Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I apologize for th bad pic, but it's the best I can get.
I bought some rat pups from a local reptile store. I had the clerk kill them then I took them home and froze them.
Well when I thawed them today I noticed a lot of specks of them. After further examination I've decided that they are some sort of parasite (This is from over 4 years of Vet. Tech. experience). They are all the same color, Red with a dark red spot, and about the same size. They are pretty small, smaller than what I think reptile mites are, just from the descriptions I've read, never seen them in person, thankfully.
They've been in the freezer for a few weeks, so I'm pretty sure they were all dead, but I'm stil concerned...
2 of my snakes are still making the transition over to f/t so they get live...
I've thrown the rats away, but am still concerned.

1. If they are the mites that snakes can get, can they get them from their prey, the live ones.

2. Could the frozen ones not be dead?

3. Could they be something else? Rodent-only mites?

The funny thing is that I'm getting ready to start up an ASF colony so I could avoid this. The reptile show is on the 31st, and I have everything together, just waiting to add ASF's.

I've pointed out 4 of the larger ones on this photo, but there were probably 12-20 on this rat (This was the one with the most)
Again I apologize for the poor quality...

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Corvid
"Look Like An Innocent Flower, But Be The Serpent Under It." ~William Shakespeare
0.1 Normal
1.0 Spider
0.1 Pastel (maybe het for pied - We'll see!)
1.0 Het Pied

Those are rodent lice, not dangerous to reptiles even if they were still alive. Rodents also get mites, but these too are not able to infect snakes. Remember, parasites are generally quite host-specific. particularly when you are dealing with animals as distantly related as mammals and reptiles. Reptile mites come only from other reptiles.
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Brad Chambers
WWW.HCU-TX.ORG

The Avalanche has already started-it is too late for the pebbles to vote....