Mistakes, mistakes.

[tbowman]

Well, I just spotted a mite on the the new blood python I bought from a show last weekend. I am aware of the importance of quarantine, but unfortunately there is nothing I can do as my room is the only room in the house that is of adequate temperature. I ordered some PAM, and now I am off to get some Reptile Spray. I'm going to treat the blood with the spray and then once the PAM gets here, my other two snakes will be treated. Hopefully I can eradicate this quickly.

If anybody in Northeast Ohio is curious, I got this snake from Phil Thorne at the TNT Reptiles table at the Cleveland show.

Being that I don't have a large collection, only three snakes, would you say that this is going to be difficult to get rid of? All of the snakes are on newspaper with two plastic hides and water bowl.

[T_Sauer]

First and foremost I will say that this does not mean in any which way shape or form that the breeder you got your snake from can be held responsible for the fact that 5 days later your snake has mites. You got it from a reptile show in which it was in close quarters with hundreds of other reptiles and how many snakes did you hold that day along with the amount of other ppl that held your snake and others before you left with yours snake? I'm not saying that you ARE trying to smear the breeders name, it's just that in such a post pertaining to an issue such as mites then in the very same post you throw the breeders name and business name out there .... Just doesnt seem right to me. ....On to the reason of your post .. why wait to treat your other two snakes? Reptile spray is perfectly ok to use on your other snakes as a preventative even if they do not show them, go ahead and do that now. As far as the Pam goes, it is some very handy stuff, I use it myself. Just besure to follow the directions to a T as the fumes can be harmful to your snakes if you do not. Good luck on getting rid of them

[tbowman]

First and foremost I will say that this does not mean in any which way shape or form that the breeder you got your snake from can be held responsible for the fact that 5 days later your snake has mites. You got it from a reptile show in which it was in close quarters with hundreds of other reptiles and how many snakes did you hold that day along with the amount of other ppl that held your snake and others before you left with yours snake? I'm not saying that you ARE trying to smear the breeders name, it's just that in such a post pertaining to an issue such as mites then in the very same post you throw the breeders name and business name out there .... Just doesnt seem right to me. ....On to the reason of your post .. why wait to treat your other two snakes? Reptile spray is perfectly ok to use on your other snakes as a preventative even if they do not show them, go ahead and do that now. As far as the Pam goes, it is some very handy stuff, I use it myself. Just beside to follow the directions to a T as the fumes can be harmful to your snakes if you do not. Good luck on getting rid of them

I understand your concern. I am in no way trying bad mouth him or to say he should be held responsible. As far as I am concerned it is my responsibility to remedy the problem. But I do know that neither of my snakes had mites prior to this, and this snake does. Also, I think the question was rhetorical, but I held two other snakes on the day of the show.

I appreciate your input regarding the treatment products.

If somebody could remove the line about the origin of the animal that would be fine.

[tbowman]

I've just sprayed her down with the reptile spray, spraying her enclosure now.

[T_Sauer]

If you could only find a few mites visually, your case of them is not very bad ... The reptile spray will do a lot of good and could possibly remedy the problem without the PAM ... I also have been in the situation of not being able to have a separate room for quarentine ( we can only do the best our situation will allow)..... As long as you put the enclosure with your new snake on the other side of the room from the others and make sure you don't handle them after each other you should be ok with not having to worry about transmitting the mites to your other snakes, I would still recommend treating them with the reptile spray as well

[tbowman]

I have only seen one mite as of now. Very tiny crawling on the top 1/3 of her body. I sprayed her down and sprayed a paper towel and wiped her down as best I could (she's pretty flighty). I'm gonna spray my BP down and Probably hold off on spraying the Burm and just treat all three cages when the PAM gets here. I'm feeling better after seeing some good comments about the reptile spray. Thanks

[PitOnTheProwl]

I personally would want to know the name of the vendor just to know.
4 or 5 days later could be eggs or just not noticed.
Either way there is no harm done in my mind about mentioning who the animal was purchased from.
Should another mod wish to remove or ask me to remove the name then it shall be done.
However had a name not been mentioned we all know everyone would be asking to know who the breeder was.

[bcr229]

I have gone to expos and come home with mites but no new critters. I wouldn't point any fingers at the seller, especially if you handled other snakes.

I treat every new snake as if it has mites no matter what the source. I'd rather be pleasantly surprised not to find any than get a nasty shock a few days later. This means that even before the snake comes into the house the enclosure, hides, paper for substrate, etc. has been pre-treated with PAM/NIX/RID/Permethrin, making QT an inhospitable environment for mites. Also, before putting the new arrival into its QT enclosure it gets wiped down with a white paper towel moistened with Reptile Spray; that's the first thing I do when it comes out of the box if it's been shipped. If the snake has mites the little so-and-so's likely will show up on the paper towel.

[tbowman]

I'll definitely be doing some preventative maintenance in the future. I guess I was just not aware of how common these things really are.

As has been pointed out, I'm not putting the blame on the seller. This is a captive hatched blood python and not captive bred. I don't believe the guy does much breeding of anything. He gave me his card which says on it "Captive Born and imports" Which leads me to believe he has a multitude of different animals of different species coming in and out of his possession at any time. I would have liked to get a Captive bred animal but unfortunately there weren't many options.

[tbowman]

How often is this stuff safe to use on your snake? I know the bottle says no more than at three day intervals, wondering if anyone has had any bad experience with using it more often?