Quote Originally Posted by camilleon View Post
I have been looking vigorously and found no tiny specks, whether in his water dish, his eyes, his vent, etc. The paper towels are also clean.

He is my first and only snake, and I got him July 31st, 2020, so he’s almost three 😊

I just got him checked over by a reptile specialist, and she said it seems like due to the fact that he’s about to shed, and that I have cypress mulch and cork bark, that the scratches are his shed skin first coming off, and then getting filled in and made more visible by the dust of the mulch. And the red scratch on his side is from him rubbing himself too hard on something (most likely the cork bark), and due to him being a banana the scratch is especially visible. She also said to just wait till he sheds fully, and give him a once over again and come back if there’s any remaining marks. Otherwise he is very healthy, which gives me peace of mind.

Thank you for your help again!!
I'm glad you got him looked at closely by someone more experienced, & that's exactly what I was thinking this was- light colored snakes show up "every little thing" & you're not the first person to worry about what they're seeing. It actually happens a lot around here. But it's always better to ask than to ignore what might be a problem, before it gets bigger.

The reason I asked how long you've had him & if he's your only snake is because as it is, it's unlikely for him to have mites: When you first come home with a new snake, mites or their eggs are easily missed- then in a month or several months, they reproduce exponentially & a new owner "wakes up" to the problem.

Snake mites, if present, would have killed your snake long before this had they originally been present, so that logically makes it much more likely that any insects you saw were NOT snake mites. Snake mites are hard to get rid of & pose a direct health threat, so it's always something you need to find out, but just by looking under a few scales, you wouldn't necessarily be lucky enough to find them- not until your snake was very badly infested. See? Keep up the good work.