Shedding Belly Scales

[tegoroff]

Ive had my Jungle 'Zoe' for approx 3 weeks now and i have noticed she is shedding clear scales from her belly? she is 1200mm long and is 18mths old. she eats 2 x fuzzy rats weekly and deficates twice a week.
i keep her cage humid by spraying water on the bark once daily. She appears to not be in shed as her eyes are not milky at all and quite clear?
Anyone know what this is and should i be worried?:?

Tracy

 

[Stuart]

Ive had my Jungle 'Zoe' for approx 3 weeks now and i have noticed she is shedding clear scales from her belly? she is 1200mm long and is 18mths old. she eats 2 x fuzzy rats weekly and deficates twice a week.
i keep her cage humid by spraying water on the bark once daily. She appears to not be in shed as her eyes are not milky at all and quite clear?
Anyone know what this is and should i be worried?:?

Tracy

Hi Tracy and welcome to APS. My jungle went through the exact same thing about 2 months ago. She wasn't eating and with the weird scales (almost like fish scales) coming off, some of the under scales had small red sores.

I changed her newspaper daily for around a month just in case it was a bacterial but after around a month she went into shed and afterwards was fine. She is now eating like a trooper.

I have no idea what caused it but changing her newspaper daily, keeping her humidity above 50% and making sure she had enough heat was the only things I checked.

Keep an eye on it, but it should be ok. Can you post pics of her belly so we can see?

Edit: Check out my thread http://www.aussiepythons.com/forum/herp-help-38/jungle-python-scaley-issue-192382/ where I had the same issue

 

[Hamalicious]

Snakes shed their entire skin in one piece periodically. The scales are all attached so there is no reason that some scales would shed and the rest wouldn't. Are the scales actually coming off?

 

[cheekabee]

Sounds like scale rot

 

[tegoroff]

well yes the scales are coming off but it is like very fine clear scales.

her belly isnt unhealthy looking and is quite shinny which i have read is a sign of a healthy snake.
the temp in her house is average 28-32 and goes down to approx 25 at night.

she has red bark as substrate and i spray it every day with a spray bottle.
im wondering if the moisturiser on my skin when she hangs around mt neck may be the problem?
i have changed her substrate twice now in three weeks...perhaps i should be going on and doing it daily as your post above.

 

[Albino93]

I would probably ease up on the misting, they only really need it when they are in shed. I dont think the moisturiser is an issue, i use to use hand cream moisturiser stuff and let my snake crawl around my hands and had no problems. I would just wait till she sheds next and then see how her belly looks then. Our childrens python a few weeks ago had brown markings on his belly plus flaky skin, by next shed his belly was back to normal. Dont really know what the cause was tho.

heres a pic of his belly, wasnt quite as bad as what the pic makes it look.

 

[Stuart]

well yes the scales are coming off but it is like very fine clear scales.

her belly isnt unhealthy looking and is quite shinny which i have read is a sign of a healthy snake.
the temp in her house is average 28-32 and goes down to approx 25 at night.

she has red bark as substrate and i spray it every day with a spray bottle.
im wondering if the moisturiser on my skin when she hangs around mt neck may be the problem?
i have changed her substrate twice now in three weeks...perhaps i should be going on and doing it daily as your post above.

Don't fuss too much on changing the substrate, try get her on some straight newspaper and as mentioned above, ease up on the misting if you can. If you can keep her cage clean and keep the newspaper changed, in my opinion you can rule out a bacterial reason.

I can't comment on the moisturizer but I can't imagine it would be the cause.

I wouldn't rule out scale rot, but would be reluctant to call it that unless you can see the other symptoms that accompany it.

As I mentioned, it sounds the same as the recent issue I had and they cleared up with her last shed. In saying that, is she due to shed shortly?

The above is just from my experience, but the best advice you will get is from your vet.

 

[tegoroff]

thank you so much guys for your help with this. ill be changing the substrate to butchers paper this week end and will stop the misting.
ill keep you posted as to how this goes for her.

cheers

 

[smileysnake]

i dont think you need to change your substrate keep using the same stuff just dont spray it they dont need that much humidity all the time having a decent size water bowl is enough when they are ready to shed they will slither into the bowl then they will shed i am only a newbie but this has what has worked for me for the last 5 months so almost 5 sheds all perfect and i use kritters krumble i dont spray it or my snake i just have a water bowl on the cold side with rocks and branches all is good....scale rot generally comes from substrate being to moist so if it is that it is quite easy to fix when you know the cause hope this helps...and post some pics hey....