Patchy scales and some brown dots...

[redshepherd]

(Lots of threads lately...)

I upped the ambient temps to around 75~78, but Cake is still constantly active (if you remember my last thread about this). It hasn't gotten better. I even moved him down to a smaller tub with just the basic hide and water bowl to see if it would help, but it did not. He's just very active in that small space. When I take him out, he seems listless and tired from being active all day.

I also offered him his first F/T small rat (he was easily slamming F/T jumbo mice before) today. I do the whole heating + dunking in a bunch of dirty poopy mouse aspen. So the F/T rat was reeking of mouse. He showed no interested in it whatsoever. He literally looked past the rat right in front of his nose and kept going, like it was just a leaf.

I noticed this patchiness on his scales. Some scales are broken/missing. I realize he might also be nearing shed soon, but I need to be sure.

I'm particularly worried about these brown dots in one of the photos. They don't look like mites, and they don't move. Looks almost like a tiny bit of dried blood in some places.

I checked around his chin and mouth for signs of mites, but thankfully I didn't find anything...

He's on aspen. It's possible that the patchiness is from him climbing over everywhere and falling from these past few weeks, but I need to be sure...

These photos are straight from my iphone.





In this photo (below), there's a tiny bit of brown coloration, almost like a bit of dried blood from a wound on the patchy scales?





Please let me know what you think! Thanks.

So... the questions/issues here:

- patchiness on scales

- brown spots

- no interest in F/T small rat

- constantly active for unknown reason, so tired when I take him out

I took him out just now, and he just seems very tired. I don't know what's causing him to be so active all day. He's just sitting around my neck and not moving at all now, which is unusual, because normally he doesn't like staying on my neck.

[bumblebee1028]

Not sure about the brown dots, but the missing scales look like an injury. Is there anything with sharp edges in his enclosure (or something out of it, even) that he could have scraped himself on?

[redshepherd]

Not sure about the brown dots, but the missing scales look like an injury. Is there anything with sharp edges in his enclosure (or something out of it, even) that he could have scraped himself on?

For the past few weeks already, no... He just has a hide, water bowl, and aspen. Prior to that, there was a grapevine branch, but I've taken it out for awhile already. It's possible that I just didn't notice these injuries until today though, since I came back from work early and actually got to see him in daylight...

[bumblebee1028]

It looks a bit like an injury one of ours got last year. He tried to squeeze out of the bin, and scraped his scales on the supports on the lid - I think there's a pic in this thread of the bin, too. Do you keep him in a bin with a lid?

http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showt...damaged-scales

[redshepherd]

It looks a bit like an injury one of ours got last year. He tried to squeeze out of the bin, and scraped his scales on the supports on the lid - I think there's a pic in this thread of the bin, too. Do you keep him in a bin with a lid?

http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showt...damaged-scales

Yep, in that plastic bin setup... I would not be surprised at all if he wounded himself that way, with how adamant he is about being so active and trying to get out all the time lately. I just have no clue at all why he's doing it.

And now he's chilling around my neck, barely moving at all, and not trying to get off... which is very, very unusual for him. He just seems so tired from moving so much for the past couple weeks, and I can't even ask him why. :|

[Albert Clark]

Sorry to hear of the dilemma with cake. Why don't you try placing him on paper towels for now and until you can monitor the conditions progress. Also the tub that he is in, does it have makeshift ventilation holes in it? Are the ends and points of the holes facing into the tub? If so those points can be pretty sharp and may require reheating and smoothing from the inside out. The brown dots can be the particulate matter in the aspen. Aspen has a drying quality to it as well. You may need to consider adding a handful of 100% cypress mulch to the interior of the hide. What temp reading do you maintain at the hot spot?

[bumblebee1028]

It could be that he's lethargic because it's winter. They can tell as the weather changes, and a lot of them will slow down a bit and not be as active. If he's more active than normal in his tub, I would double check the temps and make sure everything is perfect.

How much does he weigh? They do get lazier as they get bigger. And if the ambient temps in your house are a bit cooler than normal, it could just be that he's not willing to move from his warm comfy spot

As for switching from mice to rats, it may take a while, as I'm sure you've heard. I try to get mine on f/t rats right away, so I don't have to switch prey types multiple times (from live to f/t, from mice to rats, etc.). Try again in another week, and make sure it's good and hot. As long as he's not losing a significant amount of weight, it won't harm him to skip a few meals; when he's hungrier, he'll be more likely to eat. And as you probably know, as they get bigger, they tend to refuse meals more often. It could be partly winter/fasting related, and not just that it was a different type of prey.

[redshepherd]

Sorry to hear of the dilemma with cake. Why don't you try placing him on paper towels for now and until you can monitor the conditions progress. Also the tub that he is in, does it have makeshift ventilation holes in it? Are the ends and points of the holes facing into the tub? If so those points can be pretty sharp and may require reheating and smoothing from the inside out. The brown dots can be the particulate matter in the aspen. Aspen has a drying quality to it as well. You may need to consider adding a handful of 100% cypress mulch to the interior of the hide. What temp reading do you maintain at the hot spot?

Yep, he's basically back in his hatchling tub (15 qt) on paper towels. Basic basics. There are holes in it, since it's his old tub. The holes are clean from the inside, which I made sure of when I first made it. :s The humidity also increased since his move back to the small tub, since I use the same larger water bowl... around 70%.

It's relatively humid where I live (which I was surprised by). My own room is consistently at 50~60% humidity. So the snakes have it at around 60~70%.

I keep the thermostat at 92, which provides an 88~92 hot spot. And since I have the hide directly over the hot spot, the ambient temp in there is some 83~85.

It could be that he's lethargic because it's winter. They can tell as the weather changes, and a lot of them will slow down a bit and not be as active. If he's more active than normal in his tub, I would double check the temps and make sure everything is perfect.

How much does he weigh? They do get lazier as they get bigger. And if the ambient temps in your house are a bit cooler than normal, it could just be that he's not willing to move from his warm comfy spot

As for switching from mice to rats, it may take a while, as I'm sure you've heard. I try to get mine on f/t rats right away, so I don't have to switch prey types multiple times (from live to f/t, from mice to rats, etc.). Try again in another week, and make sure it's good and hot. As long as he's not losing a significant amount of weight, it won't harm him to skip a few meals; when he's hungrier, he'll be more likely to eat. And as you probably know, as they get bigger, they tend to refuse meals more often. It could be partly winter/fasting related, and not just that it was a different type of prey.

Basically, I've been double-checking every possible husbandry reason, and I don't know why he's so active (in the tub). The thing is that he does NOT stay in the warm, cozy spot... He is constantly active outside of it for some wild reason- resulting in a cold and stressed snake, I feel.

Yeah, he's definitely chubby enough... but I notice that he is not quite as chubby as he was a month ago, even. I just hope that the hunger which will also contribute to causing him to be active, won't cause him to injure himself/stress himself out more.

I doubt it's fasting, because he just slammed a mouse last week. But I'm actually thawing another mouse right now and will offer in an hour, so we will see. Pretty sure there's just something causing him problems overall (which may affect his ease to switch to rats too), but I have no clue what.

At this point, he is literally like... chronically active 100% of the time. I have not seen him rest and stay warm under his hide since last week (the day after a feeding).

[redshepherd]

I'm starting to feel like being hungry is the only possible reason left... Which is weird, because a jumbo mouse is actually still large enough to leave a very slight lump in him, so I never thought it was the reason. But maybe he just needs an even bigger lump.

I guess we will see... Ugh.

Also, would it be easier to convert to rats by feeding live rats, and then converting back to F/T rats? Or just stick to trying to feed F/T rats?

He had a hard enough time converting to F/T mice, pretty much. I need to very thoroughly heat and scent the F/T mouse with fresh poopy mouse aspen every week still, or he will show zero interest.

[redshepherd]

Well... the mouse is actually already thawed. And nevermind, it is not hunger. I offered, and he showed as little interest in the mouse as he did the rat. Seriously shocked LOL.

So... constantly active, not hungry, temps are the same as they used to be, humidity correct. What the heck?