

I figure I'll give him the odd lukewarm bath now and again and re-treat everything in a couple weeks with the PAM according to the instructions.

He seems to be cruising around and in pretty good spirits...although I think he prefers it when all the plants and the wood log in there.

Thanks again to everyone that responded.

I got the free mite deal with a bag of substrate that I bought...what a pain! One treatment of PAM was all it took. It's been months since the initial and only treatment and still not a single mite in sight.

just wanted to say I used that bedding on a trantula and it got mites from the bedding I know because I kept the extra bedding in my roach container and they wound up with mites too NEVER BUY THAT BEDDING

Well, just changed the newsprint and put him in a lukewarm bath while organizing the tank...found about 7 or 8 more mites in the water.

Will this ever end....? :mad:

did you order PAM?

edit:

oopsy, didn't see the above post you made about treating *reading it now*