Now, I am new...sorry for the ignorance...but I do want to learn all this. I just switched the substrate from sand to Aspen bedding (zoo-med kind). I was checking on my snake and I noticed a bunch of little black spots in the water dish...I don't KNOW these are mites...but it sure does sound like them. I didn't notice any of them on him when I was holding him earlier...and I have never seen them in the water dish before (not in the last 6 days I have had him).

Here is a pic:


Best one I could get at least. Could they have come from the bedding? Do you think it is mites?

George (the snake) didn't soak in the water dish at all...and the black spots weren't in there before we put the dish in the cage...so I am so clueless as to what they are or where they came from.