Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi Folks!!

Wanted to comment TODAY on the mystery of recurrent sheds.About ten years ago, I had a kingsnake that would turn opaque, with eyes clouded over,then they would go clear, but instead of shedding its skin, it would proceed to go into yet ANOTHER shed cycle, and then another.Despite soaking, it finally died. No mites. Good body weight. No regurge.

Well, I have a snake currently that went through a shed cycle, and upon completion of said shed cycle, after going opaque skin and clouded eyes and clear eyes to culminate in shedding skin...emerged with *Opaque* looking skin on his ventral surface.

Some particulars about this snake:

*It is mite free as are the rest of my anally maintained snakes*
*It eats consistently, defecates consistently, and accepts fresh water consistantly. Has a rather broad diet.
*It has a humidity chamber, filled with spaghnum that has been sanitized, to assist in the shed process
*It has ideal temps, for the most part.
No other snakes are housed with it and it has not been used for breeding purposes this season.
U.V. light is provided.
Novalsan is used to clean the cage. A Vision.

How many of you in this dry community have experienced this condition in your snakes? As I said this is the second time in about 15 years that I have seen it, and I am puzzled by it. Immediately upon shedding the old skin, I noticed that the underbelly scales seems opaque, and yes the ventral scales all came off in the shed also...

Feedback?

Fred

My import yellowtail just did back to back sheds. It did however have a scrape and gash on the head. It shed immediatly went blue and shed again. Stress, hormones, illness? I do not know but it eats fine and has been gaining weight so it is a mystery.
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"Life without risk is to merely exist."

i know that if a snake gets injured, it will complete multiple sheds to help heal itself. breeding bites will bring on this cycle too. this girl just shed twice in less than 4 weeks from minor bites she received from the male. i've seen cribos frequently shed off 'love marks' as well.....

My lovely fiance has a cornsnake named Peanut that used to do something similar when she was a youngster. On several occasions she would go into a shed cycle, become opaque, and come out without ever shedding her skin. A few weeks later she would repeat. About every three shed cycles or so she would actually slough off the old skins. On a few occasions she would shed a layer only to reveal an opaque looking layer underneath. Probably one of the strangest things I have ever seen. She seems to have grown out of it since she doesn't do it anymore. What kind of snake are you having this problem with? Hopefully he(she) will grow out of it too. Good luck.
Robert

Hi Fred, I have seen this "syndrome" in Lampropeltis, especially L.zonata and L.g. floridana, L.g.holbrooki. I am not confusing it with "blister disease". Sometimes the ventrals are wrinkled as well. I theorize something is wrong and the snake is trying to "cure" itself. I saw it shortly after they emerged from brumation, and I assumed they had a difficutl shedding and perhaps should not have been brumated or should have been cooler. I do not know what if/any the husbandry problem might be, I have only seen it a couple times in over 40 years of husbandry. What say the brethrin'? Vic

I bought a trio of zonata (Calif. Mtn kings) a couple of years back. They were feeding fine for a couple of months then started refusing food. Right after that one of them went through multiple sheds. It got to the point that it would shed and already be opaque underneath. It then died. I brumated the other two that fall, and when they came out of brumation both were opaque. They each went through the same shedding problem as well. I would try to assist them with their sheds, but there would be multiple layers of shed under each layer as it came off. They also experienced some paralysis in the lower 1/3 of their bodies. I did some research into it and found that all of the symptoms were attributed to 'zonata disease'. I contacted the person that sold them to me and found that he had bought out someone's collection and was reselling them. I believe that the original owner knew what was going on and was dumping them. Anyhow, that was my experience with multiple sheds...
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Paul Weaver
Carolina Herps

like was already shed....sorry...said i've seen this in zonata suffering from that zonata disease....also have seen it in a blairs and black milk.....i thought they were dehydrated...because the scales would crinkle up....i think that there might be an internal injury or infection that stimulates this healing behavior of back to back shed cycles....we all know injury will put a snake into this cycle......how's that hypothesis sound???

I have seen some snakes do this in pine shavings. Pine oil is an irritant and can cause them to go into frequent sheds. Take a close look at what is in the enclosure.