Dented eye/eye cap? help

So a couple days ago this dent appeared on my BP, Charlie's eye cap. It's pretty small so I didn't think twice about it, mainly because he was going to shed the next day or the day after so I thought it would just go away. But today I handled him and noticed that the dent is still there. Both eye caps came off of his eyes so his eye pretty much has a small dent in it. I wanted to make a thread about it because I didn't want to go to the vet to find out that it was nothing serious and that it would just gradually disappear. He seems to be responding to movement on that side (his right eye) and I have a few images of it. Any advice would be much appreciated.
http://25.media.tumblr.com/973bdbd0f...7vmwo1_500.jpg
http://24.media.tumblr.com/5b00b4686...7vmwo2_500.jpg

What is the humidity in his setup like?

Make sure you have appropriate humidity levels in your enclosure and that they have access to water. It can be caused by dehydration so I would just monitor it and make sure that your set up is on point and that your snake has water available to it all the time.

It'll go away if you raise the humidity in his enclosure. The dented eye means he is a little dehydrated.

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Originally Posted by Dragonviper

that your snake has water available to it all the time.

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Your snake doesn't necessarily need water at all times, provided they're fed regularly and the humidity is good.

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Originally Posted by Dragonviper

Make sure you have appropriate humidity levels in your enclosure and that they have access to water. It can be caused by dehydration so I would just monitor it and make sure that your set up is on point and that your snake has water available to it all the time.

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I don't know about humidity. I haven't been able to get another hydrometer so I took the one on an old tank off. Unfortunately, though, the adhesive had come off so I just set it in a corner in the substrate. I spray his tank every day but I'll have to wait a bit to see where the hydrometer is at. As for water, since he is housed in a 55 gallon tank, I have two water dishes for him, both of which I clean daily so water availability isn't a problem.

Yea, tanks are terrible at keeping humidity. Take a damp towel and cover like 2/3 of the top of the tank.

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Originally Posted by Mike41793

Yea, tanks are terrible at keeping humidity. Take a damp towel and cover like 2/3 of the top of the tank.

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Thank you, I also did this with my corn snake, Bailey's tank

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Originally Posted by Mike41793

Your snake doesn't necessarily need water at all times, provided they're fed regularly and the humidity is good.

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Umm... WRONG. I see what you are saying... but to suggest this to someone is not a good idea.

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Originally Posted by Coopers Constrictors

Umm... WRONG. I see what you are saying... but to suggest this to someone is not a good idea.

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I've only seen one of my balls drink from a water bowl once, ever.

They get most of their liquids from their food. I'm not suggesting they do anything, i was merely disagreeing with what they said because it wasn't entirely true.

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Originally Posted by Mike41793

I've only seen one of my balls drink from a water bowl once, ever.

They get most of their liquids from their food. I'm not suggesting they do anything, i was merely disagreeing with what they said because it wasn't entirely true.

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I have 13 snakes and all of them are very active with the water dish, from the ball pythons that just love daily fresh water to the boas that love to soak in their dishes.

Your humidity is probably low if your snakes are drinking/soaking daily. I'm talking about ball pythons only here, boas are entirely different.

Mike is absolutely correct.
If your snakes are feeding regularly, they do not need water to hydrate themselves.
They get all of their essential liquids from their food.

The whole watering dish ad-lib is a luxury of captivity. And if your snakes are drinking daily, you're probably not feeding often enough or your enclosure isn't humid enough....


Imagine the number of BPs in Africa making daily runs to the watering hole..... It's probably close to zero.

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Originally Posted by satomi325

Imagine the number of BPs in Africa making daily runs to the watering hole..... It's probably close to zero.

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Wait so there aren't water bowls in every termite mound and rodent burrow that are cleaned and refilled daily...? :confused:

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Originally Posted by thecrazyandinsane

I don't know about humidity. I haven't been able to get another hydrometer so I took the one on an old tank off. Unfortunately, though, the adhesive had come off so I just set it in a corner in the substrate. I spray his tank every day but I'll have to wait a bit to see where the hydrometer is at. As for water, since he is housed in a 55 gallon tank, I have two water dishes for him, both of which I clean daily so water availability isn't a problem.

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Remember when I mentioned how hard it is to keep balls in that huge tank?
To get the humidity up you will need to
#1 cover about 95% of the top
#2 add a couple more heat pads under the tank
#3 put more water bowls over the new pads
#4Get digital gauges so you know exactly what is going on in that tank.

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Originally Posted by Mike41793

Wait so there aren't water bowls in every termite mound and rodent burrow that are cleaned and refilled daily...? :confused:

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Mike i was merely posting what my snakes do...you dont need to be a smart!

It comes naturally.

It could be possible that i was also trying to help, you may not see it that way though because you focused on the sarcasm lol.

I had a snake that drank all the time out of her water dish, her tub stayed well hydrated and never skipped a meal

OP: You can do a few things to boost humidity.

1) Cover 90% of the screen top with plexiglass, a damp towel, or taped down tin foil
2) use humidity retaining substrate (coco husk or cypress mulch)
3) Get a wider water bowl. The larger the surface area, greater the evaporation. (And move over the hot spots)
4) If you have a lamp, get rid of it. It sucks humidity out like a sponge
5) Make a humid hide. Get a plastic Tupperware and cut an entrance hole into the lid. Line the Tupperware with damp moss or paper towel. This will be a humid micro-climate where the snake can go into it whenever it needs some extra humidity. This will save the effort of trying to maintain the whole tank.

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Originally Posted by crepers86

her tub stayed well hydrated and never skipped a meal

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You must have one really healthy tub ;P

None of mine will drink or eat.

For those who are not familiar with Mike's sarcastic nature, the basic idea behind having a water bowl in the enclosure is to give the snake the option of having a water source to drink from and to help keep the humidity up in the enclosure. :gj:

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Originally Posted by crepers86

I had a snake that drank all the time out of her water dish, her tub stayed well hydrated and never skipped a meal

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"a snake"? Ball python or what?

You live in TX, right? I wouldn't be surprised if it did drink due to heat or humidity.

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Originally Posted by Andybill

For those who are not familiar with Mike's sarcastic nature, the basic idea behind having a water bowl in the enclosure is to give the snake the option of having a water source to drink from and to help keep the humidity up in the enclosure. :gj:

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Funny, most of mine seem to think it's a toilet. ;)

I wasn't expecting my post to cause a stir. I was unaware of the OP's setup at the time of my post so I suggested to monitor the humidity and have water for the snake available at all times. If the humidity in the enclosure was low, the very least that could be done is have water available for the snake to drink and have that help the overall humidity in the tank. If they had an enclosure where they had a hard time maintaining humidity for more than a few hours (such as the tank that the snake is being housed in) I do think providing a water bowl would help the snake if there is fluctuation with the humidity and it got too dry before someone could mist the tank.