A puzzling situation of shedding or not shedding.

I have 2 pythons in different enclosures. A few weeks ago, my normal BP had a few mites (not a clue of where these are coming from, knowing I keep the enclosures very clean, spot clean and change bedding and clean all items in the tanks every 3-4 weeks). Anyway, I observed once a tiny thing moving on my normal BP and I understood exactly what is what. The next few hours, I was buying a bunch of things to get rid of them and hired a kid in my building to help me out with cleaning the enclosure, which had to be more than thorough. I bought zooMed mite off and sprayed the snake and the enclosure. Then, I slathered with mineral oil the poor thing, who wasn't too happy about it, but cooperated. Then, I gave her a bath with a bit of Betadine in the water. Rinsed, rinsed and rinsed and quarantined her in a plastic terrarium. I left the enclosure empty for a week just to make sure no mites would come back. My girl was now on paper towel with just a dish of water. A few days later, I let her climb in and out that plastic terrarium to browse around her empty enclosure. This is when I started noticing scale all over the glass. Not the entire scale but the shiny transparent top coat. I though that she was probably losing them while getting in and out the plastic terrarium. I checked where it was coming from and they were the belly ones. Finally, I put her enclosure back together with a mix of lose coconut fibers and aspen, 2 water dishes - one big enough for her to get in - her wood log, her hide, some fake plants and her beloved waterfall - which I built myself with a zooMed waterfall kit. So far, so good. She ate and seemed alert. No more losing scales, and the ones she had lost just left behind white grainier scales, which looked more porous without their shiny top coat. Then, she went blue and this is when everything started to go south. She refused eating, but before a shed, it seems normal - although my other BP, the spider BP is a voracious baby and will eat even amidst a shed. Now, here is the problem. Coming back to my normal BP, she went blue last week and she still hasn't shed. In fact, she shed tiny pieces here and there, her head, her eye caps and a bit on the tail. From the neck down the old skin is still there. When they go blue I raise the humidity to 70-80 %. Today, I put her in a container with wet paper towels for a few hours, then gave her a bath in purified water and put her back in the container, this time on dry paper towel. The strange thing is that some of the skin on her belly seems like shriveled and when wet in looks like hanging off but I do not want to pull because it doesn't seem to be a proper shed, so I'm very careful not to hurt her. Also where the shed is gone on her head, it left a few scales again without that shiny top coat and they seem like wrinkled. I'm not understanding what's going on. I bought her last June from Petco (not the best place to buy, I know, but I fell in love with her and had to get her). My spider BP comes from a breeder instead. I have a large Exo-terra tank, Exo-terra heat lamps, a zooMed heating pad on the side of the tank, temperature controller to turn off or on devices and extra temperature and humidity sensors, which make 3 thermometers in 3 different locations. Basking spot is between 91-95 degrees, 77.7 one side, 70 the other side. Humidity is always around 50-60 with highs at 70-80 when shedding. Can anyone tell me what is going on? Why is she not shedding completely? Why is the new skin dull? I feed her every week - week and a half with a f/t adult, and a hopper. She is a juvenile of about one and a half year old and has been growing and putting up weight steadily. I've read a lot about proper husbandry since I had my pythons and I searched the net and came across a gazillion info, some of them sometimes contradictory. I don't think it's scale rot. I handle her for a few minutes every day - unless she ate- and I didn't see any brown, red or orange spots. However, I have read that mineral oil could cause skin problems. Before, I end up at the vet again for nothing - I did that with my spider BP because I thought she was coughing and it turned out to be just nothing. Even did an X-ray and the vet was just as confused as I was of why I was there. She said to make sure temperature and humidity were right, so I got a repti-fogger and added another heating pad. I don't want to show up at the vet with this snake, now, and make them think that I imagine things. Moreover that, here in Los Angeles, vets are super expensive. Sorry for the long post but I think I pretty well covered everything.

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Originally Posted by AlMohymont

The next few hours, I was buying a bunch of things to get rid of them and hired a kid in my building to help me out with cleaning the enclosure, which had to be more than thorough. I bought zooMed mite off and sprayed the snake and the enclosure. Then, I slathered with mineral oil the poor thing, who wasn't too happy about it, but cooperated. Then, I gave her a bath with a bit of Betadine in the water. Rinsed, rinsed and rinsed and quarantined her in a plastic terrarium.

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that was probarbly too much. Overkill. Recommended is: give the snake a nice bath in the bathtub, clean enclosure, spray enclosure with the mite killing spray (people here always recommend prevent-a-mite or provent-a-mite or something), wait until the smell from the spray is gone, when it smells fine, put in new bedding/newspaper and return the snake. i mean, you did a triple whammer, spraying the snake, mineral oil, betadine bath.

i cannot decide which of that it was, but something just destroyed the top layer of the snakes skin, forcing a sudden and strange shed with individual scales coming off. Thats just my opinion. I dont know how, but as you describe it, it is some sort of chemically induced forced shed. Mites dont kill a snake, at least not quickly, or only if they grow into MASSIVE quantities and take over your reptiles like a locust swarm. 10 or 20 mites cannot kill a snake. But chemicals can. I mean, there are stories of people killing like 10 of their 12 snakes in a day while trying to fight mites with the chemical spined club.

with mites, i see there is some urgency if you keep 20 reptiles, or 2000 reptiles, or a mix of boas and pythons and fear transmission of something like IBD from one species to another. But with just 2 snakes, there is no urgency when you have mites, no need to rush.

For now, get the chemicals out of there, give your snake a short bath in clean lukewarm water, and wash the enclosure with just clean water, put in new substrate/newspaper. fresh water for the bowl. and feed soon. maybe a vet is not a bad idea, but then, even the vet might have trouble deciding what aspect of this little chemical accident is specifically to blame. And for the next two weeks forget the damn mites, if they come back take a few days to research and then.... take it slow.

so, i responded to the core issue, now after reading the rest completely and reading it more carefully....


The current problem is something only someone that made the same mistakes can answer. Normally when treating mites, you do not spray the mite-killer on the snake or near the snake, you do not use mineral oil, and you do not do the betadine bath. The snake doesnt get exposed to anything other than water, the mites in the snake just drown and apart from that you only treat the enclosure.

so, research questions like: What when i spray my snake / python / ball python / boa directly with zooMed mite off and run into issues? What when i use mineral oil on my snake / ball python, and problems occur? Issues with betadine bath?

i think the oil is the least likely issue. Mite sprays are highly toxic. betadine bath can be very problematic if at this point the snakes skin was already damaged and opened by earlier procedures.

Best option would be a vet visit. followed by: post pictures. make pictures, upload them somewhere so that you have a link that shows the images, a link you can share. like imageshack or something. Then you can embed the images here or just link to them. But since the skin issues have an extraordinary cause and are now ongoing, really consider a reptile vet.

I think everything all at once was where the problem is. Betadine does not much for mites, mineral oil is an outdated suggestion. The bath in lukewarm water or the mite-off is the way to go. I don't necessarily think a vet visit is mandatory. Keep her on paper in a minimal setup, and keep an eye on her.

While two snakes with mites isn't an 'emergency', two mites can turn into two thousand frighteningly fast. Getting on top of it and keeping on top of it is really the best way to go in regards to mites.

Thanks for responding. I read so many times that mites must be taken care of right away. I researched and researched and the same things were always coming back for mites, and mineral oil and Betadine were mentioned over and again. They are so many conflicting websites and posts out there that it is difficult to know what to do at times. I know the risk involved in using chemicals; however, since it was always the same recommendations that were coming back, I didn't feel like I had any other choices. I didn't want my snakes to be crawling with mites and I was afraid for the spider BP, which is still a baby. Yes, I think that I may have overdone it with the spray and the mineral oil and the Betadine. Although, I used very little of the spray on her and mainly used it for the enclosures. However, I wasn't so light handed with the mineral oil. And, I used only a few drops of Betadine in the bath I used to rinse her off. Her skin was absolutely perfect before procedure and it was still beautiful after, with and a bit of a shine, which I attributed to the mineral oil.


No more mites and it's been almost a month, but I won't ever do that again. I just read a another case of a person also using mineral oil and the top layer of the belly scales fell off too. Could it be the mineral oil after all?


Both my snakes had mites. I didn't use the spray on the spider BP, just bathed her in a tiny bit of Betadine and rinsed her since she is just a few months old. No problems with her of whatsoever. She has such a beautiful and soft skin.


I didn't know what product to go with and picked ZooMed mite off because they have good products. I won't use it again. Hopefully, there will be no more mites and if there are, I'll use the one you recommended for the cage and simply bath the snake.


Regarding the bedding in the enclosures, it is fresh and super clean, barely a week old. Both snakes were on paper towels with nothing but a water dish for a week and a half before returning them to their normal enclosures. Enclosures were sprayed then rinsed off with clear water. No smell left. Everything was rinsed many times in the tub, then wiped and left to dry. So, I'm not afraid of any chemical residue.


I gave her a bath already today in clear water.


If it doesn't resolve itself by mid next week, I'll guess I'll make an appointment with the vet. And the vet is a herp vet. But again, I don't see anything that shows scale rot. Tomorrow is their feeding day, I'll offer her food as usual that she eats it or not.

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Originally Posted by AlMohymont

Thanks for responding. I read so many times that mites must be taken care of right away. I researched and researched and the same things were always coming back for mites, and mineral oil and Betadine were mentioned over and again. They are so many conflicting websites and posts out there that it is difficult to know what to do at times. I know the risk involved in using chemicals; however, since it was always the same recommendations that were coming back, I didn't feel like I had any other choices.

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For that issue, having a few good books does help a lot. Why are the most diverse conspiracy theories spreading online? No matter what issue it is about, if you have a slight misconception and start searching, chances are you will find a ton of stuff to reinforce it. Recent books are of course done with extensive online research, but they cut through the (this is a forum open to minors, you know what i really want to say) poop like a hot knife cuts through butter, otherwise they would not be good books getting good reviews. Or, next time, post the specific issue here soon enough, there are good people here. This forum offers better information than online searches.

Images would still help a lot. So the BP suffered some chemical impact on the skin and is in recovery but there still are issues. With pictures, people here can see if its maybe an infection or inflammation or whatever. Or if its just residual damage from the original event healing slowly, like a burn. There are big-time breeders, and people experienced with reptile veterinarian care, and multi-species keepers and collectors here. Pictures will help people here to help you.

Its already clear you learned from this and that you wont repeat your mistake :D . very good. And now, post pictures and wait for the experts :) (im not one of them, i know the basics, not more).

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Originally Posted by AlMohymont

I didn't know what product to go with and picked ZooMed mite off because they have good products. I won't use it again. Hopefully, there will be no more mites and if there are, I'll use the one you recommended for the cage and simply bath the snake.

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I have used zoomed mite off on my corns and balls. Never had any issue with it. As long as you follow the directions on bottle.

Well, she finally shed some of her skin during the night and I helped her a with the rest. There is just a tiny bit left on her neck but I found her soaking in one of her water dishes, so she will take care of it herself. Her new skin is absolutely gorgeous! No fault, no missing top coat of scales or nothing. It is just on her head where there are a few scales that seem to have lost their luster. But what a strange shed! Thank you all for your advices and suggestions. Hopefully everything turned out to be ok. She is due for a meal today, so we'll se if she is now back to her old self.

By the way, it is the mineral oil. I did a little experiment. Took some of her belly skin she had already shed and put some mineral oil on that skin. I let it sit for a bit, when I took the skin and rubbed it between my fingers, I got some scales coming right off. I then took tweezer and I could peel the top coat on almost every scale on that old shed skin. Now that I'm thinking about it, don't we use mineral oil to remove adhesive! That's a thought!