That is interesting Todd. I have never found a snake here in Maryland that had obvious signs of parasites. (mites,ticks, ect.) I am sure they have some internal parasite loads but to date I have not had one get sick or show symptoms of this. As far as feeding w/c food to my snakes I only do that as a last resort and I have had time when they would only take LIVE w/c prey as well. Still, these snake seemed fine and two years ago I took one of these snakes to the vet to get some atibiotics for a URI and they did a fecal test. No visible parasites. I also think husbandry plays a big role in how these animals deal with any parasites that they might ingest.(as you also stated) I have talked to at least one herper who used to live in CA and he stated that some of the w/c he would come across were loaded with ticks and mites and he has not come across any in MD that had this issue. Many of the mountain kings species are started on scented items and if these were not DEEP frozen for a long time or cooked then parasites are surely passed to these hatchlings. Given the proper temps I think they deal with it.

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