"dry" nose ?? +changing soiled substrate

[firedragon]

Here I am again with my noob questions...

First, the soiled substrate. I'm currently using paper towels and I've had my ball pythons for three weeks now. Some of them have eaten, some haven't. It's been 8 days now since my last feeding effort and I was thinking of trying again today. I've got four little babies who haven't eaten with me yet, however they have eaten live mice with the breeder. I've tried F/T, which the other babies have accepted readily. My actual question is about the upkeep of the enclosures (they're all housed separately in small rubbermaids, my plan is to sell them as soon as they've had their meals). Of course, soiled paper towels need to be replaced right away or as soon as possible. However, will this disturb them so that they might not eat? I had to take them out of course, take everything out of the enclosure, then change to clean paper towels, then but them back. This took perhaps three minutes, during which I put them in a small, plastic, ventilated box. I tried to handle them as little as possible.

Any tips on how to be as discreet as possible with the cleaning? Will this stress them and is it advisable to really leave them all alone during the feeding efforts (I've replaced the water every two or three days or so, but the paper towels are harder to replace without causing disturbance) and not change the substrate?

My second question concerns one of the females. She's very tiny and hasn't eaten yet, her skin is also kind of loose, but her eyes aren't dented and she's been really active during her stay here. When I got her I noticed her nose looked different than the others', it seemed dry, it wasn't as shiny as the rest of her scales. What could this be? She hasn't yet shed with me so I don't know if it's permanent. Here are some pics to describe what I mean:







It's not actually gray, that's the lightning playing tricks.

[Sassafrass]

Seems to me like you are doing everything you can to disturb them as little as possible. You are right about changing the soiled substrate as soon as noticed. You dont want them crawling around in their poo. (yuk)

As for her nose, could possibly be a leftover from her last shed. Keep an eye on the humidity, and hopefully it will come off with her next shed. If not, maybe a vet visit is in order.

Good luck with the babies...it sounds like you are doing everything you can to make them happy.

[JLC]

The nose thing could be from rubbing on something rough. I would just watch it and see if it clears up after a shed or two.

As for changing the substrate...I think it's more important to keep them in a clean envirnoment than to avoid stressing them out a little bit. But an idea to make the stress as minimal as possible:

Do all their little tubs look the same? If so...get one extra one. Put clean paper towels in it...then move the snake and its hide and water dish over into the new, clean tub. That way they only have to be moved once. Then clean the now emptied tub and use it to move the next snake into.

If you're keeping close track of each animal's progress and have the tubs numbered or otherwise labeled, just make a moveable label that you shift over to the clean tub with the little snakie.

Sounds like you're doing an excellent job so far! I hope all the babies start eating for you!

[Marla]

Judy, that's a great idea about the spare tub!

It sounds as if you're doing just fine with the babies, and I suspect that the odd nose is a result of rubbing on something looking for an escape route. Housed in rubbermaid, she'll probably lose it after a shed or three, though there could be scarring. My biggest has a big permanent nose rub scar from being housed with a mesh top for four years before I got her.

[firedragon]

Thank you for the help, the spare tub idea sounds great. They're not all identical, but most of them are.
It just bugs me that she had it when she got here, don't know what sort of enclosure she (and the other babies) lived in before, but she's the only one with this marking. The rubbermaid has a mesh, because I'm having trouble getting the humidity down (now it's around 65%) but it's plastic and not rough at all. At least the rub hasn't gotten worse while she's been here.

[Smulkin]

I had a similar situation with our AfRock - had a funny little diddly on the nose, almost looked scabby - give it a few sheds and it should take care of itself. Cuties.