Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I got some feeders a few days ago and had a leftover. I checked on it today and it is almost dead. I thought maybe it was because it was chilly in the room but it is no cooler than any other part of the house. So I got to looking closer and found these ALL OVER the rat. I bathed it in warm water as I don't know what they are or what I can use to get rid of them. I use critter keeper bedding (torn up paper looking stuff). A few days ago I had a smaller one die but it was in the cage with about 4 other small adults and thought it was due to being picked on.

Any help would be great. Clearly I cleaned the cage just in case but any advice would be great.

Hard to tell from the pic.... Are these "specs" mobile? Possible parasite(lice)? If these are lice it is species specific generally..... If you bathed the rat in warm water and these are lice or mites, the water might have turned orange or red from the parasites fecal material(digested blood) dissolving ....???...

I'll wait for a reply before I assume any further
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Best regards,
AlanColesReptiles

Yes, they were moving. I looked at some pictures and I think it is rat lice. I have no clue where they came from though. I buy from the same person I have been and havn't had any issues. I talked to him today and he says he's not had them in his colony. Have you heard of it coming from the critter keeper bedding before? I'm curious as to where it came from as I can't think of anything other than that.

Very common on rats. You can pick them up from pet stores or any other place they have rats. Not a big deal really. Go to the nearby feed store and get some Ivermec horse wormer (kills all the parasites) give orally the amount of one grain of rice per pound of rat..No need to give it to feeders..the lice wont hurt the snake. You can find all this info online! Treatment should be once every 10 days for 2 to 3 weeks. Clean bedding every week. I wouldnt feed it to feeders without talking with a vet first..not sure if it would be ok for snakes, dont think i would chance it anyway.