Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I just bought this nice sized female ball python from someone who didn't want her any more. She's extremely tame and very nice. I plan to try and breed her to my male ball for my first breeding attempt, but as I was holding her the other day I noticed some small black flecks around her head. And since I don't really know what mites look like I'm hoping someone here can identify them.

My two other snakes, the male ball python mentioned above, and a small spotted python, are both mite free as of right now. I did quarantine the new ball python so my other two should be okay.

The flecks are small and range in different sizes and shapes. They do not move when I touch them and she isn't soaking a lot in her water which makes me think they are just black flecks. But rather air on the safe side, here are the pictures.

The picture didn't work. Here's the link to them though.

http://i613.photobucket.com/albums/tt219/Mowloft/IMG_20120409_090109.jpg

http://i613.photobucket.com/albums/tt219/Mowloft/IMG_20120409_090102.jpg

Get a magnifying glass. They are obvious bugs when you look close. They are easy to tell, they move. I'm sure you can find a good picture of a snake mite on google.

Yea they aren't moving at all and all of them haven't moved from where these flecks were from over night so I'm beginning to think they aren't mites. I'll try posting the picture again.
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They don't look like mites to me, just regular black belly marks. Under a madnifying glass they will look like this:

Pictures: This website does not use full HTML code. All you need are

Sans the " marks in the URL, this is the code for the snake mite image above.
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26 year old 0.1 from Lincoln, NE
Ball Pythons - 0.1 Pastel, 1.0 Pastel het Pied, 0.1 Pied, 0.1 Cinn, 1.0 Black Pewter, 1.0 Woma, 0.1 Yellowbelly, 2.1 Normals
Kingsnakes - 1.0 L. m. thayeri, 0.1 L. m. thayeri X L. alterna, 1.0 L. g. californiae
Other - 0.1 Whitesided P. catenifer sayi, 1.0 H. nascicus, ?.? Chrysemys picta, 1.0 husband

Pic of a can of Provent-a-mite and treat a tub. Keep the snake in the tub while it is in quarantine...and go from there.
Honestly, visible mites or not, it doesn't hurt to use preventative measures.
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"What is man without the beasts?
If all the beasts were gone,
men would die from great loneliness of spirit.
For what happens to the beasts,
soon happens to men.
All things are connected."

-Chief Seattle (Duwamish Tribe)

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