# Help, with my Brooks King Snake.



## Gemm (Jul 7, 2009)

Hi,
 Wondered if anyone could help??
Right, i got my snake a few months ago and he's lovely. Really active, and always wanting to be out and in the centre of attention. But a few weeks before his last shed, he stopped eating. It has been about 10-12 weeks so far, that he hasn't eaten. And im ovbiously worried as he's never had problems before. 
 The other day i was changing his water, and noticed little bugs in the dust off his woodchip, in the bottom corners of his viv, so i moved it around and realised there was loads!! So i thought id better disinfect it all. I disinfected a storage box, filled it with water, and put him in so i could clean out his tank, i disinfected everything, the woodchip, the bark, his little cave, plants etc.. Disinfected the tank, laid newspaper in it till everything had dried. When everything was dry, i put it all back. And the other day when i was checking to see if there was any more of those little bugs, (they were a greyish colour, blended in with woodchip well, very hard to see). I looked at a piece of bark, and noticed a black spider. I tried to squash it, but it ran into the bark, so i took it out straight away. But also, there were little black, headlice looking bugs. Two in his water bowl, that were jumping like flea's and one on the side of his viv. 
 I also seen the spiders in his tank before, on another peice of bark, so i got rid of it and thought nothing of it until now. 
 Can anyone help?
 Thanks


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## ben-j (Aug 3, 2009)

i think there mites, my boa got them before i got some stuff of my vet disinfected the viv everyday and soaked him in cooking oil to drown them it made him go dull bt he was back ok after about 3 sheds.just make sure you wash your hands brfore and after to stop spreading it to other snakes


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## TNH (Mar 17, 2010)

as above they sound like mites but i didnt use cooking oil, all i done was soak my crb in warm water, and dissinfect the viv every day, then kept her on kitchen roll for few weeks, that should sort out ur problem, mites will make ur snake loose his/her appetite and can also cause thier colouring to fade a bit, this will all come back once u have cured the mite infestation!
hope this helps


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