uhm.. questions

we have fed both our snakes a few times since getting them, every 5 days and we have had them about 3wks. neither of them have pood or anything.. i know what their urites (sp) is supposed to look like and we havnt had that either.. is there something wrong or is it possible they were under nurished and are absorbing more of their food, even at that i would think there would be some waste.

also, caution was looking like he was going to shed, blue eyes, nasty faded skin/scales exc but now all of a sudden his eyes are more clear. hes still pretty faded looking and his underside is ugly (where that scale rot was instead of being the color it was (faded) is now more brilliant.. is it possible its getting worse? should i take a new pic to show?

Most of my balls defacate the most (or only) when they shed. If you saw signs of an impedding shed then more then likely that is when they will poo/pee. Balls have excellent digestive system and they can extract every ounce of usable material from their food....so it can take several feedings to get enough that they need to get rid of the waste. I have a large 5' ball that has eaten 10-12 times and still hasn't poo'd but lord help me when he does go. :eek:


As for shedding usually they turn "blue" or hazy then a few days later clear up like nothing happened and then a few days more they shed (most of mine take 7 days from start to finish to shed)

As for the belly a pic would help.

before
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1126/...aadaf921d3.jpg

after
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1142/...a0b27a12c8.jpg

before
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1113/...a49f6ca7cc.jpg

after
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1202/...04be92ee8d.jpg

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Originally Posted by lord jackel

As for shedding usually they turn "blue" or hazy then a few days later clear up like nothing happened and then a few days more they shed (most of mine take 7 days from start to finish to shed)

As for the belly a pic would help.

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belly pics posted, thank you for the comment on the shed, he had me all confused lol, i cant wait to see his first shed with us

Yep looks like he is going to shed. As for the scale rot...my guess would be that since he is going to shed that those scales have started to seperate from the new ones (that is why they appear darker). I wouldn't worry till after the shed then you can see if they got worse.


Just note you might see a little blood (spots on the substrate or belly) from those scales when he sheds. Since the scales are basically ruined they sometimes have to pull a little to come off...like a scab. Nothing to worry about but didn't want you to freak out. :)

Hmmmm the very popular poop question :8: , it really varies from one individual to another some are regular as a clock some go once in a blue moon. It is totally unpredictable but it will happen eventually and since one is in shed, he will without a doubt leave you a nice present :D .

Mine just had his first complete shed with us about 2 weeks ago... unfortunately, I was still fighting humidity problems and he didn't get it all in one piece. You might re-check the Shedding Process post, but I believe now is the time to bump the humidity up to 70% if you haven't already... hopefully then it will be a nice, pretty shed! :)

Those little gold bands are kind of cool!

thanks everyone for the responses & the heads up on possible blood in shed, i wouldve freaked out, as for humidity goes, im lucky if i can get it below 80 on a good day so "bumping" it up to 70, shoot i would love to bring it down to 70!

thank you thank you everyone






also, how often do they shed? every 3-4wks?

I can't remember what post it was on... But if you've tried pretty much everything else for your humidity seriously try adding a ventilated cloth bag of long grain rice in there ( I have enough room to hang it from the top of mine)... Rice absorbs quite a bit of humidity and you can just add more or less if it's not doing the trick, or is absorbing too much you just remove a bit.

Another thing I noticed though, (I went back to your old set up photos) the dry drift wood logs and aspen can hold a lot of humidity - especially since they are both untreated wood (which means they don't have chemicals added to keep them from absorbing water)... One other thing you could try is adding less substrate, and see if taking out the driftwood makes it any better for a little bit. If the driftwood seems damp at all or if it's not at least a bit rough and very dry feeling to the hand then it might be over saturated from taking in too much water when the tubs were really humid...

I know as a kid we would bake pinecones to get the humidity out of them.... Can you do that with driftwood to dry it out as well???

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Originally Posted by AshleyB

also, how often do they shed? every 3-4wks?

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They shed when they grow...so there is no constant between snakes. Yearlings seem to (at least in my case) shed ever 4 weeks or so. My 1yr+ kids shed when they feel like it :D - maybe every couple of months. (these are just mine others may have a different pattern)

right now were experimenting with substrate.. we were using the aspen, now using little carefresh ultra till we use it up. i will try the rice bag and can take out the log if nessesary. the water bowls are conciderably smaller than before all of which brought it down some.. it was in the 90s now in low 80s%... thanks for the suggestions

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Originally Posted by GirDance

I can't remember what post it was on... But if you've tried pretty much everything else for your humidity seriously try adding a ventilated cloth bag of long grain rice in there ( I have enough room to hang it from the top of mine)... Rice absorbs quite a bit of humidity and you can just add more or less if it's not doing the trick, or is absorbing too much you just remove a bit.

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That is a really unique idea...I like it!

In S. Florida I am not sure anything will really help (outside a dehumidifier in the room) . I would just make sure you have plenty of airflow in the tank/tub. Stagnant air is much more dangerous then high humidity and is what leads to mold and RI's.

You should also bake (or put outside in the hot sun) your aspen before putting it in the cage to remove excess moisture which will help some.

Ashley, if you haven't had a chance to check them out yet have a look through the stickies on the shedding process and what to do about a bad shed. Both can be found in the BP forums...one under general, the other I believe under husbandry (we need to get these two in the same area Mod/Admin folks :) ). They really are invaluable, excellent threads to read over.

well, we were going to go back to aspen (Trying to get this scale rot gone first) at least i know now to bake the bedding first, never thought of that before. as i said before i can take out the driftwood, it is very dry and almost scratchy.. not damp AT ALL, i just thought it would help with sheds and take up space in the enclosure... otherwise we have false leaves in there making it more "Real" not that they have ever been in the wild concidering they are CB its more for my own prefrence i suppose. south florida is horrible for humidity.. and a dehumidifier wouldnt work because our boys have excema and the dehumidifier makes their skin worse, to cracking! we had to use one with our baby boy who had horrible respitory problems and once those went away we got rid of it.. and the childrens skin got better.. at this point they hold prefrence hmmm will try the rice thing though, i bet pantyhose would work to hold it! we had added lots of holes too

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Originally Posted by frankykeno

Ashley, if you haven't had a chance to check them out yet have a look through the stickies on the shedding process and what to do about a bad shed. Both can be found in the BP forums...one under general, the other I believe under husbandry (we need to get these two in the same area Mod/Admin folks :) ). They really are invaluable, excellent threads to read over.

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i will take another look at them, i had read them briefly before but this little guy hasnt shed at all yet, just yicky eyes and not so pretty scales

If it's not smooth and damp to the touch then it should be fine.

We had a problem with the driftwood here holding in far too much humidity, although at the time that tank would be misted a few times a day, and then over time humidity would rise higher and higher. We went with the rice bag, and put in a new peice of driftwood. When you would touch the other one it actually felt a bit damp - that was my main concern with the driftwood for your set up... I was hoping it wasn't too damp for you.

I've got a peice in mine as well! :)

Panty hose should work! I had some old mesh 'gifty' decorative bags laying around which I had always used for stuff like that... It was so humid in my last apartment I had to keep them in all my dresser drawers with rice in them or things would get damp and musty smelling :(

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Originally Posted by lord jackel

That is a really unique idea...I like it!

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Thanks :) I got the idea from my grandmother who always kept rice in the salt shakers!!! It doesn't have an immediate effect, but you start to notice it working within a couple days... I've probably side mentioned it in any humidity too high post on here... lol

I've never had to bake aspen, well not the fine shred stuff I buy from WalMart anyways. It's dry as a bone right out of the bag. Cypress mulch, now that's a different story...that stuff is almost soaking wet when it's packed.

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Originally Posted by frankykeno

I've never had to bake aspen, well not the fine shred stuff I buy from WalMart anyways. It's dry as a bone right out of the bag. .

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Yea...I think the larger bags seem to have more moisture (compaction forces the moisture out and less dry time)...you and I also pry don't notice it as much since our climates are so much dryer...but in S. Florida every little bit of moisture just adds to the problem.