Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Has anybody seen this in their King before ? This snake is a 2 year old animal. The pits seem to be mainly on the dorsal area but do sorta creep onto the sides but hardly so. I just started noticing this a couple of weeks ago. Any ideas what causes it ? Thanks in advance.

Keith
-

-

-----

seriously, the MD male had similar looking scales that eventually (=/- 3 sheds) went away. They popped-up about late last summer ('03) and were gone by hibernation. I thought it was from poor nurishment since he was so difficult to get on a regular diet. I'm thinking your snake should noticably improve post shed.

Bob Bull

A few years ago, I got a new Desert King. I foolishly allowed her to crawl inside a tall, narrow cactus. She got part way down, then had a bad time getting out.

Shortly afterward, I saw scales that appeared to have been "popped". They had slices in them, and appeared to be "deflated".

They started along the spine, crept down the sides. A few days later, she had difficulty crawling to the point I had to destroy her!

I think that the cactus spines either poisoned her internally, or did enough damage that some other condition occurred. When I posted on this forum at the time, nobody else had seen such symptoms.

I've never seen them since in any of 4 different types of Kings. I hope that you don't experience what I did.

same with mine but the whole scale is deflated shes been akting fine for about three months they have been there

Kingsnakes are noted as having 2 apical pits on each scale. I THINK they're believed to be used as some type of sensory tool. Although they're very different than what you have pictured. I'd check on them after a few sheds and see if they don't start to disappear. I had a Cali King fall off his climbing branch once and dent his head scale pretty bad. After about 3 sheds it pretty much disappeared. It MAY just be the result of an unknown injury or just a shed where the scales didn't seperate properly from the shed.

Photo of Apical Pits on my MBK.......

-----
Ace

That's exactly what my post was referring to. I read the article about it in R & A magazine. Thanks for the pic.

Brandon Osborne

Your welcome! And thanks for the info, I knew they were believed to be used as a type of "sensor", but wasn't sure how or what.
-----
Ace

Yeah Im aware of the pits but these are all over the place randomly. Im thinking what may have happened is when I fed him while in shed and it may have disturbed the softer more flexible scales underneath ??? Thanks for the info.

Keith

>>Kingsnakes are noted as having 2 apical pits on each scale. I THINK they're believed to be used as some type of sensory tool. Although they're very different than what you have pictured. I'd check on them after a few sheds and see if they don't start to disappear. I had a Cali King fall off his climbing branch once and dent his head scale pretty bad. After about 3 sheds it pretty much disappeared. It MAY just be the result of an unknown injury or just a shed where the scales didn't seperate properly from the shed.
>>
>>Photo of Apical Pits on my MBK.......
>>
>>-----
>>Ace
-----

Kind of what us humans experience in winter months. Dry skin. It tends to "pit" the scales. I also read an old article in Reptile and Amphibian years ago about colubrid scale pits. Under magnification, most colubrids have a pair of pits toward the end of each scale that act as a heat sensor. These were compaired to the heat sensors of pit vipers, and were said to have the ability to sense thermal differences. I'll see if I can't find the article and post it here.

Brandon Osborne

It might be do to dryness as his enclosure is in the warmest (maybe its dry as well) spot in the room. I moved him the other day to see if this makes a difference. Thanks for the info.

Keith

>>Kind of what us humans experience in winter months. Dry skin. It tends to "pit" the scales. I also read an old article in Reptile and Amphibian years ago about colubrid scale pits. Under magnification, most colubrids have a pair of pits toward the end of each scale that act as a heat sensor. These were compaired to the heat sensors of pit vipers, and were said to have the ability to sense thermal differences. I'll see if I can't find the article and post it here.
>>
>>Brandon Osborne
-----

Yeah Bro,

I see that sometimes in my adults that are on an infrequent shed shedule. I just attributed it to wear and tear on skin that wasn't being shed often. It seemed to go away after a couple of frequent sheds in the feeding/breeding season.

Will

>>Has anybody seen this in their King before ? This snake is a 2 year old animal. The pits seem to be mainly on the dorsal area but do sorta creep onto the sides but hardly so. I just started noticing this a couple of weeks ago. Any ideas what causes it ? Thanks in advance.
>>
>>Keith
>>-
>>
>>-
>>
>>-----
>>
-----