First time BP owner, what's wrong with my snake?

[injektmepls]

Hi all,

I'm a first time BP owner who is caring for a two foot long female ball python that I bought from a local pet store. Her husbandry isn't too great at the moment, she needs new bedding, but I am going to be replacing her bedding this week. Over the past few weeks she has developed cracks in her scales and abrasions on the edges of her scales that have turned dark brownish-black. Her last shed was not very good and she still has some shed remaining on her head, along with an old eye cap (I have gotten her some shed-eaze to help her through her next shed). Her scales are also loose (and have been almost since I have got her in February), and she appears to be a little dehydrated, even though I make sure she always has water in her bowl (I have not been misting her). I haven't been able to take her to the vet since cash is short for me, but I suspect this is a form of scale rot, so I bought some betadiene solution to bathe her in. Any insights or recommendations on this? I'd like to avoid a trip to the vet if at all possible. Thanks!



Sorry for the poor image quality, she was not being cooperative and my phone wouldn't focus in on her scales.

[PitOnTheProwl]

what are you using for a heat source and how are you regulating it?

[LittleTreeGuy]

Tell us more.... You say her husbandry isn't good. Why?

What type and size of enclosure or tank do you have her in?
How are you heating her cage?
What is the humidity level inside her cage?
Do you have a thermostat on her heat source?
Do you have thermometers and hygrometers in her tank?
What are you using for substrate now?
What size is her water bowl?
What type of hides and how many do you have now?

These are all important features for keeping a healthy snake. If you can answer all of these questions honestly, it will help us be able to offer you suggestions on what is best to do for your snake.

[Andylee11]

I noticed A similar issue on my platty awhile back. split scales ( hit and miss) throughout the length of his belly, in my case however . Tried Betadine . Ended up stopping that to see what a shed would do . After one shed looking better, after shed two , even better . . Not suggesting anything just my experience with a issue that looked similar to this .

[Zoe]

Wow man I don't want to attack you but you need to get it together. I'm glad you're on top of this and being honest, and you've caught it early so there is likely no need for a vet trip yet but, if her husbandry "isn't too great" to the point of causing scale rot, you need to fix it NOW. The betadine will help but it will not fix the problem if the husbandry issues are still present.

A bin setup with newspaper or papertowel would be ideal for the moment, you can keep the humidity high enough for her to get the shed off, but the substrate (paper) can be dry so that her scale rot doesn't get worse.

[bcr229]

A bin setup with newspaper or papertowel would be ideal for the moment, you can keep the humidity high enough for her to get the shed off, but the substrate (paper) can be dry so that her scale rot doesn't get worse.

At this point we don't know if the snake has scale rot or a burn from an unregulated UTH.

[Willowy]

If you can't change the substrate right away (finances, time, whatever), just dump the old stuff and put paper towels in. Cheap and easy, you can do it in 5 minutes. Dirty substrate causes trouble, so just dump it as soon as you can. You can keep using paper towels if you want. . .I did it for awhile but my guy started burrowing under the paper towels and they would get in the water dish and wick it all out. Happened like 5 times before I got sick of it and put aspen chips in again, lol.

For humidity, put foil or plastic wrap on the lid of the tank, tape it around the edges (make sure it's only on the outside of the tank. No tape around snakes!). I don't mist; if it gets too dry I pour a little bit of water on the substrate directly over the UTH. That steams it up in a hurry, and dries fast enough that mold doesn't develop. I don't claim to really know what I'm doing yet, but they've had all perfect sheds so far!

If you have a heat mat/undertank heater, you need a thermostat to keep it from getting too hot. A Hydrofarm from Amazon would be the cheapest.

Honestly, keeping a snake enclosure with good conditions is just as easy as keeping one with bad conditions. . .well, easier since you don't have to deal with the health issues. Just takes a little tweaking to get things running well.