Mites...

[Belinda]

My coastal has lately been sleeping curled up in his full water bowl...Does that mean he has mites or a parasite of some kind?

Cheers


P.S Happy New Year everyone!

 

[marc]

no not really most pythons like to bath every know and then, after the snake has got out check the bowl for any mites just to be sure you will be able to see them very easy....look for the little black dots with legs

 

[Fuscus]

Also check around the eye and let the animal slide through your hand, some mites may rub off onto your hand.
It also could just be the season and warm weather. I've been doing a lot of soaking myself and I am fairly certain that I don't have mites

 

[Belinda]

Lol....Ok, so what do i do if he has mites?

 

[Fuscus]

There are a number of threads on this site re mite treatment, including another current one called (wait for it) "Mites".
Hey Slatly, We should have a FAQ on mites as this seems to be a recurrent theme.

 

[kevyn]

I dilute one bottle of Nix (lice shampoo) in a gallon of water. Then I mist the snake heavily with the Nix solution and thoroughly clean everything the snake has touched with Nix solution and anti-bacterial soap. Clean everything. I use news paper as a substrait so not to give any mites a place to hide or lay eggs, and that way it's easier to see how successful you were with the cleaning. If done right this should kill them all in one shot. You may want to repeat this whole procedure in 7-10 days just to be sure. The bad news is if one snake has mites, they all do. Best of luck, they are a really pain in the a$$. Great why to start the new year huh?