Scale Rot? Or something else?

[Fazer72110]

Hey everyone,

So I bought my male pied about a month or so ago from a guy unloading his collection. I have not handled him much besides taking him out to clean his tub. This week I started handling him more often and longer because he has had time to settle in and take some meals. He has had an attitude so I gave him extra time to mellow out.

This week I noticed discoloration under his chin and on the sides of his neck. I am not certain what it is, and I can't remember if I saw it when I bought him or not. I researched scale rot and scale discoloration, and I could not find anything that looked like this. There are no wounds or blisters or anything. It just looks like dirty gray scales.

I use paper towel substrate, and I do not let it get soaked or anything. My humidity levels stay around 80%, ambient temperature 82-84F. Anyone know what it could be?

Here are some pictures of it along with one of him when I had him out to clean his tub.








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[CptJack]

What did the guy you bought him from use as substrate ? Because that looks like nothing to me so much as ink from newspaper, maybe rubbing off there because that would what gets damp/wet when the snake drinks.

It certainly doesn't look like scale rot.

[AlexisFitzy]

It kinda looks like some stuck shed. I have a snake that is just a sucky shedder and he struggles to get the upper part of his neck and chin skin off of him and when it got stuck on him it looked like that. If it's some stuck shed you could wait until his next shed and it should come off or follow a stuck shed thread to help get it off. I'll have to find the link to that one.


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[Fazer72110]

What did the guy you bought him from use as substrate ? Because that looks like nothing to me so much as ink from newspaper, maybe rubbing off there because that would what gets damp/wet when the snake drinks.

It certainly doesn't look like scale rot.

He was using aspen. He shed the beginning of this week, but I noticed it after. If it was there before and didn't come off with the shed could it just be natural discoloration? It just looks really wierd.

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[Fazer72110]

Wish I could get a better picture, but it's hard with only having one hand free and him squirming.

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[StephenT]

What did the guy you bought him from use as substrate ? Because that looks like nothing to me so much as ink from newspaper, maybe rubbing off there because that would what gets damp/wet when the snake drinks.

It certainly doesn't look like scale rot.

It does look a lot like ink, @OP try giving your snake a good wash down. I'd avoid soap since I'm not 100% sure it's snake safe, warm water and a mild scrubbing should suffice.

[Fazer72110]

It kinda looks like some stuck shed. I have a snake that is just a sucky shedder and he struggles to get the upper part of his neck and chin skin off of him and when it got stuck on him it looked like that. If it's some stuck shed you could wait until his next shed and it should come off or follow a stuck shed thread to help get it off. I'll have to find the link to that one.


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I didn't think about it being stuck shed. He did just shed this week, but as I mentioned to CptJack I didn't notice it till after. Hopefully that's all it is.

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[Fazer72110]

It does look a lot like ink, @OP try giving your snake a good wash down. I'd avoid soap since I'm not 100% sure it's snake safe, warm water and a mild scrubbing should suffice.

Ok I'll try that later on and report back. He's super head shy so it'll be easy lol

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