Reptile & Amphibian Forums

i have never hard of a snake getting ticks. I know that they get mites, but ticks? This tick was really dug in and i was able to pull it out and look at it. I looks just like the scales on my python, only brighter. My python is a not looking too good. He has not eaten in a week and is discolored. I have tried to feed live and frozen and he wont eat. is it because of the tick? How do i prevent him from getting ticks again, and if he does how to i get rid of them? honestly i was flabbergasted to see a tick on my snake.

Ticks are not that uncommon on wild caught tropicals and sub-tropicals. You may also need to give this wildcaught some amount of time to acclimate before it will begin feeding. This species tends to feed best on smaller fuzzy mice, ones that are smaller than you would normally think to offer.

Kelly

Your snake got that tick from the wild! I've seen Balls imported w/ticks all over, prominently around the head!

I bred Calabars for years. Imported adults aren't all that finicky once started. W/any new imports I would go to my local herpstore and get the nastiest bedding litter from their rat bins and either thaw hopper mice in it or let live hopper mice get soiled by it....fuzzy mice may be easier at first. Many of them refused mice initially but wolfed those "rat scented". of course if you have access to live rat pinks it will probably pound them!

Bill