Shedding Individual Scales?

[steveboos]

I have had my BP for about a month now and she finally ate last night ( first time in almost 4 weeks). But today when i got home from work i noticed that she had alot of single scales all over the tank. I sprayed her down and then soaked her in warm water for about 5 mintues. I'm going to let her get so more loose so that tomorrow i can soak her real good and get as many scales off as possible.

I have her in a 55 gal tank and humidity is hard to keep up but its usually around 45-55%. I also have her on newspaper for the meantime, once she gets better i'll put the repti bark back in. Is this a sign of mites or is it because she has only had about 2 or 3 GOOD full one piece sheds in her entire 3 year life? The previous owners never paid attention to humidity, just gave her baths. I'm worried for her well being, but i'm getting a 2x2x1 vision cage tomorrow so i wont have to worry about humidity much longer.

Stephen.

[dr del]

Hi,

I would leave her alone for a day or two as she has just eaten.

That trumps any shedding problem.

Have you been spraying or treating her with anything oil based?


dr del

[steveboos]

Oh yes i forgot to mention, i gave her a mineral oil bath on Oct 27th, and i've read on here it could be atrributed to that. I didn't really handle her much except for moving her 2 inches into the warm tub in her tank. She stayed in till she wanted to come out. She never had cloudy eyes, so i don't know whats going on. I just spray her tank every day with warm water to keep humidity up.

[Kaorte]

Its probably from the oil bath. Sounds like just a couple layers of the scales are coming off.

You shouldn't really bathe the snake in oil, it is unnecessary and just causes problems, as you can see.

[steveboos]

Well it was mostly water bath, 2 cap fulls per 3 gallons. Most of the scales coming off are brown though.

[Kaorte]

Its still enough to cause scales to fall off.

You soaked your snake in 3 gallons of liquid??

[rabernet]

I'm curious why you gave her a mineral oil bath? I wouldn't soak her any longer, just wait for her next regular shed. No need to give her any additional stress, and they really don't need to be soaked. The only time that I soak is AFTER a shed with retained shed left behind.

[Skiploder]

Oh yes i forgot to mention, i gave her a mineral oil bath on Oct 27th, and i've read on here it could be atrributed to that. I didn't really handle her much except for moving her 2 inches into the warm tub in her tank. She stayed in till she wanted to come out. She never had cloudy eyes, so i don't know whats going on. I just spray her tank every day with warm water to keep humidity up.

That's why she is shedding her individual outer scales - the mineral oil bath. Using neosporin or other oil based ointments can cause single scales to fall off.

While you need to leave the poor thing alone for awhile, you also need to make sure all of the mineral oil is washed off. The scale issue will resolve itself after a couple of sheds.

For now, get used to the idea of seeing little scales all over the place.

[steveboos]

Well she has some skin issues, missing scales, cloud part on the top of her head. I was told by one of my friends whos been breeding and keeping snakes for over 40 years and he said that this would get rid of any mites or anything that could be causing some of these skin problems. I soaked her in my bathtub, so those 3 gallons came up to half her body and she was in there for only 3 minutes.

[Skiploder]

Well she has some skin issues, missing scales, cloud part on the top of her head. I was told by one of my friends whos been breeding and keeping snakes for over 40 years and he said that this would get rid of any mites or anything that could be causing some of these skin problems. I soaked her in my bathtub, so those 3 gallons came up to half her body and she was in there for only 3 minutes.

You can let him know that his nifty mineral oil trick gave you a new problem to deal with. After 40 years of snake keeping it looks like he may have learned something new.

Mineral oil won't get rid of a mite infestation. Those skin problems can be resolved with proper husbandry (temps/humidity/security/lack of stress). Mites need to be treated in a way that kills them not only on the snake, but in the enclosure and in also the newly hatched mites that may be deposited in eggs.

Soaking a snake, even one that is acclimated to you let alone a new acquisition is stressful. Soaking her in a bath of mineral oil that you can't control the temperature of is even more stressful.

If you have a mite issue, research ways in which to combat the mite problem. In the meantime, your concern should be limiting the amount of stress you inflict on her.