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#1stunner · #1 (**permalink**) 10-29-2002, 01:24 AM

is it good to put oil on snakes i did before but someone told me it was bad
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JuliusSqueezer · #2 (**permalink**) 10-29-2002, 01:42 AM

For what reason? It is good to use to rub on small patches of bad shed or retained eye caps....but is not good to just rub them down for no reason. Skin needs to breathe and absorb moisture. A layer of oil prevents this and they will dehydrate. It can kill young snakes fairly quick as they seem to dehydrate faster than adults.
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LdyDrgn · #3 (**permalink**) 10-29-2002, 02:24 AM

I use it to treat for mites. Snake gets an 'oil bath'... look in the care sheets for instructions. As long as you wash it off when done, no harm is done. I use the veggie oil instead of the mineral oil.

If to help with shedding, higher humidity is your best bet. But I've heard of people putting a little bit of vitamin E oil in the misting water and spraying that on the snakes. Don't know how much of a good idea that is, though.

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telefrag · #4 (**permalink**) 10-29-2002, 02:34 AM

I can just imagine oil'ing up a really fast nervous snake, and trying to keep ahold of it.

I just picture those silly "watersnake" balloon things they used to sell at fairs.

HAHHAHAHAHA!

ok, im done being dumb. [img]modules/Forum/images/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif[/img]
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#1stunner · #5 (**permalink**) 10-29-2002, 02:52 AM

i used it to treat mites and it worked good so i thought puttin it on all the others would keep mites off them
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Ophiophagus-hannah · #6 (**permalink**) 10-29-2002, 02:58 AM

I don't know about snakes, but it sure taste good with my fried chicken! [img]modules/Forum/images/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif[/img]
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LdyDrgn · #7 (**permalink**) 10-29-2002, 03:18 AM

Keeping oil on the snakes in order to keep mites off is NOT a good idea. Only way to keep the mites off the snakes is to make sure the enclosures are clean and to feed f/t prey and wash your hands before and after handling EACH snake. There will always be the chance that you've been in a petstore handling one of theirs, going home and touching your animals or not washing up and having it travel from you to the snake's enclosure.
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JuliusSqueezer · #8 (**permalink**) 10-29-2002, 03:20 AM

it will drown most of the mites but really isn't 100% effective because mites will also get in the eyes, nostrils, vent, heat pits if applicable and lay eggs. Sure most if not all of the adult mites will die but the eggs will still hatch out and so the problem is ongoing. Plus a mite only spends about 10% of it's life on a host animal. There are still mites in the cage to contend with. It is far less work to open a cage....remove the snake and water bowl. Spray a couple of poofs of proventamite or comparible .5% permetherin spray (ie: rid or sawyer's tick spray) into the cage....wait a couple of hours and put the snake and water bowl back in. Repeat in a couple of weeks. No messy oil....no substrate change....no bleaching. just poof poof all done. I would chop off my own head if I had to oil mites off of my entire collection.
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XzyluM · #9 (**permalink**) 10-29-2002, 09:56 AM

I've known mineral oil is good to treat mites, is "vegetable oil" working the same? Or am I missing something? [img]modules/Forum/images/smiles/icon_confused.gif[/img]
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