Stupid Question?

The pic with the big scale is probably a scar. I had a rescued Red Tail that had gotten in a fight with a rat because the owner wouldnt handle or spend the time feeding pre-kill. She had a couple of those spots on her and the vast majority dissapeared after her 3rd. or 4th. shed. she still has a larger one that I dont think will ever go away much like the one you have there. The folds appear to be where they rub the wrong way or stay folded for a long time (hours) any one of my red tails, and my burm, will have thoes from time to time and they go away after a while. I hope this helps.

i have the same problem with bent scales. get her bigger hides and when she sheds it will go away. the other looks like a scar, i wouldn't worry about if it doesn't bother her. if its not broken don't fix it. very pretty by the way.

Definitly a scar in the first picture, i found a skinny little gopher out in the backyard(who i ended up keeping and fattening up) who had obviously been attacked by maybe a bird, anyway the scales were gone....just pale gray skin, but shed after shed after shed, a couple mishapen scales grew back and healed.

As a few others have already pointed out, I also think the huge scale is actually an old scar. I also saw scale folds on my Burmese python... it doesn't seem like anything was wrong with her, I think they just became that way from her staying in the same position for a long amount of time.

And I absolutely love your Boa's face.

All of you have made me feel a lot better. She has indeed shed since I got her. I've had her for oooh... two and a half months? She shed in one piece, and her shed cycle was pretty quick [2 days blue eyed, 1 day silver eyed, 1 day clear eyed, 1 day shed] so 5 days?

The boy who had her before me was feeding her live mice, and when I got her, her tank was smeared with blood and mouse feces, so it is quite logical that a mouse got ahold of her, especially since she was about two feet smaller when I got her. Yes yes, that's right. In the two months or so that I've had her, she's grown two feet, and gained a lot of weight [she was skin and bones]

And I was hoping that that was all the bent back scales were, were from the way she stays curled up. No matter where she is in her tank, she always curls up the same way, and stays that way until someone disturbs her so I suppose that's it.

Eep, thanks all of you =] And thank you, those of you who complimented her looks.

I feel a lot better =]

It looks like what Ruby's scales look like. Its just from being coiled up from my experience

Is she able to get out for some exercise regularily? I know from your post that she's a harder to handle big snake so of course you'd need both of you home and watching her carefully. The BCI we fostered (female who was 6 feet at the time) enjoyed a good bit of exercise in our enclosed front porch in good weather but then she was a very nicely tempered snake. Well other than grabbing furniture and hauling it around the house (should have known that she was a she by that and not the he we assumed....all us ladies like to rearrange the livingroom on occasion LOL).

Sounds like she's coming along beautifully and certainly growing well for you. I can't comment on those raised scales as personally I've never seen that even on the big BCI we had.

Yes, she gets a good bit of excersize. Tim's schedule is odd, due to band practice two hours away and court and such two hours in the OPPOSITE direction. We're both home together maybe four days out of the week, but he dotes on her then. He takes her to the den and lets her run around while he watches TV, and he'll sit in the bathroom with her, reading, while she swims around. She loves water more than anything.

I really wish I could handle her on my own, but she just despises anyone that isn't him. The days I have to feed her myself, I have to do it as quickly as possible, and use gloves and towels and such to handle her, because she'll hiss and bite and thrash around like no one's business. But she'll be as gentle as all for him, when she chooses to be. Some days when she's in a bad mood she'll hiss at him but those are rare. She's just all grr-ish.

But yes, I'm definitely glad her scale issues are nothing to worry about.

Carmen has those "scale ruffles" as well and I've seen them on several other larger boids - just seems to be par for the course of big boids - they get "rufflely".

Personally, for Carmen, I think it's because she seems to think slithering backwards is the way to go...silly thing. =)

My 7' BCI is the same way with the bent scales. Makes me feel lots better