Hello! Im new to this forum but figured I would get a leg in because my other half is an avid snake lover/owner! We do however need some advice. We just aquired a Blood Python yesterday. This snake is just a juvenile, about a foot long. My boyfriend went and picked him up and before I even got home from work he called and said that he wasnt very happy because it looked like it may have been bitten a few places my a mouse. Upon further inspection after we got it out and handled it a bit in the daylight, it has some pretty funky things going on!
Alot of his scales are "raised" up along his sides, and 2 or 3 of them actually peeled off. At first we thought it might be Skin Rot. We looked online at various websites about that condition, but from what I gather Skin Rot more often occurs on the belly region, and actually appears to be rotting scales (brown tinged areas on the scales). On this snake the belly isnt affected, just the sides of the snake. With the skin rot, it informs you to lower the humidity and take as much moisture out of the enclosure as possible. So, we went in and put paper towels for bedding, took out the large water bowl and turned up and raised the temps a bit.
I did some more reading to try and figure out what this condition is and now Im not so sure its skin rot. Maybe its possibly just dry/flaky skin?? Which if that is the case, then we need to be doing the opposite!! I just dont know whether to dry him out or get him more moisture! I did take two pictures of him, which arent the greatest. The only camera I have is on my cell phone, but I got the best I could with it.
I was wondering if anyone has ever had this type of condition with their snakes, and if so, what is it and how should it be treated? Right now the main question is do we dry him out or soak him?? Any information would be greatly appreciated, thank you!


http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y91...haus/skin1.jpg
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y91...haus/skin2.jpg