Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi guys, I have a small issue that I am concerned about with my Texas Indigo. She seems to be having a kind of scale recession or more space between her scales on her nose.

Im not sure what it is or what to do?

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

She is in an animal plastics cage with glass doors, so she cant be rubbing her nose on anything. There is simply nothing to rub but aspen.Thanks, Bradley.

A couple of things stand out and probably depend on the answer to a question. Are you the original owner of this snake? You state that there is nothing for it to rub on. Could it have rubbed with a previous owner and healed over. It looks like typical scaring from rubbing and healing. Another thing, just because the snake is in plastic does not mean they cannot rub to the point of scaring. If it is rubbing, try a hide box, make sure temps are ok, and ensure feeding is adequate with water.

Good luck

ECT

Ok, I am not the original owner of this animal but I have owned her since July 09. She is developing this as she gets bigger. In fact I have a picture taken of her in December just last month and it was not as bad as it is now. I am home often and watch her and she does not do a lot of rubbing just cruising the cage. I give plenty of fresh water (its always full) and I feed every 3-6 days. Here is a pic of her enclosure.

Also as you can see I have a nice hide box and she usually gets behind it instead of under it.

Here are a couple from last month when she was better.

Anything else? Thanks, Bradley

1) Does the snake have a hiding box? That is very important with Drymarchons.

2) Is she being fed enough? If they are hungry they wil do a lot of cruising and rooting in the cage. usually they will not rub there noses raw unless they are totally stressed out or its breeding season and they are sperated. Your snake does not look like it is stressed out, but more just being on the move looking for food or a hide place. Hopes this helps

Dan

Ah good idea, it is breeding season right? And she does not have any mate with her good idea. I answered your other questions in an above post. But tell me this, what does a stressed snake look like? Im am glad mine does'nt lol. Thanks, Bradley

I do not keep any Indigos but have had snakes rub their noses raw on plastic before. I agree it looks like rubbing, a little neosporin will help it heal faster, and making cardboard cutouts to go inside your cages will help. Try to cover two sides with cutouts and see if that helps any.

You could also try adding more than one hide, and maybe a hide that is smaller and lower. . .something that the snake would barley fit in. All my snakes choose smaller hides over larger ones.

Hope I could help beautiful snake by the way. . .oh how I wish I had more room to enjoy my hobby and not so many bills.

What kind of heat do you use? What temp? Something is not right, that nose definately looks rubbed to me. Good luck.

Don't over feed to get her to stop rubbing.
That could stop her but is not solving the real problem. I had some Drymarchon (Black Tails) in Boaphile cages and they would rub like crazy on the small gaps in the clear plexiglass. Not a good cage for them. Point is look for what is causing her to rub and don't do a band aid fix.

I'm no expert but it seems the males cruise more during breeding season than female.

Jeremy
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Bigger, meaner, rarer, hot.

Hi, well since the cage is plastic I use heat tape on the bottom, outside, right side of the of the cage and the hot spot is set at 85 degrees. The thing is, I never see her rubbing her nose, just cruising when she is hungry. Here are some pics taken just last month at a show i took her to. Thanks, Bradley.

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My first thought to cure your nose rub is adding more snug fitting hides, Those boxes you have in there are of little use to your snakes. I like to use plastic house gutters in my Dry enclosures and 90% of the time they hide in them, even if I think there's no way they can fit.

If more snug fitting hides fails to remedy the problem I would double check temps, ambient temps over 75 will cause Drymarchon to be very restless. I give very warm basking spots (90 ) but my ambient never gets over 75. My snakes only seem to cruise when they're hungry, thirsty or about to deuce.

As you know Dry's are very strong snakes, while rooting through the aspen if they come to a corner they will keep pushing on it. If you add decor that is similar to tunnels they feel like they don't need to root as much. IMO

I would also suggest adding some humid hide boxes, blacked out sweater boxes with 4" of Sphagnum moss works very well. I would think nice hydrated scales would be a lot less likely to be damaged than dried out ones.

Good luck, I hope we were able to help out,

Nate

Ok Great, I will try hides and tunnels. Thanks Nate. Do you not ever get my emails? Have you been missing in action busy or what? Bradley.