Belly scales flaky

[earthwormjim]

My BP is a male, 1270 grams. He has not shed since I have had him. His temps have been fine but his humidity has been a bit low, down to 40. I put a larger dish in his cage and gave him a bath today. I am just wondering what it might be. It is only on his belly scales. He has been eating fine and has not been soaking so I don't think it is mites. The scales are flakey like they are shedding, some of them are wrinkled like pruned skin, and some have light brown edges. I took everything out of his tank and put newspaper down and the bowl of water. I took his hides out as well and covered his entire tank with black paper to give him privacy. Does anyone have any ideas on what it may be, or anything else I can do?

[KMG]

Pics would be very helpful.

I have a few questions.

Is this your first snake?

Have you seen the shed process before?

It you have a under tank heater, is it on a thermostat?

[earthwormjim]

Pics would be very helpful.

I have a few questions.

Is this your first snake?

Have you seen the shed process before?

It you have a under tank heater, is it on a thermostat?

The UTH is on a rheostat, I am getting a herpstat Friday, I ordered a zoomed but when it arrived it didn't work. This is my first snake. I will post pics tomorrow. I have seen the shed process before and he has not had a pink belly or the "blue phase" I am more concerned it is the beginning of scale rot but I am unsure because his humidity has been low not high. I had thought it may have been a burn but I monitor the temps constantly all day. I may have to look into getting a different thermostat, I use a probe right now.

[KMG]

The UTH is on a rheostat, I am getting a herpstat Friday, I ordered a zoomed but when it arrived it didn't work. This is my first snake. I will post pics tomorrow. I have seen the shed process before and he has not had a pink belly or the "blue phase" I am more concerned it is the beginning of scale rot but I am unsure because his humidity has been low not high. I had thought it may have been a burn but I monitor the temps constantly all day. I may have to look into getting a different thermostat, I use a probe right now.

That's great that youre getting a Herpstat. They are wonderful.

Without being there and seeing it I don't know what to say it might be. It doesn't sound like a normal shed process though. Lets get those pics and go from there.

Not knowing what it may be you may want to drop the dimmer down to lower the heat for right now and make sure that you do not have sitting water on the cage floor.

[Skiploder]

My BP is a male, 1270 grams. He has not shed since I have had him. His temps have been fine but his humidity has been a bit low, down to 40. I put a larger dish in his cage and gave him a bath today. I am just wondering what it might be. It is only on his belly scales. He has been eating fine and has not been soaking so I don't think it is mites. The scales are flakey like they are shedding, some of them are wrinkled like pruned skin, and some have light brown edges. I took everything out of his tank and put newspaper down and the bowl of water. I took his hides out as well and covered his entire tank with black paper to give him privacy. Does anyone have any ideas on what it may be, or anything else I can do?

Couple of things:

First and foremost, stop bathing your snake. It doesn't need it, doesn't want it and it can have deleterious side effects. Just stop doing it.

Second, without a picture, no one is going to be able to do anything but give you guesses as to what's going on. Having said that - flaky, wrinkled belly scales with brown edging could be a bad sign, or it could be no sign at all.

In the meantime, stop changing things in the enclosure. Stop giving him baths. Stop adding hides, Stop removing hides. Don't put in a blue bowl, or a red bowl or a green bowl...leave the bowl alone. Dial all your parameters in and leave him alone. Be watchful and observant without bothering the animal. See if this is part of the shedding process, or see if his belly gets worse.

[earthwormjim]

Couple of things:

First and foremost, stop bathing your snake. It doesn't need it, doesn't want it and it can have deleterious side effects. Just stop doing it.

Second, without a picture, no one is going to be able to do anything but give you guesses as to what's going on. Having said that - flaky, wrinkled belly scales with brown edging could be a bad sign, or it could be no sign at all.

In the meantime, stop changing things in the enclosure. Stop giving him baths. Stop adding hides, Stop removing hides. Don't put in a blue bowl, or a red bowl or a green bowl...leave the bowl alone. Dial all your parameters in and leave him alone. Be watchful and observant without bothering the animal. See if this is part of the shedding process, or see if his belly gets worse.

I don't appreciate you and your condescending advice.

[Skiploder]

I like the comment better with the swear words....

[200xth]

I don't appreciate you and your condescending advice.

Tis good advice, though. You will be hard pressed to find a better source of advice on this site (or others), even if the tone makes you unhappy.

[earthwormjim]

It is annoying how the dude is being about it. I asked for some advice, he is touching on subject matter that I didn't even ask about. If my question bothers him, why is he even responding.

[DVirginiana]

Some of the best advice given to me when I was first really getting into keeping exotics was given in a way that made me want to tear my hair out. In a lot of situations it's really beneficial if you can just take the advice, ignore the tone, and learn something without being bothered by what someone on the internet says. I'm not making any commentary on this particular conversation, IMO that's just good general advice.