First timer with some first timer issues!

[Riggamortis]

Well folks I purchased my first BP a little more than a month ago at local reptile expo. I'd been waiting for quite some time to make my first buy, and after a recent surgery I felt I needed a recovery buddy😜 I was looking at all kinds of different morphs, but wasn't ready to shell out big bucks right before the holidays and such so I got a pretty good deal on what I was told is a lavender poss. Het male. So now the I have a couple recent issues I could use some prof opinions on. First of all I noticed over the weekend he had mites! I instantly soaked him, bleached his cage, and ordered provent-a-mite ( which should be at my doorstep this evening). Im not sure where they came from but was told possibly from his wood hides I bought, or his fuzzies? Can fuzzies carry mites? Also Tuesday during holding I noticed a popping sound when he breathes so now he's got an RI to boot! Instantly I called the local herp guy at the pet store ad he said I can rid it by bumping up the temp, and I also called the local herp vet and was told the same? He has no mucus or bubbles around his mouth or nose, but the piping sound hasn't gone away? Is it poss to clear an RI by doing this? Also he's been acting kind of strange. He stares at his heat light endlessly, and sometimes wobbles his head a little. Now I'm freaking myself out thinking he might have IBD. I'd really appreciated some help!

[jjmitchell]

Sounds like alot going on here..... I would deffinatly use the provent a mite to get rid of the mites... As far as the respiratory, yes bumping the heat up can help, but the first thing I would do is get rid of the heat lamp. Pick up an under the tank heater, an extension cord and a dimmer switch. Wire the dimmer swith in the middle of the extension cord so that it regulates the temp of the heat pad, I would set it around 95 degrees to get em warm and get rid of the respiratory, heat lamps dry things out and burn animals.

[Riggamortis]

Thanks! Been doing a lot of reading up, And am gonna do away with the heat bulb because I've been having serious humidity problems. I'm keeping his warm side around 95-97, but I'm having some issues with the cool side keeping above 75. Any ideas or thoughts on his wobbling issues? I know it's common with some spiders, but he isnt soo it's concerning me a lot.

[Mike41793]

The wobbling your snake is doing is probably just because hes raising his body up towards the light and trying to keep his balance. To see what I mean, do some research to find out what the spider wobble actually looks like. When I saw it for the 1st time it wasnt really exactly what I was picturing in my head. Soooo basically my point is your snake probably doesnt have the "wobble".

[Riggamortis]

Awesome. Thanks guys. Just to clarify things, because I've seen mixed information, can I cure his RI with just raising the heat? His popping while breathing is def getting better, but I wanna get him 100% ASAP.

[Skiploder]

Awesome. Thanks guys. Just to clarify things, because I've seen mixed information, can I cure his RI with just raising the heat? His popping while breathing is def getting better, but I wanna get him 100% ASAP.

No.

He needs to go to a vet.

He also needs for you to bring all of his husbandry parameters up to snuff.