I just got my first two ball pythons about 3 weeks ago. A female and a male. Both rescues. I have experience with king snakes, milk snakes, and corn snakes. But, no experience with large constrictors.

The male came to me with scale disfiguration, and thanks to people on these forums, I figured out it was scale rot and treated it.

I'm hoping to find out if my female is healthy, or possibly dehydrated.

I keep two water bowls in her cage, one at each hide on either side of the tank, (cold and hot). I have kept the humidity at 45-55% because when I got her, she was going through a shed. She shed in pieces, even though I gave her several 85F baths, and kept her at higher humidities.

I apologize I don't have pictures. My bf takes my camera for on-site pictures for his job, and he is currently out of town. i will try to be as descript as possible.

My female does not show and "wrinkling" on her main body. However, from her head to about 4 inches past that, she has severe wrinkling. There are 3 scales that pop out at a 90 degree angle from her body. When she coils her head back it is abundantly obvious it is a not normal scale configuration. She seems to have a small fold from her jaw line back about 4 inches.

Do I need more water bowls? Her cage is the correct temperature, but, I have deep water bowls. Is the water too cold for her? I have a water thermometer and it reads at 78 degrees.

How do I fix this?

Thanks for reading.