Shedding ???

[Ladyduke]

Forgive me if I am long winded!
Ok so I am fairly new to ball pythons but have read extensively and think I am doing most things right..... So I bought a BP for my husband right before Christmas, the guy I got her from claimed to have had her since she hatched. When I got her he said she had finished shedding that day, his proof was torn up shed all over the room he kept her in (she wasn't caged, she was kept with 7 other snakes in a closet basically) and he himself was covered in pieces of shed from holding her. He claimed she was shedding every 4-5 months, but thought she should be shedding more often. She had several layers of stuck eyecaps, which I left alone.

After getting her home, we put her in a tub, she had signs of scale rot which we treated with neosporin, and we keep her on papertowels. Her temps are 83 cool side and 92-93 warm side, humidity is 60-70%. I use an accurite thermo/hygro and a UTH controlled with a dimmer for heat.

I have 2 questions, the first is, I can't keep her out of her water bowl. She does not have mites, her temps should be fine, I know she was having crummy sheds, but she did not appear to have any shed other than her eyecaps on. This has been going on for about 3 weeks. I figured it may have something to do with shedding, which brings me to my second question. She shed completely less than 48 hours ago. We were able to unroll the whole thing, and it was complete from tail to nose, with all of her stuck eyecaps included. (I am very proud) but her belly re pinked, and she is starting to look blue again. Is it possible for a snake to immediately go into another shed? I have a second BP that we rescued and are treating for severe belly burns, tape worm, and pin worms, and even with his healing burns and rapid weight gain, he is just entering a second shed after 3 weeks, which the vet said to expect, but can a BP shed and re enter shed in 48 hours??

Sorry again that this is so long!

[Ladyduke]

What I should have said is her eyes are looking more gray again and she is starting to look more blue. I know their bellies can stay pink for a while, but she really looks ready to enter a second shed.

[Elise.m]

If you could post pictures, that would help alot. She might be soaking due to dehydration. From what you described her previous conditions, it's possible she was dehydrated.

If you can't post pictures, my best guess for the pink belly would be she's going into shed to try and get rid of the rest of the scale rot.

[rabernet]

An animal that is stressed or sick will shed more frequently. Sounds like she came from a very stressful previous home. Have you had her vet checked yet?

[Ladyduke]

I don't have any pictures of her belly, I killed my last set of camera batteries taking pictures of her full shed. I did check the area's of scale rot after she shed, and there are still a couple problem scales, so hopefully she is just trying to shed that off. She did shed off several patches of rot with this shed though, so I hope it is almost gone.

I did think she was probably dehydrated, so we were soaking her regularly before she started sitting in her water bowl. I have also witnessed her drinking several times. Overall she is really pretty healthy.

I do also know that her pink belly isn't septicemia or anything like that, we went over all of that in detail with vet when we rescued our other snake. I just didn't think they would shed so soon.

Do you think sitting in her water for so long will affect treating the scale rot? I know wet conditions can cause it, so I wouldn't think sitting in water would help it.

[Ladyduke]

An animal that is stressed or sick will shed more frequently. Sounds like she came from a very stressful previous home. Have you had her vet checked yet?

She hasn't been in yet, however we have spoken to our vet about her at length, and he identified her scale rot through pictures. Her appt if you will is set for the next time she poops, so that we can do her parasite float as well. Unless she were to have any other problems, in which case we would take her in immediately!

[Elise.m]

How are her hides?

[Kaorte]

Sometimes ball pythons will use water bowls as hides if they don't feel secure enough in their hides. What kind of hides do you have for her now?

[rabernet]

Her scale rot is likely what's causing the frequent shedding.