Damaged Scales? I'm worried.

I have to admit, I'm not an advanced snake owner. I don't have extensive knowledge about corn snakes and every single occurrence that happens to it. This being one of them.

This is Scarlett, a fluorescent orange corn snake of five years (I only owned her for about a year). She lives in her 20 gallon tank with a basking area, a cool down rock, and a water bowl of course underneath her two light. A blue night light turned on to simulate night time. And a more brighter powerful bulb yo represent the sun. I switch the two lights according to the actually sunrise and sunset. She normally consumes a small mouse once a week, her normal diet but I admit her previous owner did not feed her this way. Scarlett sheds entirely, nearly all her sheds are healthy. Except recently.

As of recent, Scarlett has developed these darker scales that are obvious compared to her other brighter ones. Upon touching, it doesn't seem to harm her but it feels dry and rough. These scales seem to lost their beautiful colours as well. This was before shedding, and a few days after she shed horribly. The loose skin came out in pieces instead of a whole, and the dried scales were still present after shedding. I'm not sure what to do or use, my local pet store was if no help. All I have been doing recently is damping it occasionally with water, I wouldn't want to accidentally hurt her. I don't know what these are and would really appreciate any advice to what it is.

Here are some pictures to provide a visual.








Thank you!

You stated she's about 5 years old but you've had her about 1 year. A few questions to help us out:
1). How long has she had these marks? Is it possible they've been there a while or have you just recently noticed them?

2). How often does she eat and what are you feeding?

3). What are her cage conditions? A. Substrate, B. Temperatures, C. Type of cage and Lid, etc...

Just by looking at the pictures, They don't look like simple discoloration to me. Some people have a hard time discerning
between damage and discoloration. I agree this is Damage. So what kind of damage and how did it happen are the questions.

I'm not sure if any of this applies to you, but it's a starting point -

Scale damage can be cause by : Animal Bites, Rough Handling by people, Scale Rot, And or Parasites.

Animal Bites can occur if you feed live mice. The mice usually fight back and bite. That's why most of us feed pre-killed.

Rough Handling could be anything that causes the scales to rub backwards the wrong way, (Sort of like Rubbing a
Cat's Fur Backwards). The cats fur is not damaged in this case, but if you peel back the scales of the snake, damage
can occur. This can also happen if the snake rubs itself the wrong way against something in its cage.

Scale Rot is a condition that Reptiles can get if not properly housed. Too much moisture can lead to this, unsanitary conditions as well.

And Parasites usually means "Mites" when talking about corn snakes. Mites are small blood sucking creatures similar to ticks but they
are very small. Sometimes not much bigger than the period at the end of a sentence. They are hard to get rid of once you get them so
it's best to try to never get them in the first place. They burrow under the snakes scales and pretty much stay there until they are killed
in some way. A snake with mites will a lot of times soak in its water dish to try to drown the mites. Mites can sometimes be seen
crawling around the cage if you look closely. If your snake is doing a lot of bathing in her water, this could be a sign. This can also
lead to the condition of scale rot if water is splashed about and the substrate gets too wet.

If you're really concerned, taking her to a Vet is probably a good idea. If she is properly taken care of, damaged scales usually
replace themselves after a few sheds, but it could take a while.

It would be odd to get scale rot on upper scales, not on the belly. Sometimes snakes have a reaction to plastic water bowls- I would switch her to ceramic. I actually would take her to a vet, if you have one.

Actually her water bowl is ceramic. I probably should have mentioned so, sorry for not being clear! I really don't believe it's scale rot, for her belly is normal and the other symptoms just don't seem to match. I could be wrong of course. I'm attempting to look for one but it's difficult in my area.

Karl_Mcknight said:

You stated she's about 5 years old but you've had her about 1 year. A few questions to help us out:
1). How long has she had these marks? Is it possible they've been there a while or have you just recently noticed them?

2). How often does she eat and what are you feeding?

3). What are her cage conditions? A. Substrate, B. Temperatures, C. Type of cage and Lid, etc...

Just by looking at the pictures, They don't look like simple discoloration to me. Some people have a hard time discerning
between damage and discoloration. I agree this is Damage. So what kind of damage and how did it happen are the questions.

I'm not sure if any of this applies to you, but it's a starting point -

Scale damage can be cause by : Animal Bites, Rough Handling by people, Scale Rot, And or Parasites.

Animal Bites can occur if you feed live mice. The mice usually fight back and bite. That's why most of us feed pre-killed.

Rough Handling could be anything that causes the scales to rub backwards the wrong way, (Sort of like Rubbing a
Cat's Fur Backwards). The cats fur is not damaged in this case, but if you peel back the scales of the snake, damage
can occur. This can also happen if the snake rubs itself the wrong way against something in its cage.

Scale Rot is a condition that Reptiles can get if not properly housed. Too much moisture can lead to this, unsanitary conditions as well.

And Parasites usually means "Mites" when talking about corn snakes. Mites are small blood sucking creatures similar to ticks but they
are very small. Sometimes not much bigger than the period at the end of a sentence. They are hard to get rid of once you get them so
it's best to try to never get them in the first place. They burrow under the snakes scales and pretty much stay there until they are killed
in some way. A snake with mites will a lot of times soak in its water dish to try to drown the mites. Mites can sometimes be seen
crawling around the cage if you look closely. If your snake is doing a lot of bathing in her water, this could be a sign. This can also
lead to the condition of scale rot if water is splashed about and the substrate gets too wet.

If you're really concerned, taking her to a Vet is probably a good idea. If she is properly taken care of, damaged scales usually
replace themselves after a few sheds, but it could take a while.

Click to expand...

She has had these marks for about two weeks now. They don't seem to bother her entirely since her having is completely normal. Still concerning. There definitely had happened recently because I closely care for her body.

She eats once a week, usually scheduled and all. I feed her live mice, a small mouse to be specific. I'm of course cautious with this.

She lives in a glass 20 gallon tank with a metallic net like lid. Clamps on the side to prevent her from being sneaky. The substrate I use is coconut fiber and some reptile bark mixed in. Her temperatures are kept around 80 degrees Fahrenheit. If it exceeds 85 degrees, I turn off the heating lamp temporarily but still provide a light from the room's ceiling light to emulate the sun. Once it drops around 75 ish I turn it back on. I check the thermometer weekly to ensure it's still in working condition.

I carefully dangle the mouse above her feeding area to give a sign that the prey is infront of her. She realizes and gets ready to attack. I set down the mouse and she usually bites its head spot on. Occasionally she may miss it's head but I ensure that the mouse is causing no resistance. If the prey looks like it could bite her, I flick it's head to disorient it and that has yet to fail me. I always superviseher meals, from a distance of course so she isn't so tense.

I am the only one who handles her and removes her from her cage. If other friends/relatives want to handle her, I always make sure to watch in case they spook her/hold her incorrectly/ etc.

I don't believe it's scale rot, but I could be wrong! A common symptom I see for Scale Rot is signs on their belly, however her damage is only on certain top scales. Only one small area of damaged scales is on her sides. I remove her every two weeks to clean the tank and replace most of the coconut fiber to ensure tidiness. She really likesburrowing so I want to make sure everything is clean. Coconut fiber holds moisture well, so I have a small bottle to give a small mist of water in the morning, occasionally at night if the tank is dry and the humidity is low. So I think she's being housed properly.

Scarlett hasnt shown signs of excessive bathing. She occasionally soaks in her water bowl, which I clean it of course that morning. But she also doesn't like bathing, so maybe mites is a possibility? I'm trying to locate a local veterinarian that also care for reptiles, but it's surprisingly difficult in my area and I cannot travel large distances. I'm only seventeen with no license or real form of transportation besides public.

After hearing that you feed her Live Mice, I'm going to bet they are areas where the mouse has
bitten her or its claws have scratched her. If something bigger than me was trying to strangle me
I'd kick, scratch, bite, punch, whatever I had to do to try to get away. Mice and Rats do that too.

You also stated she is 5 years old yet you feed her a "Small Mouse." You might be underfeeding
her. My snake is not yet even 2 years old and he's on Large mice already. Surely a 5 year old snake
should be 4 or 5 feet long and weigh 350 grams or more, and should be eating more than a Small
mouse.

Is there any heat source she can contact, directly or indirectly, that could burn her?

Why do you feed live?

Well it's a small adult mouse is a normal adult mouse in my area. Any larger size she won't attack. Believe me, I've tried to feed her bigger sizes but even the local pet store agreed a normal adult mouse was the size for her. She show signs when she's hungry as any animal would, Scarlett seems fine with the weekly meal.

I always supervise her meals but maybe it did scratch her and I missed it. Would a scratch leave a scale dried and black? I know it definitely wasn't a bite.

No, the only source of heat is her heating lamp that is on the basking side of the cage. The lamp is above the cage obviously, so I don't believe she would have any direct contact with it.

Live mice is what her previous owners fed her, so I continued the tradition. How would she react if I were to change it? I'm a bit sketchy about changing styles but it could be for the better.

She most likely wouldn't even notice. You could try her on a frozen thawed, the same size she's used to eating, or slightly smaller. I'd let her get hungrier- skip one week's feeding, or take advantage of her not being fed because she's blue. Then thaw the mouse in hot water- as hot as your water will go. Dry with a paper towel, or even a hair dryer. Then just give it to her. You might need to move it around a little, but I would guess not.

It's so much more convenient. Plus, parasites are frozen and killed. Plus, safer for the snake. Plus, more humane for the mouse. Plus, if you buy a larger quantity, say a pack of 25 at a reptile show, cheaper.

If you do go to the vet, and I would definitely encourage it, have them do a culture swab of the lesions. It could be fungal perhaps?

I feed my adult girl one small adult frozen thawed mouse every two weeks. There are a lot of variables in mice so you go with what maintains a healthy weight. She came to me at 465, slightly underweight, and now weighs 550 grams. If she were to gain much more it would not be good, so I cut back on the amount and extended the interval between feedings to maintain a healthy weight. Before I got her they were feeding her two what they called medium mice every week (I never could find out the size in grams), so go figure. Different suppliers? Different nutritional values? You feed the size and interval that results in a healthy weight snake.

I agree with trying to switch to frozen thawed. It is so much easier on you, the snake, and the mice.

Have you considered that the lesions could be burns from the lights? I don't know how close your snake can get to them or how hot they are but it can and does happen. In any case a visit to the vet is definitely called for.

Best wishes. Your Scarlett is beautiful.