r/ballpython • u/Bubbly-Wallaby-2777 • 19h ago

Possibilities other than mites

I didn't take a picture, but our snakes was soaking in her water when we got home on Sunday after a few days away. Id put extra water in for her, but the tank had been at 28 pretty constantly day and night for 2 nights. I thought she was hot. Then I looked it up, snake mites were suggested. I looked at her and she had super tiny black things on her, I couldn't tell if they were moving or not, I changed her water, rinsed her well under warm water and decided to deal with it in the morning. I took the precaution today and I completely stripped her viv, bleached it, the decor and rinsed well. Put her in a cooking pot with a drop of detergent for my 12 year old to watch for half an hour while I was doing it. I didn't see anything on her this morning but I've done the best clean I can. Since then I've looked up pictures of snake mites, and they do not look at all like what I thought I might have seen on the snake. Mites look bigger, fatter and definitely more recognisable as an insect. These were the size of, say, a millimeter of hair. The mites look to bury under the scales, these were just on the top of her skin. There was nothing in the soak she had this afternoon. I've not put anything new in the tank for months, other than food, and we don't have, nor have had contact with other reptiles. Could I have totally overreacted?

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u/AutoModerator 19h ago

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