Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Thought I should do a followup on my recent post (forums.kingsnake.com/view.php?id=1737757,1737757 about the stuck-shed/mites eye cup issue now that she has shed. I took the advice from Doug (DMong) and others to swab with mineral oil after clearing prior to shed and her shed came off perfectly. Note I never saw any direct evidence of mite infestation. The eyes are almost perfect now with just the slightest white area at the bottom which may just be normal and if not will probably just take one more shed. I could not detect a second, old eye cup in the shed but there did appear to be some pathology associated with it as in the diagram below.

My crummy diagram of the shed eye cup to show the rough, stalk-like skin around the eye cup. Mite damage perhaps? Any ideas?

Glad the shed all came of easily without incident.

It's hard to say for absolute sure, but I think it's just from previous tissue damage that is now uncovered and able to heal. If you REALLY closely examined the shed(even if it required a magnifying glass) to see that the "crusty" part of the stalk area you mentioned was completely shed along with the rest in one piece, I'd say things are looking up. Hopefully this is the case. Maybe some antibiotic ointment pressed into that area with your finger will help it out some too.

Hope things continue on the right track with it. Just keep paying VERY CLOSE ATTENTION to those areas that everything comes completely off in ONE piece, and I'd say things will be just fine in another shed or two.

~Doug

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"Better to be silent and thought a fool, than to open mouth and remove any doubt!"

Thanks Doug, both eyecaps came off clean and attached along 100% of the periphery. I'm thinking bad mite infestation like you and other suggested. She is pretty much flawless right now and if I may say, one pretty [bleep]en, (and so far hissy [bleep]y) snake! ...very unusual head shape, especially if seen in profile.

Yes, a previous mite infestation is certainly what it probably was from, those little bastards like to gather in groups around the eye and go to town!

Really good to hear that otherwise the snake is doing very well. It is definitely a VERY nice looking specimen.

I see you are ALSO finding out about the "feisty" behavior they are many times known to display!..LOL!

have fun!

~Doug
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"Better to be silent and thought a fool, than to open mouth and remove any doubt!"

She's just a bleeping windbag that's all...I reckon she'll calm down but for now it's quite amusing

n/p
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"Better to be silent and thought a fool, than to open mouth and remove any doubt!"

I'm glad that snake is doing better, what a cool species, and yours is a pretty one.

Nate

Thanks Nate, it definitely has a personality The group I bought him from said it's CB from Egyptian stock but I have little confidence in that. I would really like to nail down the origins of that particular morph if possible. Anyone out there know which part of the species huge range it might be from based on pattern/color etc?

Yeah, I'm not too confident it was captive-produced either, but who really knows. It still could very well be from Egyptian bloodlines though, or even been hatched from a gravid wild import as well.

Bill Gilligham(of Great Valley Serpentarium) has bred these for a good while too, so if you get him to chime in, he could probably offer some good helpful insight on this too.

I would also go to the "rear-fanged" forum, over there you will probably run into more folks that are experienced with them.

good luck with that very cool lookin' "wind-bag"..LOL!

~Doug
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"Better to be silent and thought a fool, than to open mouth and remove any doubt!"

I Called "Great Valley Serpentarium" hoping to talk to Bill but apparently he sold the operation...although
the individual I spoke to said he is still involved on a volunteer basis. I intend to try again this week.

I was assured CB and would not have taken a known WC for many reasons.

Would really like to have a more specific geographical context for this snake as that is a large part of my interest. For all I can glean from the web, it is probably Spalerosophis diadema atrcieps but there information is ambigous difficult to decipher.

In either case, I wonder how much of a "rat snake" it is? In other words, is it any more related to Elaphe than any other large terrestrial colubrid?

Sorry if I'm slow but, can't find that?