Mites and Feeders ??

[mohawk]

I noticed mites on some of the snakes at the shop where I buy my live feeder mice. Can mites hitch a ride on the mice ?
I also buy my shredded aspen from this shop . Should I be worried about carrying mites home with me ??

[rabernet]

Absolutely you can! I especially if they are putting uneaten feeders back into the feeder bin.

Sent from my ADR6400L using Tapatalk 2

[mohawk]

CRAP !!!!! Fed him today, and noticed a mite on him !
I'll give him a few days to digest his meal, and then I will treat his cage with PAM .
Guess I need to find a new place to buy mice !!

[4Ballz]

sounds like you need a new store...

[Jeo123]

So this is one of the benefits/draw backs of local pet stores vs big box.

Local pet stores, you need to make sure they watch for this kind of thing. They get their mice from local suppliers usually, they feed by their own policy, and so you really need to make sure you know what you're getting into with feeders. My local pet store recently had a sign up that they couldn't sell any mice because they were in quarantine. Frustrating at the time, but I do like the fact that they'll isolate new feeders until they know what they're dealing with(I spoke to the guy and found out it was mostly a pregnancy thing, but still good to know that they'll turn down sales to make sure they know what they're selling).

Places like Petco and especially petsmart(which won't sell live feeders around here) all feed their snakes F/T from sealed containers. The snakes themselves are often in horrible shape, but you know that they probably haven't gotten anything from their feeders because all feeders have been shipped in a frozen vacusealed package.

If a petco/petsmart snake had mites, I wouldn't worry that their mice were infected as much since they probably don't feed their snakes live. If it was a local, I would worry a bit more.