Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I was looking my new BRB over today and I'm noticing that she's really, really dull (even after a nice long soak last night) and has a lot of 'dimpling' on her scales. Basically the middle of the scale is concave, and almost looks rippled. She's about 28" long and fairly active, which is good, because she was horribly cold when I transferred her out of her old tank into a rubbermaid for the 60-mile trip from her old home to her new one with me...

Her previous living conditions were TERRIBLE and I'm hoping that with proper heat, humidity and feeding she'll spring back, and of course she's going to have a visit to the veterinarian sometime this week, but is there anything else I should be doing to try and get her healthy?

I know that juveniles need pretty high humidity, my hygrometer is reading mid 70% with 78 cool and 88 warm. She's got 3" deep aspen bedding that I mist, a BIG water dish, and a bunch of fake foliage for hiding, but she's usually burrowed all the way down into the aspen. I have her in a 28qt sterilite currently.

Your new Rainbow will likely look dull until it sheds for you. Dimpling could easily be due to dehydration. I would lower the temps on both the cool and warm side to no more than 82 and no less than 75 and increase the humidity to 90%. It would be helpful to place damp paper towels under the aspen or mix in a handfull or two of moist sphagnum moss into the aspen to maintain a higher humidity. If you have to mist daily something is off in your enclosures ability to hold humidity.
Good luck and congrats on your new Rainbow.

Linda
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When the student is ready, the teacher appears. When the student is ready, the teacher appears. When the student is ready, the teacher appears. When the student is ready, the teachers appears.

what about using something like bed-a-beast coco mulch for the substrate, would that be okay? I know that stuff holds humidity pretty well...

I'll lower her temps right now, though...

.>>what about using something like bed-a-beast coco mulch for the substrate, would that be okay? I know that stuff holds humidity pretty well...
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>>I'll lower her temps right now, though...
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When the student is ready, the teacher appears. When the student is ready, the teacher appears. When the student is ready, the teacher appears. When the student is ready, the teachers appears.

I agree, but I would totally remove the aspen and replace it with the Sphaganum (spelling?) moss or cypress mulch or some other less mold prone substrate...

Aspen is good at drying snakes out...
the dimpling of scales (and eye caps) is a sign of slightly low humidity...it is not a real problem in my experience.

I know this will be going against the grain, But I like to keep my older snakes as dry as possible, but not so dry that they will not shed in one piece...

The babies seem to enjoy slightly higher humidity (above 70%).
good luck...BHH
rainbowboas.com

Linda's right, the temps are too high and sounds like you've already addressed that, Great!! The dimpling does sound like dehydration. When I acquired Savannah (my high red female) se also had scale distortion/dimpling like you described in yours. She also had a lot of crustiness to her eyes. I suspect there were everal layers of retained eyecaps. She had obviously been kept in a dry environment for some time. Long story short, a few months of proper care and nice humid environment and she turned into a georgeous female BRB.

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Thanks,

Dave Colling

www.rainbows-r-us-reptiles.com

0.1 Wife (WC)
0.2 kids (CBB, selectively bred from good stock)

LOL, to many snakes to list, last count:
13.26 BRB
11.16 BCI
And those are only the breeders

lots.lots.lots feeder mice and rats