Hi guys,
I checked on my ball pythons today and in one of the tubs, I found what looked to be a MUSHROOM???? At first I thought it was a broken off piece of a urate, but when I picked it up I noticed there was another one nearby and both were sea-shell shaped (almost like a clam, with white lines running through it). We do have moss in the tubs to help with humidity but we rarely mist anymore as the humidity has been terrific without. The moss we have was from The Bean Farm I believe.
After searching the tub a bit more I found a urate covered in blueish white moldy stuff that Madison had cleverly hidden at the bottom of her aspen.
So do mushrooms just grow in dark, humid areas with waste (i.e. from a snake) in it? Or did this moss come with spores already?
We got it like 4 months ago.
I also found a small maggot on one of the mushrooms. I'm positive it was too big to be a mite, and it had a wormy body, not a mite/tick body. How did he get in there??? NOTHING we have in the room has maggots on it; again, do they just blossom near mushrooms and waste or did he come as an egg with the moss??
Should I throw all the moss/aspen in the tubs away and put fresh in? I've been spot cleaning mostly but now that the mold is there maybe I should take it all out?
I do know that maggots won't hurt animals that are alive as they only eat dead tissue, but what about Madison breathing in whatever that fungi gave off? Is that bad? Should I take her to a vet?
Thanks. I'm really confused as to how this happened, lol.