I'm thinkin my hatchling corn snake has come down with a case of mites but I'm not sure. She's apx. 4 months and I've never had a reptile before so I'm a clueless novice. I've noticed that it looks like she has pieces of bedding in her eyelid, but that's not possible since her skin covers her eyes. Is this an indication of mites? I've also noticed that she seems to have darker coloration inside her skin folds around her neck. (she's albino so it's easy to see the discoloration). Is that the mites hiding out inside her skin? One last thing, her chin/neck area is a little wrinkled -- does that mean she's dehydrated too? I love her so much! She is rad! I can't bear the thought of her being ill. I've heard that olive oil is a good treatment for mites... Is that true? Does anyone have any advice? Please help us.
I don't have experience with mites but two posts down there is some info on how to get rid of them. Looks like you'll need some mite spray and need to spray the entire tank. Here's a link to that post if you do think it's mites. http://www.reptilerooms.com/forumtopic-6663.html I believe if it's mites you can look at your hands after handling your snake and you should be able to see them moving around. I also think you can take a piece of white paper or paper towel and lay your snake on it. Chances are you'll see the mites crawling. They are tiny but visible if you look real close. I'm not positive but I don't think the mites actually imbed themselves inside the skin so I doubt if the dark coloration is that. She may be dehydrated. Are the wrinkles just around the neck? Do any of the scales look dimpled because that can be a sign of dehydration. Do you have clean water always available? Is the water dish large enough for your snake to soak if it wants to? You can help dehydration by giving her a good soak. You can also add a humidity hide to your tank which is basically a small container with a hole cut into the side with damp moss inside. I do not have any experience with cornsnakes and the info I used is true for a lot of snakes but I'm not positive it all applies to corns. Hopefully someone else can either back me up or correct me.
