Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have mixed feelings this morning. I have had my older ball over a year and a half. She is wonderful. I have never had any problems with her except that she is about two years old now and hasn't eaten in a month. From what I read that is the norm so I will just offer her food every other week and see what happens. I am sure when she starts again she will be back to her normal pig self and eat anything and everything offered.

She isn't who I have the mixed feelings about though....On 2/10 my hubby bought me a new baby for V Day. I checked this baby out from front to back, top to bottom. I couldn't see anything on it at all. The baby ate on 2/17. She ate very well! I didn't attempt to feed her on 2/24 because she was in shed. Welll overnight last night she shed. Almost all in one piece. Great I though because she was from a pet store. Usually the first few sheds aren't great when from a pet store. But while checking her out this morning I got a little round dark bug on my hand. I am taking this to be a mite. So I inspected closer....her water dish didn't have anything in it that I can see, just some bark shavings. Then I inspected her closer and there is one in her 'heat pit'. I am not sure the proper term for that area. But above her lip on the left side the one closest to the center there is a dark little bug in there. How could I not have seen these before? How do I get it out of there? Tonight I am going to remove her bark and put in a bag and microwave as seen on here recommended to do. But I can't get to town to a store that will sell PAM until Saturday if then. I have some reptile relief and cage cleaner spray from before when I thought I had mites with an old ball years ago. Should I use that for the time being?

The other thing is that my sister was here over the weekend and she held my big girl in the same room as the baby. There was no contact between here and the baby's tank or anything but what are the chances that the big girl will have them now too?

On a side note I weighed the baby this morning after shedding and she weighs 168 grams.

Sorry this is so long....thanks in advance for replies!
~April

Wow, you;re lucky to have a store nearby that sells PAMite; I always have to order it online. That stuff is THE way to go if you found mites.. good call!
Mites are not the end of the world; I'd vouch that almost everyone has had them in their collections at least once (I know I have had, twice, in the past 5 years.) A new snake; a bag of substrate; handling a friend's snake or one at a store; lots of things can bring them in and it does not make you a bad keeper unless you don't treat them!
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Frogs: 2.3 African Clawed (2.3 albino.) 0.1.1 Albino Horned Frogs, one pre 1999, one this year's. Also: 5.4 ball pythons (one spider, one pastel.) 1.0 Boa Constrictor Imperator. 0.0.3 rat snakes, 0.2 horses (paint mares) 1.0 black cat, 1.0 fiancee'. And a ton of freshwater fish.

Yep go ahead and use the reptile relief, it's pretty handy stuff. Obviously, read the label, if I remember correctly you should not use it more often than every 3 days or at least 6 days after a shed (I could be wrong though, check).

If you scroll down a bit you'll see the thread about slapnutz's mite encounter, there's good information there too.

You probably will want to switch to papertowel for the time being (or newspaper, I just like papertowel more). A lukewarm soak for 10 minutes might also help you see if there's any other mites hiding anywhere. Change the papertowel everyday and wipe down the cage with cage cleaner or bleach solution to kill any mites that get off the snake.

Your other snake probably won't get the mites, especially if your friend didn't touch the baby before the big one, and as long as you wash up inbetween. I've yet to bring home mites to my critters, and while I was at the petstore we had multiple outbreaks.

Congratz on getting your baby to shed almost in one complete piece! That IS quite an accomplishment straight from the pet store, especially with the beginning of mites.

~jenny
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1.2.2 normal ball pythons (Cindy, Darwin, Periscope, and dah bebbies)
0.2 rescue chinese water dragons (Yoni and Linga)
1.0 rex rat (Scurvy)
1.0 gerbil (Yerbul)
0.1 mice (Cute Girl Mousy)
0.1 bunny (Spazz)
1.1 betta fishes (Vicious and Killer)
2.2 great danes (Shasta, Odysseus, Merlot, and Watson)
1.0 fat fuzzy mutt (Smokey)
1.1 cats (Thidwick and Turtle)
3.0 horses (Buddy, Sam, and Scout)
1.0 goat (Billy Jack)
0.0.1 chupacabra (it ate our chickens)

jenny.thegreenes.org

Hi ! Yes use the reptile relief and get rid of the bark it is notorious for harboring mites and letting them get started in the first place . Good luck David of DS Reptile Rescue

Thanks for all the encouragement that I haven't done anything wrong. The reptile coconut husk that I have her bedded with was bought at the same time as that in with my bigger girl. She hasn't had any problems. This baby was only bought just over two weeks ago so I think she brought them in and I just didn't see them until she shed last night.

~April