Is she dyhydrated?

i have a ball python, approx. 5 months old, seems to have "wrinkles" so to speak from her neck to mid body when she bends. last time i fed her (saturday) for the first time it took her a while to eat. she's always been an excellent eater. she seems to go get drinks every now and again, but has been lazy past couple of days. i tried soaking her today in hopes that will work. sound like dehydration? if so, any helpful ideas on how to get her hydrated, and prevent it? day time temps on the hot sides around 89-91, while humidity is at 50-60. any information as a first time bp owner, i would gladly appreciate it. Thanks so much!
:tears:

hi,
when was the last shed?
spooky

started around december 15th ish, wasn't a pretty shed at all. still working on getting the stuck shed off, if not she can do it next time i hope.

Can you describe her enclosure, how its heated, and what you are using to measure temps and humidity?
spooky

10 gallon tank, got the log hide, a large water dish, and a climbing toy. im using a digi thermometer, and hygrometer. I have a small uth heather just big enough to cover under her log, as well as a overhead heat lamp, while maintaining a steady 50-60% humidty easilly.

Those "wrinkles" happen to mine as well just as she is about to go into shed. It could be a thin layer of leftover old shed that still has to come off. Could you please post a pic so that we may see the condition of your python?

http://i40.tinypic.com/2upsh8p.jpg
http://i42.tinypic.com/n5rbjq.jpg

not the highest quality images, was off my iphone. digi camera's dead.

she needs to finish the shed.. my babys are in small sterlite tubs, i noticed one was about to shed (for the first time) so i wet the paper towell substrate. there was condonsation on the walls of the container.. now, i wouldent leave a snake in this high humidty enviroment for 2 long, but a day or so produced a perfect shed..
maby if you have a butter bowel or something, turn it upside down, cut a little interance hole in it, put a few layers of wet paper towles in there and run her up in there for as long as she would like to stay.. a shed like that tells me that theres a humidity issue.
spooky

yeah thats what i keep hearing from other posts, what do u keep ur humidity at? mines fairly high imo

Get yourself a little opaque tubberware container, cut a hole in the side large enough for her to enter and put some damp paper towels inside. This ought to solve your shedding problems without having to mess around too much with humidity.

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Originally Posted by jeff_blake

yeah thats what i keep hearing from other posts, what do u keep ur humidity at? mines fairly high imo

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your humidity is OK,,, but those heat lamps can really suck it up.
im not sure what my humidity is, but i keep my snakes in sterlite tubs in a rack system IMO, the tubs are alot more efficient than glass tanks,, but regardless,,, when i notice a snake about to shed, ill mist the snake once a day, along with the paper substrate. after the shed, i wont mist.. iv alwats had perfect sheds.
spooky

What John1982 said above is absolutely true as well. Having a very humid hot hide does wonders for my python's sheds. Whenever she is about to shed, she always goes from the cold side dry hide to the warm side humid hide. Even if I let my humidity slip (I have a 100watt reflecting bulb that absolutely annihilates my humidity), it's still very humid with the wet sphagnum moss in her hide, and her sheds are unaffected. I had my humidity on 35-40 for about a week (since my humidifier broke) and my python still shed perfectly with only morning mistings of the tank. I wouldn't let humidity go above 60%, with the exception of bumping it up to 65-70 during the sheds. Haven't had any problems with this method, and my python is in her third shed at the moment...

Thanks guys. Much appreciated, I'll keep you posted. Just don't want her to die because im still learning!

Humid hides are a wonderful solution. I have one and my snake uses it sometimes, but more often, she loves to soak while in shed. Not all ball pythons will soak on their own, some won't go near the water, then some will. Mine will, so I have a very large water bowl big enough for her to soak in. Might try providing one for you snake, just to see if she wants to sit in it. Maybe she will, maybe she won't. Just depends on their personalities.

Yeah I have a large water dish, plenty large enough for her. She tends to stay away from soaking in it

my adult female is going into her 2nd shed with us. her 1st one didnt go so well. so 1st off, thank you for this thread, will be trying the paper towel method till we can get a humid hide. she had a lot of stuck shed after her 1st. what we did was put her in a warm bath to soak for about 5-10 minutes then took a warm wet wash cloth and ran her through it several times. worked like a charm! once again, another wonderful piece of advice from the BP.net community!