Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I had a few burms in my last litter that would never eat. I have been force feeding one of them to try and get him to come around. I took him to the vet and they saw nothing wrong with him... The vet is a complete other story... anyway he has always been active in the cage and drinks water, but is not growing. He has never regurged a meal, but just doesnt grow.. He has not shed in over 3 months. Last night he opens his mouth and his skin on the top of his head peels off. I am not talking about shed, all of his skin down to the blue muscle. I do not know what to do.. any help would be greatly appreciated. thanks,
Jeremy

I have a book called 'What's Wrong with my Snake?' that has a photo very much like you described. The caption says it's a case of spontaneous skin splitting due to malnutrition...
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Peter: It's OK, I'll handle it. I read a book about something like this.
Brian: Are you sure it was a book? Are you sure it wasn't NOTHING?

Meret... I fell out of my chair laughing so hard after reading your post... I read the part "I have a book" then glanced down at your signature...

Back to the sub. Go find a good vet that will tube feed them a puree of nutrients.. I had to do that with two water snakes that refused to eat... I pureed fish, nutrients and pedialyte...it worked for the water snakes...

well, he did ask if anyone had ever HEARD of it... if he asked if anyone EXPERIENCED it i would have kept my mouth shut ;o.
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Peter: It's OK, I'll handle it. I read a book about something like this.
Brian: Are you sure it was a book? Are you sure it wasn't NOTHING?

I had this happen to a red tail boa once about 10 yrs ago. I had recieved a little imported Guyana and she was terribly under weight and would not eat. She was so underwieght that her spine was like a razor blade. I was assist feeding her with rat pups, but she had gotten to the point that her skin had become almost like tissue paper. One time when I was holding her to assist feed her, she wiggled in my hands and her skin peeled back! I was staring at her muscle! I talked to several people about it and they said that her body was working so hard to find nutrition, it began absorbing her skin as a source of nutrition. I kept the exposed area clean and eventually it all healed up.

She ended up fine and eating by herself after months of effort. She was a beautiful Guyana with lots of purple. She was mean as a badger, but her attitude is probably what kept her alive. Where her skin healed back, it was solid white. Who knows, she probably got sold off as a "pied" boa.

That is the only time I have ever seen it, but YES, I have seen it.

Good luck with yours.

Tom

Yes. Same as the others said. Sounds like malnutrition.

A long time ago I was asked to go by someone’s apartment and pick up a boa constrictor that had been brought into the country illegally from Mexico. I think the owners bought it in some open air market in Juarez, but it had never fed for them. Anyway, the poor beast was coiled up in a too-small aquarium on some wet, filthy gravel with nothing else in the cage. At the time, the only boa constrictors I had were a couple of 45 pound brutes, so it was a real shock dealing with this poor, scrawny devil. And devil he was. I had never heard a boa hiss before! I got him feeding and he limped along for a few years, but the damage seemed irreversible. His skin felt paper-thin. I tried to handle him as little as possible but when I had to, if I wasn’t very gentle (hard to do with his temperament) his skin would rip open, usually along his sides, revealing the muscles underneath.

-Joan

Thanks for your help. I will take him to a better vet and get it taken care of. I have just never seen anything like this. Just like you said I am looking at his muscle.. I feel terrible, hopefully he will make it through this. thanks again to all who responded.
jeremy