Help! I cant tell if bp is beginning a shed or suddenly dehydrated.

I got my bp about a month ago. He took awhile to eat but he finally did and has eaten 3 fuzzies(one a week). Ive seen him drink one time but i know they can be secretive. Anyway the pet store said he was 4 months old and had just shed...but also had not eaten while there. He looked good...till a few days ago i noticed him rubbing on himself and a few skin flakes came off but thats it! Hes been periodically rubbing on things. I didnt know if this means hes still shedding, stuck or dehydrated...Ive attached pictures...you can see the skin folds and the scales pointed upward. Humidity has been a struggle but with a humidifier its between 50 and 60.
Temp is 90 and 75.https://i.pinimg.com/736x/c1/f9/34/c...15510e79f7.jpg

Fuzzies are way to small for a BP. I'm going to assume Petsmart. Move him up to adult mice asap. You need to get his weight up. Bp's right out of the egg ar eon hoppers then go onto adult mice within 2-3 feedings. While in shed humidity goes to 70. Ambient temps are 80. Hot spot temp at the glass bottom should read 90. Get some fat on that baby. If you have more fuzzies feed him 2-3 more now. You should be feeding 10% of his body weight.

Thank you so much! And yes petsmart. I will try a adult mouse right away as soon as i can get to the store(snowing here lol) his mouth is so small and this is my first snake so i wasnt sure how big. He does act like im going to feed him every night....what do you think about his skin though? Should i help him shed yet?

Also he is 78 grams as of last week

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Originally Posted by SWiseman

Also he is 78 grams as of last week

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Small adult mouse. Can someone link the feeding chart please. Make sure your humidity is at 70 while in shed.

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Getting back to the snake itself ... it's not a great photo to be honest ... it does look a bit wrinkly and so possibly dehydrated but it could simply be in early stages of shed .. given it's rubbing itself which is a sign of trying to start the shedded skin off ...

I'd start spraying the viv a few times a day until hopefully the skin comes off..

If there's no shed off by ten days another couple of photos will help ..


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It is tough to tell with the pic, but from the pic and the back story, my guess is you have an undernourished, dehydrated snake. It may be starting shed as well.

First and foremost, it's important to get the snake eating and eating appropriately sized meals. The vast majority of the snake's hydration comes from its prey.

I would also boost humidity in anticipation of a shed.

1)You need to boost humidity, it needs to be MINIMUM 50% at all times, I prefer 60-80%, and my pythons are all very comfortable in that range. I’ve even had the ambient air at 99% and they were still perfectly fine, as long as it was just the air and the enclosure isn’t damp.
He is scratching because he wants to shed but he looks very dehydrated. A dehydrated snake will be very uncomfortable, and can even get sick or die.
I don’t have time right now to go into it, but if you do a forum search for “humidity problems”. You will find a thousand discussions with tons of advice for you to research and learn.
Go to the “ball python/husbandry section of the forum and research.


Ideal Ambient air temperature (on the cool side) and humidity of two of my python enclosures:
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...e323a5de40.jpg


2) you need to feed him meals as thick around as your snake is thick around. If your snake is as big around as a hot dog, feed him rats as thick around a hot dog.
They can even eat things larger than that, but it is not necessary. The largest I have fed was a rat ¼ the weight of my snake in one big swallow!
This is crazy extreme, but my point is that pythons can eat much bigger meals than most beginners realize, as they unhinge their jaws and stretch their throats open to an astounding degree.

My 6 month old hatchling about to eat a hefty “weaned rat.”
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...29b867aeba.jpg

My 1000 gram subadult eating a hefty “small rat”:
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...16399936d5.jpg


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looks like what i just went through with my youngest beep, Pumpkin Pie. he only got his head shed off and refused to work off the rest. i had to hand-shed his whole body.

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...b5daa588b3.jpg

if it's already been a few days of them looking like a wrinkled mess you might need to intervene and assist the shed. you don't want to wait until that skin gets dry as it will become harder to remove.