Reptile & Amphibian Forums

My albino banded king that was mauled by my cats was seemingly doing fine in her recovery, but as of lately, i'm thinkin something might be wrong... She is not longer soft like before, her skin/scales are almost crunchy, and i'm not sure if this is a sign that she is fixing to shed, or if she's drying out for some bizarre reason, or what... She's eating normally as far as i know, she didn't get 'crunchy' untill after her last feed, and her eyes dont look like she's ready to shed, so i'm not sure what to think. her cuts scabbed over, and are healing like what seems to be normal, but i've never seen a healing snake before... so i dont know! its her whole body that is rough now, not just the wounded area's, should i be worried??

hi i dont think you have anything to worry about with your albino banded king. i dont know much about a healing snake for i have never had one that has been injured. but it seems to me she may just be shedding! but there is no telling just thought id put in my to sense!!! love you baby!!!

talk to you later gorgeous!!1

Chris

perhaps she's a bit dry? do you know what the humidity is in there? if her scales look wrinkled she may need some soaking and increased humidity to get them smoothed out
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Sue Barnett

0.1 Western hognose (Sola)
1.0 Crested gecko (Gator)
0.1 Egyptian spiny mouse (Mia)
4.2 mini rex rabbits (Basil, Pippin, Reggie, Hayden, Jackie and Peek-a-boo)
0.1 Plott hound (Molly)
1.0 half Arab (Zarr)
0.1 'found in someone's garage' kitten (Terra)

1.0 Betta (Flash) and 1.0 FL kingsnake (Vega) currently living with 1.0 boyfriend (Ethan)

Try throwing in a humidity box. This is as simple as a deli dish/tubberware container filled with damp moss or damp paper towel. I use one for all my snakes,including my cali king. This promotes a good shed and helps hydrate the snake. I only use a humidity box when my snakes are in a shed cycle. You can raise the humidity by simply placing the snakes water dish on the warm side of the enclosure.

It sounds to me like the snake is healing and may be a little dry. Have you noticed your snake drinking from his/her water dish? Wounds often result in scars and some scale problems in snakes to my knowledge. I would wait to see how the snake looks after it's next shed before getting alarmed but I would also provide a humidity box to be on the safe side. After injures some snakes will retain some skin during shedding. If that happens wet a towel with warm water and place the snake inside the towel in a container for 20-40 mins. Most of the skin comes right off and you can wipe the snake down with the moist towel after to remove any shed.

Hi,
If she does have some scabs on her, then you should wipe them with hyrogen peroxide and then apply neopsorin on them. And if it does have wrinkled skin-(really dried out) then you could put olive oil on a rag and wipe the snakes skin down with it and that will help and it wont affect your snake at all. Thats what i would try, good luck with
Jeff Teel

PS- it might have something to dow tiht eh cat thing, I've heard tha cat scratches can get infected due to the amount of bacteria in the cats claw when it breaks the skin-(you know how it itches at times when a cat scratches you), how bad did the cat get to the snake..?, pretty deep wounds..?

Thanks for the help peoples... he/she finally shed last night, and she looks MUCH better. I soaked her a couple of times, and upped the humidity in her cage and that did the trick...

...makes me feel like a bad parent..