Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hey guys,

I need help. I was cleaning my pinstripe's cage today and when I removed the water bowl I found this black stuff underneath of the water bowl.

First off the black stuff was only underneath the waterbowl, but five possibilities came to mind. Mold, Mites, Rubbed Paper Towl, Plastic shavings from the rack, or Ceramic from the Ceramic Bowl.

My Thoughts on the Mold: The mold I guess makes a little bit of since, but it's only been about 10 days since last cleaned. And if it were mold I would think that it would have grown to other areas in the tub.

My Thoughts on Mites: I really don't think that it's mites because I checked the snake real well before I put it back in the cleaned tub and there were no signs on the belly, around the eyes, or my hands and I wore white gloves to be extra sure.

My Thoughts on Rubbed Paper Towl: This kinda makes since because the paper towl was wet underneath the bowl and paper towl can get nasty when its wet and something rubs back and forth across it, but I'm finding it really hard to believe that the snake went back and forth across the paper towel enough to rub wet paper towl off. Although she was pretty active this week.

My Thoughts on Ceramic: This one makes the most sense to me. I use cheap ceramic water dishes from the dollar store as my water dishes. I could see the black ceramic rubbing off, but the only thing that makes no sense about this is that there's no sign of it being rubbed of on the water bowl. And none of my other cages show signs of this.

My Thoughts on the shavings: This is about exactly what the black stuff looked like if you've ever received a new plastic rack system, but I'm positive that I wiped the cage out well before I introduced here to the tub. Plus even if I missed some, why would and how would they have all concentrated underneath the water bowl?

Anyway I cleaned the cage out extremely well with cleaner and disinfectant. I'm really looking forward to what everyone has to say. For now I'll sit back patiently and see what happens next week when I clean.

Thanks,
Mike

Tried to put pictures in through HTML, but didsn't work. Now I'll try with the code thing at the bottom.

It's mold that grows under the water dish due to the dampness and humidity. I use ceramic water bowls on paper towel for juvenile balls and I always see this. I regularly soak the water bowls, bottom down, in bleach water to remove the blackened bottoms due to this mold. I don't think it is harmful in any way to the animals, mine have been fine.

Susan Sentman
SSNAKES Reptiles

Good deal. Thank you very much for your input. I hope your right on it not being harmful. I wonder why it hasn't shown up in any other of my cages. The other cages get cleaned a little more regularly. She's new and I could be wrong but I try to clean her out just a little less often. I clean all my regular snakes every Wednesday. I've been leaving her alone unless the odor gets bad.

I clean my juveniles weekly too, so this tells us the mold will grow in less than one week. All other, larger and breeder animals are kept in Freedom Breeder units under shredded aspen. I never see the mold in the Freedom Breeders with aspen. It must be something that occurs in a more confined space under paper towels. Any one have input?

>>I clean my juveniles weekly too, so this tells us the mold will grow in less than one week. All other, larger and breeder animals are kept in Freedom Breeder units under shredded aspen. I never see the mold in the Freedom Breeders with aspen. It must be something that occurs in a more confined space under paper towels. Any one have input?

Mold spore will remain on the "ceilings" of the rack so if you have a peticular slot that seems to harbor more than the others just wipe it out with some lysol and let it air out some before putting a tub back in.
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Charles Glaspie
picasaweb.google.com/coldthumb

Great tip... I can't believe I didn't think of that. It's amazing the stuff that will slip your mind when you're focused on something else.

I may not have wiped that out when I put the animal in two almost three weeks ago. But I'm absolutely positive that I wiped the tops out of the other six levels when I put those animals in. I wonder if that's the reason for the mold in the first place.

I just realized when I was reading about Chlorhexadine, which is the disinfectant that I use to clean my cages, and read that it is effective in killing fungus.

I put little rubber "feet" on the bottom of my water bowls there only about 1/8 to 1/4 in. tall just enough so the bowls don't touch the paper. I have'nt seen any more mold.