This is the answer i Was looking for
Ensure that the snake had a complete full shed. Mites attack skin and some parts can retain on snake.
Check the snakes underside, tail and head for any skin remaining.To many animals get shed skin still left on their tails and end up with amputation and stumpy tails.
check headpeice of shed and look for both eye caps (brille) are there.
This are your posted answers.
staffsrule
I think what you should check for when snake has shed after having mites is that it is a complete shed. Cause mites cause damage to the snakes scales it may cause problems in shedding. Mite infestation can also cause shedding as well.
I guess another thing to check for would be the presence of mites still on the snake as well. Particuarly in under the chin and around the mouth, under the anal plate etc. Mites have cycles and often one treatment is not enough to completley rid the snake of mites. There still my be mite eggs in the enclosure etc, that can hatch and re infest the snake.
infestations of mites are known as acariasis and can be one of the gretest killers of captive snakes.
Staffsrule.
Junglemad
First thing i would do is wrap the shed skin up and burn it or put it in the garbage bin after spraying it with insecticide.
http://www.vpi.com/9VPITipsAndTechs/thewaragainstsnakemites/Mites-TheBattlePlan.htm
here is where i found my answer.
Mites were around before the invention of these chemicals and they will be around for years to come. In the old days mites were controlled with water. It still works today. Mites drown in water so soak the snake until all the mites drown in soapy water. The soap is the key, it reduces the surface tension of the water and makes the water and the snake wetter so the mites drown quicker.
Place the snake in a container with water just deep enough that the snake can barely submerge when resting on the bottom. An inexpensive five or ten gallon aquarium will work great for most snakes. A plastic 30 or 39 gallon trash can is good for fairly big snakes. RubberMaid makes a great inexpensive 50 gallon plastic storage box thats adequate for snakes up to 14-17 feet in length. Remember, were not talking very much water for a small snake. When soaking snakes, dont make the water so deep that the snakes have to swim to be able to breathe; they may become exhausted and drown. Its important to regulate the temperature of the bath of the snake so that it does not chill below the normal temperature to which the snake is accustomed. For most snakes, water temperature of 80-84 0F is a good range. Dont guess the temperature, measure it.
After the period of soaking, we check around the eyes of snakes to see if there are any mites surviving there--they may have been high and dry throughout the soak if the snake has kept his head out of the water. If we feel there may be mites high and dry around the eyes of a snake that is soaking, we will wipe some dilute soap around the margin of the snake's eyes. With a cotton swab, one also can wipe a little Vaseline into the space around the margin of the eyes of a snake; the "grease" of Vaseline will asphyxiate any mites present or that wander in later.
Soaking may not be possible if the snake is ill or uncoordinated, or for any reason seems at risk for drowning. Soaking may not be a good idea if the snakes are in their wintering period and are at cool ambient temperatures when the mite are discovered.
Treating a Snake Cage for Mites
Getting mites off a snake is easy. But it requires some effort to exterminate the mites in the cage of the snake. It is necessary to consider two points to successfully get rid of mites from an infested cage. First, all five life-stages of mites are probably in the snake cage, while only two of the life-stages are on the snake. Mites take nourishment from snakes in the form of blood meals. But then mites usually drop off a snake and go walking around to find a mate or some suitable other place to lay eggs. Often mites climb up the cage sides, stopping at the first corner, knothole, or seam to deposit eggs.
The second point to consider is that mite eggs may be more difficult to find and kill than the mites. In fact, when battling mites it's best to assume that some eggs will survive all your efforts and hatch out. Its no big deal as long as you realize the eggs usually hatch in 1-4 days and you take appropriate measures to be ready for them.
Now put on your latex gloves and get to work while the snake is soaking. Use a 1.5% Neguvon spray to wet the area around the infested cage, where you are about to work. Clean every thing out of the cage. If youve been using aspen bedding, bark chips, mulch or some similar substrate, dump it or carefully scoop it into a trash can, making as little dust as possible. [Any dust you create will possibly carry with it nymphal mitesdont spread your problem.] Put a moth ball in the trash can, tie the trash bag shut and get it as far from your snake collection as you can. Throw away everything thats not plastic, glass, metal or ceramic. Take everything that you are saving to reuse in the cage, such as the water bowl and hide box, and soak it in a strong disinfectant solution. We use Basic G as our disinfectant. A 10% bleach solution will work just fine.
Wash out the cage with a strong disinfectant solution, scrub it thoroughly top and bottom, every corner and nook. Most good disinfectants regularly used in cage maintenance will kill mites of any age on contact. We use Basic G (from Shaklee) mixed at oz per gallon. A 10% bleach solution can be used. Then, while the cage is still wet, take a soft bristled brush and scrub the inside and the outside of the cage. Carefully scrub the corners and seams and other possible egg laying sites. On a light-colored surface, the eggs of one female mite will appear as a tiny, tan smudge, almost invisible to the unaided eye. Often many female mites will lay their eggs in the same location. The first wash may not dislodge the eggs and the disinfectant may not kill the eggs, but the eggs are easily scrubbed free with some elbow grease and a brush. They can then be washed out of the cage.
Rinse and dry the cage. No mites should be present in your cage or on your snake at this point in your treatment. When the snake has completed his soak, put him back in his scrubbed cage. But, making the conservative assumption that, no matter what, a few mite eggs may remain behind, place the appropriate amount of pest strip in the cage for at least a week. In actual practice, we keep pest strips in the cage for three weeks. At this time, according to the battle plan, there are no mites on the snake or inside the cage--what were trying to do is block the return of any mites that may return from outside the cage. It only takes a single virgin female mite to start another infestation.
REMEMBER, snakes exposed to too high concentrations of fumes from pest strips will suffer a variety of problems, including anorexia, convulsions and death.
Treating the Snake Room for Mites
There is that last set of mites that you must consider to effect the total eradication of mites from your collection. If your snake has mites, then your snake room likely has mites. Mites, even pregnant female mites, sometimes leave your snake cage and walk around. A pregnant mite can travel dozens of feet in an hour. At that rate a mite can probably walk several times around your snake room in one night. They're certainly capable of changing cages on their own power.
When mites travel, they tend to avoid light, climb upwards, and move toward the scent of snakes. They have an amazing chemosensory ability to detect the odors of snakes. If they have gotten out of the cage with a known infestation, they likely are headed toward another one of your snake cages like tiny little black vampire bloodhounds.
Here are some suggestions for treating a mite problem in your snake room: First, protect any non-snake animals that may be sensitive to some of the chemicals youve used. Take out of the room any tarantulas, scorpions, hissing roaches, food crickets, birds, fish, small frogs, or small lizards. Remain vigilant and be on the lookout for the mites to crop up in other cages. Carefully check your other snakes' water bowls, looking for that single little fleck of black pepper that tells you the enemy is there. You will almost always find a soggy mite or two drowned in a water bowl before you see them on a snake.
After you have cleaned your infested ages, bring in your vacuum cleaner or wet/dry vacuum, first suck up a couple of moth balls into the dust bag, and then carefully vacuum the entire snake room. Carefully vacuum around each snake cage. This is especially important if you have a carpeted snake room (better known as a spare bedroom.) Vacuum the room every day for a week.
After the first vacuuming session, spray a fine mist of 1.5% Neguvon all around your room, around the infested cage(s), the baseboards, the tops of cages and racks, the undersides of shelves, all over any carpet, and especially around other snake cages. We use a 1-gallon or 2-gallon garden sprayer. Just the lightest spray will do, you don't have to soak the carpet. Neguvon smells like pesticide and I don't know that I would use it in a bedroom/snake room--but it works. Repeat the spraying in three days, and then again in a week. Put one moth ball in your snake room trash container, take out the trash in sealed garbage bags every day.
You can spray 1.5% Neguvon in the snake cages nearest to the infested cages, even spraying the snakes in their cages. However, be careful, some snakes may react badly to Neguvon; don't get carried away. Put appropriate-sized pieces of pest strips in those cages, and keep them fresh for three weeks.
We have heard from friends and read on the forums that some of the new commercially-available mite sprays and treatments are effective. We have experience with only a few and found them to be ineffective. Some are very dangerous to snakes when used inappropriately.
There's nothing particularly difficult about getting rid of mites, which is not to say that it's fun or quick. Snake mites are well-designed to thrive in captive snake collections, so it takes a good battle plan, some work, and some disciplined follow-through to eradicate them. Anyone who's had mites in their collection has learned the value of proactively treating new snakes for mites and then quarantining them for at least a couple of weeks.
Southy
ensure that the snake had a complete full shed, check the snakes underside, tail and head for any skin remaining, if not complete shed, soak the animal in water, not enough for the snake to accidently drown in and snake should be watched as too much water could lead to skin rot down the track, then genly peel excess skin off, to many animals get shed skin still left on their tails and end up with amputation and stumpy tails. also check headpeice of shed and look for both eye caps (brille) are there, if not, remove most of the stickiness from a piece of tape by pressing and removing it from a clean surface,then lightly touch the snake's eye with the tape, trying to grab the brille cap and remove it,moistening the eyecap with water or mineral oil first may help. if the eye piece is left, blindness and infections could become of this.
southy
robbo
my answer to qustion 7 is
once the snake has shed you should check the shed skin for any mites than check the snake especially around the eyes and anal scale for them
then i would carry on with the treatmet i am using to get rid of the mites til their breeding cycal has been broken
robbo
Soulweaver
Your snakes was infestated by mites. Snake just shed his skin. What you should check after shed in this situation.
After your snake has shed, you should check to see the eyes have shed as well. Mites burrow into the cavities around the eyes, causing the eye skin not to shed with the rest of the body.
Also check the cage for mites that maybe still alive and can jump back on the snake. They often hide in small dark places within the cage make-up.
JandC_Reptiles
QUESTION: Your snakes was infestated by mites. Snake just shed his skin. What you should check after shed in this situation.
ANSWER: I presume the entire collection, enclosures & the Herp room itself have already been treated than? We will assume that the above have in-deed been treated using EG: Top Of Descent or Orange medic & the animals have been quaruntined:
After an animal has shed (in this case 1 snake) I would be looking for signs of any straggling mites that may have been retained or new mites that may have hatched from their eggs that were not removed earlier. Majority of the the harder to get mites or freshly hatched mites may well of been sluffed off along with the shed skin, However it is better to be safe than sorry so I would do this treatment regardless. A final inspection is well worth the effort also. If there is any retained mites they will be at the surface of the new skin in easy to get spots & may be seen. A liberal rub down of the animal with a towel moistened with mineral oil should eradicate them. Once finished rubbing the snake down I would return it to its enclosure in the Quaruntine room (disinfected & sterile condition) After another 10 days in the quaruntine enclosure I would rub down the above mentioned snake once again, completely disinfect its vivariums (collection & quaruntine) then repeat the origin!
al treatment for mite removal (whether you used Top of Descent - Orange medic etc on the animal, & its quarters) Once this has been completed & assuming you have treated the enclosures in both the Herp collection room & the Herp quaruntine room whilst treating the infected snake, it will now be safe to return the animal back to the Herp room.
Score for question 7
Staffsrule 2 and 1/2
Junglemad 1
Southy 3
robbo 1/2
soulweaver 2 and 1/2
JandC_Reptiles 1/2
score after 7th round.
steve6610 1
JandC_Reptiles 11 and half
craig.a.c 1
OuZo 3
soulweaver 12
staffsrule 7 and half
Dicco 9 and half
danep 5
munkee 1
newtosnakes 2
jonno 1
southy 12 and half
junglemad 12
westaussie 1
olivehydra 10
BUCK 1
Memphis_Tank 1
robbo 6
Kahn_10 3
