or hydrochloric acid in the stomach. Have you ever felt the burning in your throat after you threw up? It probably gave a chemical burn to your snake all over it. This caused all the rest of the way the skin looked initially. You have added injury by rubbing the skin off of the burn. Leave your snake alone when it is shedding. Don't try to rub the skin off if it is clinging to your snake because you will hurt the snake. If you wish to help a snake shed then soak it or make a humidity bin (see below).

The places where it is pinkish white is where you have actually rubbed so much of the skin off the poor boa that you rubbed the layer of the skin that contains the melanin off. Now you're going to have to watch this boa for infections. Use regular Neosporin (not Neosporin Plus) everyday on the places where you rubbed the color off. These are places where he snake can get infections, but because of the burn of course infections could happen in other places too.

If I had your boa I would take it to the vet. That is a whole lot of trauma for one poor snake and it must be in great pain as well.

If all the skin doesn't come off the first time this snake sheds, do not be surprized, and don't try to pick it off. Anything left will come off the next shed. Keep the humidity in the cage high for a while too (spray the cage a couple times a day but not so much the water is running down the walls), and make a humidity bin for the snake with soft moss in it and put it on the cool side, so the snake can get some relief from the burns by laying in it (do this right away). You can do this with any tupperware container by cutting a hole in it and putting moist sphagnum moss in it. You can buy the moss at most gardening centers and other snake places. It is especially important that you keep the bin clean too because your snake has those abrasions, and you will have to check it everyday to be sure it is still nice and moist. Keep the cage clean as well.

Good luck,
Caden

[ Hide Replies ]

• MAJOR SHEDDING PROBLEM!!! PLEASE HELP!! - magicman, Thu Jul 20 00:10:48 2006
• well, yeah it's HCl . . . - slithering_serpents, Thu Jul 20 00:59:41 2006