Posted by:
zach_whitman
at Thu Apr 9 00:33:33 2009 [ Email Message ] [ Show All Posts by zach_whitman ]
OK. 2 things are coming to mind right away.
First of all, your set up is not allowing your snake to conserve its moisture. Glass tanks with screen tops are notorious for that. What you are doing by spraying is just wetting the surface, the air however stays very very dry. If you use a heat lamp its even worse. The light heats the air which rises up out of the tank and is replaced by new air. This cycle drys the heck out of the tank. By wetting the surface you provide an area for bacteria to grow and you wet the scales but you don't let the snake conserve moisture. Snakes don't absorb water through their belly skin, they loose it by breathing. In the wild a snake will drink rarely but it will spend most of its time curled up in a tiny relatively humid space where it stays hydrated.
You need to provide this. Your snake at the very least needs a humidity chamber full of damp spagnum most. At best I would make a solid top for the tank, change the substrate to something that holds water better like cypress, and provide several tight dark hides.
The second thing is that your snake may already have a skin infection that will not be cured just by correcting your husbandry. I can't see anything in those pictures but like I said before, I would see a vet, do a culture and get some antibiotics to prevent a secondary infection if you don't have one already.
You may want to keep the snake on something more sterile like newspaper for just a few days to let the skin heal, but you still must provide humidity. (not wetness)
good luck
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RE: Olive skin issue - zach_whitman, Thu Apr 9 00:33:33 2009
