Preventive Mite Treatment?

[CD CONSTRICTORS]

This is part of the point I was trying to make in my original post. I just don't see the point. If you are following proper quarantine procedures pre-treating new additions/snakes coming back from a show shouldn't be necessary. If mites show up during the quarantine period treat them. The risk of cross contamination should be pretty low if you really are quarantining.


That said my original intent for this thread was about people who use mite spray on a regular basis when they don't have mites. I've seen a few people post that they treat the substrate every time they put new in, and some who treat every few months. I just don't understand that mindset.

I do not treat anything except new arrivals. Depending on the source, new additions get between 30- 90 "days in the hole". I treat their tubs at least every 2 weeks, or when their tub needs cleaning. They get handled/fed/cleaned last. If they refuse a rat, that rat has its own QT enclosure as well for that "batch" of additions only. This was fun when I had 8 pick-ups from Daytona.

I treat my racks every 2 weeks with PAM. The only reason I do this is because I work at a small pet store. Yes, we have reptiles. Our stock is usually well kept, but we get some drop offs or random people that being their animals in and we end up with a little more problem. I treat so often because I don't want to risk me bringing home mites from work and having to treat 50+ snakes.

For this reason I decided to breed my own rats. I cannot depend on a clean source of rats from ANY pet shop. On rare occasions now I need a handful of medium rats for a few big girls. I hope to be fully self sufficient on rats by spring since feeding is slowing down now during the bp breeding season. I have 36 female breeder rats and will add at least 20 more by spring.