Bought a new BP. I have a few concerns about it.

[Dezoruba]

Hey everyone! I bought this girl from petsmart (I know, shun me) for $500. They told me she's pastel ivory.



Now that I have her home I can see that she's very thin. I can feel and see her spine. She's about 2 feet but only 344 grams.



Also, her scales feel very... rough in patches. Mostly on the spots that have the "ivory" coloration, she feels very rough. Could this be scar tissue or possible scale rot?

Also, I'm wondering if her pattern will become more apparent as she grows and sheds. It's very faint right now but I'm hoping she'll look more like this eventually:



Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N920A using Tapatalk

[O'Mathghamhna]

The rough spots are probably just stuck shed. Her humidity needs to be kept nice and high. They will replace her with another snake, make $500 more, and more snakes will continue to be underfed and undershed. /shun

Now that the shunning is over with (haha), she doesn't look emaciated to me, just thin. You might want to put her in a warm, wet pillowcase for about 20 minutes a day for a few days to work on the loose stuck pieces. Keep her conditions just right, keep her in quarantine until you can make sure she has no health problems or mites (so that other person in your picture holding her snake needs to watch for the same), and quit buying snakes from pet stores.

Good luck!

[Dezoruba]

The rough spots are probably just stuck shed. Her humidity needs to be kept nice and high. They will replace her with another snake, make $500 more, and more snakes will continue to be underfed and undershed. /shun

Now that the shunning is over with (haha), she doesn't look emaciated to me, just thin. You might want to put her in a warm, wet pillowcase for about 20 minutes a day for a few days to work on the loose stuck pieces. Keep her conditions just right, keep her in quarantine until you can make sure she has no health problems or mites (so that other person in your picture holding her snake needs to watch for the same), and quit buying snakes from pet stores.

Good luck!

Thank you for the advice! I just found something else -




Do these spots look like mites or scale rot? Or just darker scales? Some of the darker scales look a little jagged. I've never had a white snake before so I'm not quite sure what I'm looking at.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N920A using Tapatalk

[Dezoruba]

One more shot of the rough spots... they're kinda textured, I've never seen anything like it. Rubbing them with a wet cloth does nothing (but make her strike at me.. lol)

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N920A using Tapatalk

[Alexio]

It's hard to say for sure from the pictures... but I have an albino and an albino spider and before they shead sometimes the very edges of the scales will look....wilted? Not sure if that's the best way to describe it but just a few scale tips look almost dried or something.
If that is the case it should go away after the next shead.
Again, it's hard to say for certain as even in person you would have to look very closely.

Sent from my Z987 using Tapatalk

[O'Mathghamhna]

Is she currently or was she in a hide that may have been too tight? Either the scales could have been pushed the wrong direction by squeezing herself into a hide that's too tight or it might be stuck shed. Is she soaking herself a lot?

[Dezoruba]

It's hard to say for sure from the pictures... but I have an albino and an albino spider and before they shead sometimes the very edges of the scales will look....wilted? Not sure if that's the best way to describe it but just a few scale tips look almost dried or something.
If that is the case it should go away after the next shead.
Again, it's hard to say for certain as even in person you would have to look very closely.

Sent from my Z987 using Tapatalk

If it doesn't go away with the next shed I guess I'll take her to the vet to see if they notice anything weird!

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N920A using Tapatalk

[dkatz4]

There was a thread not too long ago where someone had similar scale issues and after much discussion and rot-fear, it turned out to be just some misshapen scales from curling up in a small hide. Full disclosure: i have never had to deal with rot, but your pics don't look like rot, just some darker scales - i imagine that on a white snake every little thing looks magnified. Obviously keep an eye on it and keep her quarantined as you would any new addition, but i honestly don't think you have anything to worry about.

Different topic: Are you sure she's a she? in the second picture of your original post it looks like i see some noticeable spurs by the vent, or am i crazy?

Oh yeah, and go sit in the corner for snake shopping at Petsmart...

(my Petco never has anything but baby normals, so i'm safe )

[Dezoruba]

There was a thread not too long ago where someone had similar scale issues and after much discussion and rot-fear, it turned out to be just some misshapen scales from curling up in a small hide. Full disclosure: i have never had to deal with rot, but your pics don't look like rot, just some darker scales - i imagine that on a white snake every little thing looks magnified. Obviously keep an eye on it and keep her quarantined as you would any new addition, but i honestly don't think you have anything to worry about.

Different topic: Are you sure she's a she? in the second picture of your original post it looks like i see some noticeable spurs by the vent, or am i crazy?

Oh yeah, and go sit in the corner for snake shopping at Petsmart...

(my Petco never has anything but baby normals, so i'm safe )

Both make and females have spurs I thought? My big 3000g normal (so no chance of her actually being male lol) has some pretty big spurs too!

I'm not sure on the sex as I don't know how to pop, just going off what they told me. I'll probably have to take her into my local exotics store and have their snake guy probe her, haha.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N920A using Tapatalk

[Dezoruba]

Is she currently or was she in a hide that may have been too tight? Either the scales could have been pushed the wrong direction by squeezing herself into a hide that's too tight or it might be stuck shed. Is she soaking herself a lot?

I just brought her home so I haven't had time to notice any soaking. Here she is in the enclosure she was in at the store:

Doesn't look too tight to me!

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N920A using Tapatalk