Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Okay so I've just copied this from my yahoo answers question, but please help me! I'm very worried about him. He's very dry and wrinkly.

"I have a baby pastel ball python who I got about 2 months ago. He's only eaten once about a month ago now, but other wise he's refused. Recently, I saw he was going into the shedding phase, this being the first time he has in my care. His eyes returned to normal about 2 or 3 days ago, yet not shed. Now he's extremely wrinkled and dry to the touch, but no shed skin yet. I've been misting his cage often, just to be sure his shed will go okay. By extremely wrinkled, I really mean EXTREMELY WRINKLED. All down his body and even on his head, it's pretty bad looking and I've gotten very worried. But I'm sure he's not dehydrated, I've filled his water dish daily and I have seen him drink before.

Should I be worried? This is the first baby ball python I've had, the rest I purchased as adults, so I don't know if this is normal or not. Will he shed soon?

The only thing I thought that may have caused this, he had mites when I first got him, and I've still been treating him. I'm worried that it may be a reaction to the spray I was using on him. I followed the directions, it said to spray directly on the snake. I did the last treatment about a day before I saw his eyes glaze over. Could this be the problem? I'm really worried. Any advice on what I should do? Please help."

Give us some details on what environment you are keeping him in. Temperature ranges? Heating method? Substrate? And most importantly: Humidity? How big is he? What size of cage is he in? Are there hides available? Humid hides?

What you can do to help him right now is place him in a tub, tote, or pan (something with a lid) that has about 1 inch of luke warm to warm water in the bottom. Set him in the water and put in the lid on the container. You don't want the container to be air tight, but you do want to keep as much of the humidity from the warm water in as you can. Set the contain on a towel or carpet, something that will insulate the water and keep it from losing too much heat. You can replenish the water as necessary to keep it warm as well. Let him sit in this for at least 45 minutes, though over an hour or a bit more wouldn't hurt. This will help hydrate him, hydrate the skin he is trying to shed, and also help you check for any recurring mite issues (they will float in the water after he has soaked long enough).
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26 year old 0.1 from Lincoln, NE
Ball Pythons - 0.1 Silver Bullet, 0.1 Pastel, 1.0 Pastel het Pied, 0.1 Pied, 0.1 Cinn, 1.0 Black Pewter, 1.0 Woma, 0.1 Yellowbelly, 2.1 Normals
Kingsnakes - 1.0 L. m. thayeri, 0.1 L. m. thayeri X L. alterna, 1.0 L. g. californiae
Other - 0.1 Whitesided P. catenifer sayi, 1.0 H. nascicus, ?.? Chrysemys picta, 1.0 husband, ?.? Mini-human

A little background on his cage set up would help. Sounds to me like he is being too stressed. Give him a water bowl he can get into, proper temps and a place to hide - then leave him alone - he'll figure the rest out himself.
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Tosha

nihil facimus sed id bene facimus

It happens.
Remove his bedding, replace it with two layers of paper towel. Wet the paper towel. Put something in there he can use to shed.
Wait a day or two.

Substrate: I've been using paper towels since I got him. I did this because he's had mites, so I like using the paper towels to see the dead mites.

Humidity: Typically around 60-70% right now. I'm misting the cage twice a day.

Heating: I'm using a UTH and the room he's in is around 80-85 degrees.