Posted by:
Jeff Clark
at Wed Jun 1 23:13:55 2005 [ Email Message ] [ Show All Posts by Jeff Clark ]
te,
....Snakes sometimes defecate while they are shedding and this leaves the feces inside the shed skin. My Rainbow Boas often do this. They are relatively inactive before a shed and then very active shedding the skin and this movement often leads to defecation. If they defecate in their water bowl it will look a lot messier than usual. Really messy feces can be a sign of internal parasites. The PIC of your snake's head looks very healthy. It does look like she has some reddening on some of the belly scales. They will spend more time in the water avoiding hot cage temperatures or mites. They will also soak more if they have skin problems. The most common causes of skin problems and reddened belly scales on BRBs is exposure to a hot surface or exposure to dirty acidic substrate. In your second photo I see nice clean newspaper substrate but she is inside a cork log. Is the inside of that cork log nice and clean? What are you using to heat the cage? BTW, we do have a Rainbow Boa forum here on kingsnake.com
Jeff
>>Here's my Brazilian rainbow boa constrictor, she's about 5 years old. Lately she's been spending a lot more time than usual in her water dish; for weeks now she's spent most of her time there, but I haven't worried because this is a phase she sometimes goes through. I've done a good job of trying to keep the temperature regulated, trying to keep it around 75-80, so it's not like she's burning up or anything. Anyway, she just shed today and I noticed two things:
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>>1) the shed skin she left behind (in her water dish) was NASTY. The skin itself was ok, but inside it was a load of...something. It's almost as if it was a half-digested mouse, although there was nothing recognizable; it was brown, but slightly reddish also. I'd guess she couldn't wait to get out of her skin before she had to 'go', but it's red-ish color worries me. Maybe this is what it looks like when it's underwater, I don't know. I didn't take a picture of it, and be glad I didn't, it was nightmare material. She doesn't eat as often as she used to so the her last rat was about three weeks ago; I guess it's possible that it was a rat she regurgitated, but three weeks seems like a long time to hold it in. The more I think about it the more I feel like a ninny, it was probably gross looking because it was underwater inside her skin.
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>>2) Underneath she ought to be pale white, but she's a little pinkish, as you can kinda see in the bad photo. A bunch of years ago she had what the vet said was a slight skin infection and she was on antibiotics for a few weeks; in that case though she was much pinker and actually had (very) small amounts of blood under some of her scales. This cleared up quick and she's been fine since, but I don't know if something similar is coming back.
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>>I guess my question is, is there anything to worry about? What could have been left inside her shed skin? Is her pink underbelly something to worry about?
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>>Another shot
[ Hide Replies ]
- Sick Rainbow Boa? - te, Wed Jun 1 22:52:15 2005
 RE: Sick Rainbow Boa? - Jeff Clark, Wed Jun 1 23:13:55 2005
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