Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Ive soaked this new ball for the last two days(in half hour increments) since I got him and the dent in his eye dissappeared and most of his old shed came off but he is still saggy. I am not sure how to discribe it..I compare him to my bp of 2yrs and his skin seems looser not as firm.It has wrinkles when he moves. I have no idea how old he is but he is 2ft and he is about 312 grams,,my scale is not real accurate but its within a few grams.I am assuming he is around a yr old? He didnt have any problems with his first feed thats for sure. I gave him a rather largish small rat last night and he wolfed it down.Now I am just going to leave him alone for a few days to settle in.I currently have him in the ten gallen tank he came in so I can keep an eye on the humidity and keep the temps stable. I hope to give this bp to my 11yo son as soon as he is healthy.

If he just shed and the 'loose' look is still there I would tend to think he is underweight. Or, I suppose he could have been obese and lost some of it. To me an underweight BP feels too light....like an underweight turtle. They feel hollow on the underside. It also may take a couple sheds for him to look good even if it is all perfect.
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Sonya

Haven't we warned you about tampering with the structure of a chaotic system?
Mrs. Neutron

I know with most animals the pinch test works to determine dehydration, but I'm not sure in snakes. If you lightly pinch some skin along the dorsal portion of it's body and it stays in a peak, rather than dropping back to normal skin position, then that's dehydration. It has to be against gravity for it to work, so you can't do it on the sides of a snake (unless you turn the snake so the side is "UP". I've never had a dehydrates snake so I'm not certain it'll work.
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1.1 Ball Python 0.0.1 corn snake 1.0 Bearded Dragon
0.0.2 fish 1.2 cats 3.1 kids 1.0 husband and now...
0.0.1 Pink Zebra Beauty Tarantula
2.0 Solomon Island Boas