Reptile & Amphibian Forums

today i picked feeders from a person who seemed to be very knowledgable about all kinds of reptiles and animals. he breeds rats and i noticed that some of the rats had what looked like some kind of mites on them. i asked him and he said they were wood mites and that they will not harm my snakes. does anyone have any information??? is this common when breeding rats???
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2.4 Normal Ball Pythons
1.1 Pastel Ball Pythons (Graziani line)
1.0 Spider ball
1.1 Red tail Columbian Boas
4.3 Bearded Dragons
African Cichlids

If the cages are nasty, they will come, but they dont harm snakes.

so should i be worried at all??? could the effect anything else???
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2.4 Normal Ball Pythons
1.1 Pastel Ball Pythons (Graziani line)
1.0 Spider ball
1.1 Red tail Columbian Boas
4.3 Bearded Dragons
African Cichlids

I was feeding one of my snakes and as the snake constricted it I noticed a fat black dot come out of the rats fur. By the next morning he was soaking and I saw the mites in the water when I pulled him out.
I treated him and the rest of my snakes and it was gone.
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If they are rodent mites they won't bother your snakes, but they sure will bother you! Good luck! John Meltzer

Rats can carry several types of external parasites. The common one, if if I remember correctly are rat lice. These pose no threat to your snakes or yourself but can be annoying or harmful to the rat. If in a huge population, they can drain alot of blood from the rat which may lower their nutritional value some, but I really don't think it would be an issue in the long run.

For more info, try doing a google search on rat parasites or rat lice