Reptile & Amphibian Forums

My female tiger seems to have really dry scales and cannot have a clean shed! Her humidity is up, and she has a humidity hut filled with moss sprayed twice daily and she is in it for at least 30 minutes a day, and still has dry scales. None of my other snakes have this, all have clean sheds and everything. I also soak her at least once every 3-4 days for 30 minutes. Any ideas would be great, thanks

~Ben

where do you live? if you are in the high desert, humidity can and often is a problem. Is the snake eating well? does it have plenty of surfaces to rub the skin off onto? how warm is the cage- it may be that your hot spot is too hot or the cage is too hot and there is drying of the snake or dehydration. How is its diet? perhaps you can try a soaking tub in the cage pre shed when it goes grey.

Winslow

I don't live in a high desert area for sure! But my humidity is not a problem at all. The snake is eating fine, it's 100% good health besides it just being so dry. It is on an aspen bedding in the winter/newspaper any other time, there is a large log in the cage to rub skin on also. It's in an 8' cage so there isn't really a hot spot per say, but the temp of the hot side is high 80's-low 90's, the cool side is high 70's - mid 80's. It's eating one 1-2 lbs rabbit every 4-5 days (except when shedding). And I do soak when it goes grey, Im not just trying to get a clean shed, because I don't have that problem with any other snake, but this snakes scales are all around dry, even after shed and even with good humidity they are still just as dry, it's scales will still peel off or flake off instead of slide. Is there maybe a mosturizing lotion or something I could use?

~Ben

I would clean out the cage and clean with diluted clorox then after you are certain there is no more bleach smell then put back in, maybe keep in new cage for a while. You also stated something about moss?? Moss can cause infections if not good grade or full of chiggers or bacteria...That's why I say this...it sounds more bacterial. I never had this problem, but maybe yeast infection?? Clean environment and monitor proper temps and humidity and go from there.

Where does the retic spend most of its time in relation to the heat?
-N-

Well the cage is clean, I will clean it again though and see what's going on with that. I don't think it's bacterial from the moss because the snake was like this whenever I got it, I've just been trying to get it more moist, I've had it through 2 sheds so far. As for the heat part, it will spend most of it's day on the cool side, or in between the cool and hot side, at night I'm pretty sure it will spend between or on the hot side. If there is anything you think I should do, I'm still deffidently open for suggestions.

~Ben