Hello! My name is Diana and I’m new to the forum! I’ve been reading a lot of posts here because I was doing some research before getting my snake. I finally got my first ball python last Tuesday and I am so happy and excited to have him. I named him Falcor and he is a coral glow pastel morph. He is really gorgeous, very curious and active.



I got him from an online breeder that imports snakes from the US to Mexico. I live in Mexico City. I didn’t get to handle the snake before I bought him, but I received a good amount of pictures, videos and updates on his eating habits, behavior, etc. He is three months old according to the seller and has shed twice. He kept the snake in tubs and a rack system with aspen substrate and a water bowl. The seller is really nice and tries to answer all my questions even now that I’ve completed the transaction and received the snake.

The day I got him I was very surprised to notice that he has a strange skin problem on his left side, about one inch bellow the head. Some scales seem to be damaged and have a weird orange-ish coloration that doesn’t match the rest of his colors. The skin looks wrinkly and a bit dry. I immediately contacted the seller and send him pictures of the problem. He told me it was probably some stuck skin from the last shed, that he hadn’t noticed it before and that it will probably fix itself with the next shed. I am very concerned of it being some kind of a scale rot or something like that. Since I fed him yesterday and got him last Tuesday, I don’t want to handle him or take him to the vet yet, because I’m afraid I could stress him out a lot. I thought I would wait until next week to take him but I’m not sure… please let me know if anyone has seen something like this before and if it is serious.


Here is a video of him just after I placed him on his new home. Please note that the humidity wasn’t right yet and now it’s improved a lot since I covered a part of the screen top with a towel. As you can see the skin on the ‘neck’ looks a bit pulled as if there was a stripe of dry scales.

VIDEO HERE

And a close up picture of how it looks today. It hasn’t gone worse or changed at all since I got him.






Some extra information about Falcor:
Falcor eats frozen/ thawed rat fuzzies and just yesterday I gave him his first meal. He ate very well (he started on the tail but I guess that’s ok since he’s young) I haven’t handle him at all except from when I put him in his new enclosure. He has a Zilla glass terrarium (30 x 12 x 12 inches) with screen top. I followed all the care guides I could find to give him the best husbandry I could. He has a UTH, a day lamp (my house is very dark and cold) and a night (blue) light. He has hides on both sides of the tank and a water bowl on the cold side. He also has a variety of fake plants that he also uses as hiding spots. As a substrate I gave him aspen. To keep a good humidity I have been spraying his tank once a day and that seems to be enough to keep it at 55-60%


Thank you very much fir reading my long post and I hope someone can help me.