3/14/2015 Juvenile Chlamydosaurus Kingii

New Guinea Frilled Dragon.

 

This poor guy has mites under his frill. This is a good example of why it is good to take frequent photos of your reptiles (or perform frequent inspections of their bodies). I never would have noticed the mites under his frill otherwise.

 

For those of you with a mite problem. Here is a suggestion. Please note this is only a suggestion. I am not a veterinarian.

 

Remove your Dragons from the enclosure. Remove all the substrate, branches, etc...from the enclosure.

 

Clean the enclosure.

 

Bake the substrate for ~3 hours at 200 -250 degrees (If you are replacing your substrate, it would still be a good idea to bake it).

 

Clean the Branches and other items you removed from the enclosure.

 

Place newspaper or paper towels on the floor of your enclosure. Do not place the substrate back in the enclosure yet.

 

Place your Dragon in a bucket of warm water deep enough to submerge is body but shallow enough so his head remains above water. makes sure his frill gets submerged and use a cotton swab to remove any mites from under his frill. The mites should attempt to crawl towards the un-submerged parts of his head. Do not leave your Dragon unattended while he is soaking.

 

After a good soaking and removal of all visible mites with a cotton swab (you may need to repeat this multiple times), place your dragon back in the enclosure. Check him for mites over the next week and if there do not appear to be any on him, replace the cleaned / baked substrate and branches.

 

Hope this helps :-)

Done