Mites or shedding soon or..?

[Diaspora]

My BP is recently bathing quite a lot
I've had her recently and didn't put her in quarantine (the seller didn't tell me to do that, so...)
I've noticed a tiny tiny (not even the size of a salt grain) black thing walking on her. But only one. It's not mostly around her face, it just walks all over her body..
And since I only have her for a couple of weeks I don't know if she's soaking herself because she'll shed soon or if it's because of the black thing..

Shall I treat her anyway against mites or do I wait and see?

[ajmreptiles]

You said she is soaking a lot, when you look in her water dish, do you see what looks like small black particles in the water or at the bottom of the dish? If so then I'm 99% sure that it is mites and you should treat your snake's enclosure with prevent a mite and further more then treat your other enclosures as well as it is not in QT. If your snake is in shed then its belly should have that pinkish hue to it. Just my 2 cents though

[albinos_rule]

Sounds like it could be mites. Like suggested above check to see if the belly has a pinkish hue. That is usually the first indicator that the snake is going to shed soon.

[laurelamo]

Definitely sounds like mites to me. Since she's soaking a lot, I would make sure her water bowl is white or clear because mites fall off in the water and you can actually see them in there, like ajmreptiles mentioned... but if your bowl is dark it can be harder to see them. Also check around her eyes. That's where I could really see them on my snake. They burrow and make the eyes look sunken in and dry around the outside. For treatment or even just as a precaution I highly reccomend Provent-A-Mite. It worked wonders for my girl. Good luck!

[Diaspora]

Thanks everyone for the quick answers!
i checked the water bowl but there are no small particles at all in it.
Belly's not pink at all, so she's not going to shed soon.
I called the guy of the pet store, he thinks it might be a mite and told me to kill it when i see it.
And of course if i spot any others in the coming weeks, i'll have to do a treatment.

Thanks again

[pbyeerts]

You can place a white washcloth or towel in a sink and pour the water bowl over it. This will show up any mites very easily. They will look like black grains of sand.


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[SouthernVaper]

if it is mites The below worked excellent for me on a rescue, normal, i took in and killed all mites before my prevent a mite showed up in the mail 2 weeks later;
Prevent-a mite is good for treating the enclosure only!

The cheapest & More effective method I have found is 1)to go to the drug store. Get a bottle of RIDx lice treatment. 2)Get one gallon of distilled water. 3) Mix the entire contents of RIDX in to the gallon of water.SHAKE WELL! 4) Fill a spay bottle. 5) Remove any bedding & replace with white paper towels(helps in spotting the mites). 6) REMOVE WATER BOWL FOR 24HRS! (So they dont soak * then drink the mixture) 7) spray everything! in cage. 8) Spray snake, being sure to get the head/face including heat pits & around the eyes<<<<THIS WILL NOT HARM SNAKE! 8) leave snake in enclosure for 24hrs, then replace water bowl. 9) repeat for 4-6weeks, once a week.

The above will rise humidity a bit in a open tank type enclosure& will raise it dramatically in a tub container, however it will slowly return to normal over the next 24hrs.

FOR added assurance each time you change the paper towels spray them with the RIDX mixture and let dry completely before putting them into the enclosure. Do this until you are positive the mites are completely gone. then return to whatever bedding you like to use.


hopefully it aint mites but if it is, the above will work and is under twenty bucks. You can research the treatment i found it on many forums before i used it lol.

[blk02ssmonte]

Definitely sounds like mites to me. Kill any you see and treat everything. I used the reptile spray when I saw them and luckily for me it was the beginning stages. I am not sure which snake came home with them but I purchased 2 within a week of each other.