Flaky/dry skin/scales?

I adopted Caramelo about 2 mos ago and he appeared as if ready to shed as his "skin" was darkish, but he never appeared to be in blue. So, worried as I was after 2 weeks -- and especially due to his "flaky" appearing scales on his face (though nowhere else...), I ran him through a wet towel and wouldn't you know it? Within an hour, I had a complete & perfect shed from him, and he appeared like this on his face:



(From what I know of his past: Caramelo has been a lone snake in a one-snake-household whose owner left home & the parents would rather not take care of the snake... Not to say that the parents didn't do the best that they could -- I'm sure that they did -- but I don't know if they knew all of what to do for him...)

Post-shed, Caramelo looked super-smooth and shiny, and he really perked up after that. He's been as social as ever, too, except when digesting...despite starting to show rough "flaking" on his face again, just recently:

(Sorry for all of the photos...I just wanted to try to be as thorough as I could be & actually show you what I meant... Also, I tried to brush off as much aspen as I could, but the first photo show a lot of aspen dust on his face; I'm sorry...)





I was alerted to the potential of mites...and it was something that I did wonder about, but just shy of sticking his face under a microscope, I've searched and searched for anything resembling moving black dots...even stationary ones! I've noticed nothing...could this be the result of just having had bad humidity/temps in the past & this is something that he'll just have to shed out of? Should I mist in his tank to raise the humidity a bit (I do live in an apt with a radiator, so the air is a bit drier...)? I did thoroughly clean the tank when I got him...should I cleanse for mites, to be on the safe side?

Thanks in advance...:cheers:

From the last picture it almost looks as if he didn't shed completely last time. My guess is that he's going to be shedding soon and not to worry about it as long as the last shed was complete. I have a few snakes (of varying species) that will do that but still have a complete shed when the time comes. If you can't see the mites and you've searched the only other thing I could think of would be to put him on paper towels so you could see mites easier. Also if he does have mites you should be able to see some in the water dish.

~Katie

No, I don't see anything in the water dish, either, but I did randomly find a thread where someone mentioned having the same happen to his snake...and a few replies to that being of the same effect, that it happens and is just part of shedding, I guess...I'd love to find the thread to put the link here to prove that I know what I'm talking about, but naturally I can't find it. I can be as intelligent as I want to be and I can rarely find what I want using the search feature, ever...

RE: flaky scales

Our snake has the same coloring as Caramelo! Since switching to small adult size feeder mice she has developed very dry flaky skin. The rep. vet advised us to switch sizes from 3 fuzzy's a week to one small adult mouse a week. It's been 3 weeks since her last shed. Oh, she's 3 years old.

RE: my post

In the last hour, since we're all stuck in the house today due to the blizzard, I've been researching through this amazing site! Our little darling now has an egg carton to hide in (replacing the boring Pop Tart box), a very large tupperware type water dish, damp washcloth. I also covered 3/4 of the top screen with towels to build the humidity.

I hope this helps.