Reptile & Amphibian Forums

My 3 month old male keeps having dehydration problems. I have to soak him at least once a week or he quickly becomes dehydrated. My female is kept in almost identical conditions (bigger cage... she's 2) and I hardly ever have this issue with her. Does it take hatchlings a while to catch on to the fact that they can't get all their moisture out of their food or is my little guy just being stubborn? Could something else be wrong? I haven't been able to get a good fecal yet (he likes to hide them so I never find them before they're dried out) but as soon as I do my vet does fecals for me for $8 (I use him for all my leos too). Thanks in advance.

You've just about answered your own question there - my first thought would be parasites. If you can't get actual poop to take to the vets then ask for a cloacal wash to be done which might show up the parasites. I think if he is dehydrating as much as this he really needs to see a vet anyway to check his general health.

How long have you had him for, and where did you get him from? Do you know if he is CB or farmed? Has he eaten for you? Is his weight good? He sounds like he may have similar problems to the one I was given, albeit not so serious, so if you can give me some more info I'll try and help you out.

How long have you had him for, and where did you get him from?
I got him from a local reptile shop 2 months ago.

Do you know if he is CB or farmed?
There's no telling... the owner of the shop has been out of town a lot recently...doing shows, I think

Has he eaten for you? Like a champ! He doesn't hesitate to take his food and is doing a small mouse a week

Is his weight good? He's probably not what anybody would consider stocky but he isn't skinny either. He is nice and round shaped with some good mass toward the middle to end of his body. His eyes are bright and clear and he is very active and curious and friendly. If it weren't for the dehydration I'd think he was in tip top shape. Whenever I soak him he looks great after a couple hours (I use pedialyte).

Well since you got him from a shop I'm assuming he's farmed, in which case you probably are looking at some sort of parasite problem. Congrats on getting him feeding, they can be difficult but sometimes if they've been without food for a while from shipping and handling it can have an effect on their digestion so that might be a problem with yours. Also whats your humidity levels at? If you can it might help him to keep him a little higher than normal. Another trick I use with mine is to inject the mouse's belly with a little more water, as dehydration was a major problem with mine when I got her and I read some one saying that if you're using frozen it dries them out a bit. I don't think you're going to have too huge a problem with him if you can get him treated for parasites and tweak your regime to suit him. May jjust be taking him a while to recover from the stress of shipping and all that moving about before you got him home. They're all individuals and some need a little more TLC than others.

Hello -

Could I ask how are you determining that your snake is dehydrated? How does it look? What symptoms does it show? Also, has it shed since you got it? If so, how many times, and in one or two pieces or many pieces?

-Joan

The skin up toward his head looks a little pinched on the sides... like there is too much skin for the snake.

Since I have had him he's shed twice. The first was all in one piece and he's currently in the second but we're having problems this time. He looks like he might retain one eyecap and his shed is all in pieces. Hopefully soaking him and the little bit of mineral oil I put on the eyecap will help. I've had to coax some of it off him because he seemed to be having problems but he seemed happy enough to let me help. His head seems to be a problem area but I have a mister set up in his cage now so the humidity should be really high and help him out.

Do you think we may be talking about different things? That is, the snake is taking in plenty of fluids and is not dehydrated, but your humidity is low so it is having difficulty shedding. Similar to how our skin may get dry and flaky in low humidity.

I think he is dehydrated AND also having trouble shedding due to the humidity being too low in his enclosure. I know it seemed a bit confused since I referred to the shedding problem around his head and also the pinched skin near his head (not shed. just seems to have some skin on the sides for 3-4 inches that doesn't seem "full"... hard to explain). Do very young snakes have "extra" skin near their head so they can take larger prey? If so, that could explain it. I've never had a baby before.