Something eating my rats ears

[Seaborne]

Remember with carbodust you cant use those rats as feeders till the mites has cleared up. also you need to not feed them to your snakes for a month after as it has to clear out their system.

[Durban Keeper]

Does eating rats with these mites on effect the snake in any way?

If you put carbodust under the shavings is it unsafe to feed them to the snakes or not. Some info seems contradicting.

Thanks. Dean

[snake kid]

Yes that is something bothering me as well. If I use Ivomac I know I can use the rats straight away but what about carbadust? How long do I have to wait before I can use my rats to feed?

[monopeltis]

pre kill and freeze what ever you need to last the month. Then treat.

[snake kid]

My problem is I don't have enough rats at the moment. I have been placing adds lately, but I live to far from civilization (man that took long to figure out how to spell it) so getting them here is a problem. But i suppose I can feed chicken necks for a month and add a mouse here and there for extra nutrition.

[Cronje Rademan]

Hi Snake kid
The mites won't affect your snakes when feeding them the infected rats. But the problem is the well being of your breeding colony. Mine has doubled production after they were healthy again. These mites is really irritating to them and it is also very itchy to your rats which causes stress and it then reduce the breeding rate. In worst cases they can scratch their ears, noses and tails to pieces. It looks like you still have a mild infection. I had a serious infection with mine and they had badly miss-formed noses, ears and their tails had almost no skin left. And the worst of it all was when I bought my first breeding stock from a pet shop they already looked like that.
I have consulted my vet before I started treatment with frontline. He suggested I use the spray type frontline. I had to wet a piece of cotton wool almost to the point of dripping and lightly dab the affected areas like the ears, noses and tails (these mites only affect bare skin). This is only a once off treatment and the results were visible within days.
You also have to disinfect your housing properly every time when you clean them. I used the same frontline spray and F10 disinfectant. I washed the cages with a F10 water solution and then sprayed the cages with frontline, waited until the frontline dried up and put the rats back.
As you know the downside is you can't feed out of your colony. If you have extra rats to pre-freeze like monopeltis suggested do so. I'm sure the freezing will also kill the mites. My mice colony took a big hit while I was treating my rats, with some snakes having to take 10 to 15 mice at a time. I also had to buy some extra food for the time being.
As a precuationary measure to avoid future infections I've doubled my cleaning routine to twice a week, and once a week i disinfect the cages with a basic disinfectant like dettol or savlon
I'm sure by the time the waiting period is over, you'll have plenty of young rats ready to be fed.

[Cronje Rademan]

I know exactly your predicament. I have the same situation, the closest place where I can find food is 60km and if they don't have I have to travel 120km to get some. My poor snakes were also put on a diet for for the period I had to treat the rats, with them only getting a few titbits every week. The chicken necks idea is one I didn't think of.

[snake kid]

Your'e one of the lucky ones I have to travel about 450km to get rats and mice in the quantities that I need them.

[snake kid]

Jipee Carbadust worked like a charm, just put it under the shavings every time I cleaned and whala the ears are almost looking normal again. Thanks for all your help people.

[Cronje Rademan]

Hi Snake Kid
Glad to hear. I'm sure once your rats are 100% healthy you can stop with the treatment. I have never had these problems after I have treated mine and the mites seem to stay away. A regular cleaning regime is the answer to avoid this in the future.
Keep well.

[Bushviper]

A regular cleaning regime is the answer to avoid this in the future.

What is more important is to not allow new individuals into the colony without treating them and also make sure wild rodents dont get near your colony.

[hammies]

I had a supplier of rats and mice a couple of years ago that regularly treated her colonies with carbadust.
The problem is, she sold them on a large scale(+- 2000 a week) to petshops, and as far as I know, they never knew about the carbadust.
My question is now: What effect will it have on the snakes that were fed these rats and mice, literally hours or a day or two after treatment with carbadust?
She assured me at the time that it was completely safe to do so.
To the untrained eye(mine), it did not seem to do any harm to my snakes, but maybe I was just not observant enough.
Or did not know what to look for.
Any comments will be welcomed.

[vdawida]

Hi all, I want to know if these mites are harmful to humans. I clean the cages and my rats are infected with these things. I am a little worried now. I am going to start with the Karbadust tomorrow. And also can you tell me if the Karbadust will affect the snakes at all

[Bushviper]

Unless you have a large colony it is often better to just knock them all off, sterilise the cages and start again with clean stock.

The Karbadust needs to be mixed in with the wood shavings. That should help however it takes quite a while to solve your problem.

What I would do is rather buy Ivomectin which you can get at any co-op. Mix one ml per 500 to 1000 ml of water and just spray the rats with it, making sure each rat gets slightly wet. Even if they drink it off themselves it still cleans out their internal parasites. Wait two weeks and then you can feed the rats to snakes. as with any poisons and medications always read the instructions.

[Reptiles Unlimited]

You can also mist them with Frontline, it kills ear mites perfectly.