Colour change - Is this normal?

We purchased our bubble bee BP about a week ago. He was born July 4th. This is out first snake but from what i can see the transition into his new home has been going great. We were able to get him to eat without a problem, he's even had a poop, we barely even touched him allowing time to adjust. We have been handling him for the past 2 days now and iv noticed that his colouring looks shadowed on top. Almost like hes dirty, which just for the record is not the case. We set the tank up exactly as recommended. We have an UTH monitored by a Hepstat and a red heat lamp on top. The humidity is holding and we have misted the tank to maintain it as recommended. We use aspen bedding not newspaper so it's not the colouring from the newspaper transferring onto him. Is everything okay with him? Should I be concerned or is this norma? Could he be going into shed? Any thoughts/advice, suggestions would be so very appreciated. We only want the best for this little guy! He's really become a great family pet :)

Probably getting ready to shed. Snakes will turn a dull grayish during this time. Eventually the eye caps will turn gray, then you'll know for sure.

Probably a shed. Others signs are pink/reddish belly, cloudy eyes, dull and loose skin.

Does the heat lamp cause any issues with snake colouring? We have the info-red one as the tank is in my 10 year old sons room. These types of lamps don't cause problems do they?

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Originally Posted by DennisM

Probably getting ready to shed. Snakes will turn a dull grayish during this time. Eventually the eye caps will turn gray, then you'll know for sure.

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Would u know how long this process should take? Just so I don't chalk it up to him shedding then find out after its something else that I should have had checked out.

No the light will not cause any issues. Usually once the skin turns cloudy(blue phase) and then clears up it should shed in a day or two.

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Originally Posted by Tiffanie

Would u know how long this process should take? Just so I don't chalk it up to him shedding then find out after its something else that I should have had checked out.

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There's an excellent thread on the general BP forum regarding the entire shed process with pics.

http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showt...edding-Process

Does a great job of walking you through the whole process so you know what's happening at each point and how long it lasts.

That's awesome! Thanx 200xth :D