Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hello all,
As I mentioned before I used to be into the hobby really deep. Now I'm coming back to the hobby. It seems like alot of things have changed since my leaving Herp keeping. It's crazy nowadays you can get a humidity guage! LOL! back in my day we simply would put a damp towel in the hide box to raise humindity. Or putting a submersible aquarium heater in a jar of water and cranking it up. Those methods where so crude but that's all we had. I know I used to take olive oil soaked towel three times a year over the body of my snakes to it seemed to help alot with preventing of mites and/or tics. It would make the old skin much to flexible to get a good solid shed afterward. But you would not believe how it helped with the health of the skin! But of course those old methods are crude and less then totally safe.Over do it in any area and those old methods could cost you a snake or cause skin infections. So I was wondering if there are some products out that I should be looking at? please weigh in I have a very open mind. Thanks in advance.

Provent a mite is the best product on the market that is approved for use with reptiles. Its important to use it as directed and not applied directly on the snake. If your snake does not have mites I certainly would not treat it. I've found retics and burms to be sensitive to any chemicals. So if it ain't broke, don't fix it. As for the olive oil don't use it unless you are making ceasar salad