Reptile & Amphibian Forums

This is Kate. I got her from petco....rescue i guess you could say...although petco is way better then most other pet shops around here.
Anyway, she jus shed about a month ago. She late last saturday and did really well with it. But i jus noticed how her head is looking almost like her skin is dry...i guess like we get dry skin. I do have a water bowl provided for her and her body seems ok.
Its mostly her head. Last time she shed i had to help her with the head part but she took care of her body. I also made sure the eye caps came off too.
Im not sure if this is normal or not. Ive never noticed this with any of my other snakes.
I hope its not to hard to tell in these pics.
Anyone got any ideas? Thanks

It sounds like she is doing well and she looks ok to me... but, if you think she may be dry just raise the humidity a bit. You can do this by using a squirt bottle or whay i do is just spill some water out of the water bowl directly overt the heat pad.. in a few minutes the tank will start to fog up...

~ Mike Russo

I agree with Mike Russo; if you think the snake is too dry, follow his suggestions.

You took some very good pics of Katie's head BTW, and that helps a lot. I didn't really see anything worth worrying about in the first 2 pics, but in the 3rd, the individually torn/peeling scales near her eyes makes me wonder what you have in her cage.

About two years ago I unfortunately decided to try a "reptile carpet" for substrate in my oldest female Ball Python's cage. I found similarly torn scales, and even individually shed scales that were most often on her belly, not on her head. As far as I could tell, this was caused by the individual fibers of the "carpet" mat catching on the edge of her scales as she moved around in her cage.

Anyhow, would you have anything that may have a particularly rough or fibrous surface in the cage with her? What I am seeing doesn't look like a humidity problem... but I am judging this from the 3 photos you provided, so I'm not in a position to diagnose anything for certain.

Good luck!

~Rebecca
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0.1 Dumeril's Boa '04 (Courtney)
1.2 Ball Pythons
[1.0 '05 Orange Hypo (Specter)]
[0.1 '05 Het Orange Hypo (Sylvia)]
[0.1 '03 Normal (Sue)]
0.2 American Pit Bull Terriers (40lb darling lap dogs:Brandy&Mara)

I use aspen shavings for substrate. Not really anthing else bad that i know of. Shes got a plastic hide and one of those exo terra rock lookin water bowl. I did have to help her with her head on her last shed. I guess its possible i made those marks.
By the way, thanks for the pic remarks. I do a little photography here and there so i know a little about gettin some decent pix.

If the edges of the plastic hide might be rough or sharp at all, that might do what you are seeing. I wouldn't think that aspen shavings would do anything like that at all. Would the "exo terra rock lookin water bowl" have really rough edges she could have scraped her head on?

Other than that, it concerns me that you say you could have made those marks trying to help her shed.

All you really need to do to help a snake remove a stuck shed is to soak the animal for around 20 minutes in mildly warm water (just barely warm enough to call it "warm" ). After that, use your own wet fingers to gently rub the edges of stuck shed in a general nose-to-tail direction. It may take a little bit of time, but it is FAR better than using any other instruments which might harm the healthy skin underneath the stuck shed. The same goes if you ever encounter a stuck eye cap, with no other stuck shed surrounding it; soak for 20, then gently rub... in the case of just an eye cap, it may be easier to rub with a wet Q-tip than your finger, depending on how head-shy the snake may be.

Hopefully, all will pan out well with the next shed cycle.

Good luck!

~Rebecca
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0.1 Dumeril's Boa '04 (Courtney)
1.2 Ball Pythons
[1.0 '05 Orange Hypo (Specter)]
[0.1 '05 Het Orange Hypo (Sylvia)]
[0.1 '03 Normal (Sue)]
0.2 American Pit Bull Terriers (40lb darling lap dogs:Brandy&Mara)