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You have several problems there

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Posted by: Jeff Schofield at Sat Oct 24 16:34:25 2009   [ Email Message ] [ Show All Posts by Jeff Schofield ]  
   

The most glaring now is to gain the confidence of your landlord. If you still allowed to keep snakes read on.

In the pic you will notice both stuck skin from the last shed AND flared scales indicating a continuing skin infection. This one was in rough shape before the escape, and its likely very dehydrated now. A dehydrated snake with a skin infection is a serious problem. It is likely soaking as we speak. Open water exascerbates the infection and great care must be taken, this is CONTAGIOUS! Make sure to wash your hands before and after dealing with this snake. Its going to need a REAL hot spot(100 plus)and a wide temp range while it heals. Too much water will lead to blistering so hand water only for a week. No water in the cage! it will likely go through a couple more sheds without eating in quick succession in a attempt to heal. Feeding is unlikely, force feeding a tail twice a week during "treatment" should keep it alive.

Caging going forward. I like to keep baby milks in deli cups. They usually feed better and its easier to monitor humidity, which is super important to babies. For heat I use rope light, you can find this at a home depot. You can put one edge of the deli cup on the rope; you now have a secure, cheap and easy to manage set up that will hold you til you get something built for the adults. The hot end using rope light wont be much higher than 90, so its not hot enough and a deli isnt big enough to offer proper thermoreguation during sickness, and this one should be kept in a seperate room if possible while you quarantine it.

Skin infections are likely the number 1 killer of baby snakes. I have tried hydrogen peroxide on a swab, antifungal powder and several other things. Too often by the time you spot the problem it is already too late, as its often the cure that gets them off feed.

I may be over-reacting here, but better that now than the alternative. These are all good suggestions that have worked for me, there are other ways of course. But if you are new into snakes do yourself a favor and keep things as simple as possible til they are regularly feeding and growing. Dont make big investments into caging (time or $$) til you establish what and how many you want to keep. Its a mistake too many of us have made. Good luck.



   

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