Reptile & Amphibian Forums

i'm not too sure of his/her age, fairly young, few months...it's shed its skin once about a month ago, it looked very healthy, then 2 days ago her skin turned super milky, its eyes very glossed, i figured it was molting, and now it is...BUT, it's skin looks like an elderly persons, very wrinkly, big wrinkles,

i've been feeding it pretty big mice for its size, i now fear that was a bad idea...it looked really fat before, now it looks deathly skinny..it did take quite a large poo

any suggestions would be appreciated, i really enjoy snakemans company

Sounds like it is dehydrated.Maybe you should take it to a vet if it is that bad. I always say do not wait for answers from people on the boards. If your snake appears sick a vet is the only person who can help. People on the boards have some knowledge but can not help the snake in any way shape or form.
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Reptiles
0.1 - Early 2002 Anery Motley Corn 33 1/2"
1.0 - Late 2003 Yellow Rat Snake 15 2/3"
1.0 - 2003 Banded California King Snake 29 2/3"
1.0 Green Anole
0.0.0 House Gecko
0.1 Painted Turtle

Mammals
4 female ferrets,1 male cat,1 female rottie and 1 male doberman...and a few kids!

Without seeing a picture I'm just speculating but it sounds like it is either dehydrated and or the humidity is way to low. Has he/she been provided with a constant source of water? This is a necessity. If it has had access to water I would look at humidity. What is the humidity level in the cage? Also what are you using for the substrate and heat source? Certain types of substrate can keep the animal too dry, and if you are using a heat lamp that can dry the air out too much. Right off I would suggest soaking him/her in an inch or so of luke warm water for an hour or so and see how it looks. If it doesn't look any better post what type of a setup you are using.

George Knaack
GLK HERP

Definitely hydrate as stated in other messages. I sounds like it had a lot of "stuff" to unload. By the way, how much did it eat in 1 month? If it shed just a month ago, it must have eaten a boatload. I've read before that soaking in Pedialite or some product like that could be beneficial.

i'm using a thin heating bad that sticks to the underside of the tank, with about an inch layer of sand over it to absorb the heat, with astroturf ontop of that...the heated part is raised above the cooler part, andt ehre is a large dish with about 1 1/2-2 inches of water in it, i never let it dry up

he eats once a week, like i said i fed it fairly large mice, maybe about 2x fatter than the snakes head

i don't know of any vets around here that take care of snakes, i'll check into it tomorrow tho...there must be one somewhere nearby

and i'm not sure on the humidity, my digital thermometer doesn't measure it accuratly, temps stay around 75-80, closer to 80 during the day, sometimes goin as low as 72 at night

it was kinda weird, he looked very cloudy one day, then i fed him, and his color came back 99%, then he went dull again, now he's shedding and lookin like a geaser, he's active tho....oh, and when i first noticed it i went to pick it up, and it hissed, i handle it a few times week, and it hasn't once hissed before....

thanks

Two things

1) get a heat gun from Pro Exotics $25-30
2) get a humidity gauge $8-10 Big Apple Herpetological

You need to measure the temps on the surface of the substrate.
hot side 88-95 degrees cool side 78-82 degrees

The humidity should be about 55-65%, higher when in shed.
The snake was probably very irritable due to being in shed.

Let us know how its doing.

well i believe everything's ok again, he shed his skin in 3 large portions, and a few smaller ones...his skin is now smooth as it ever was...i guess it was just the outter skin layer bunched up on his body, /shrug, all is ok now...i misted his tank last night and misted him a little bit too, woke up this morning to a nice pretty python =)

i had the same problem last month, humidity was off, i soaked her for .5 hours 2 days in a row in flavourless pidialyte, and i also injected a mouse with 3cc of pidialyte, within 3 days bad shed came off loose skin filled back out and all is well. i am new to snakes but researched everywhere possible