Scales Rotting/Dry/Cracked on my Albino Corn Snake

Originally Posted by AliCat37

You say he is on pine shavings? Make sure that you switch it to aspen shavings, ASAP. Long term exposure to the toxins in pine/cedar and other hard woods can cause damage. This might be the source of your issue.

Hi AliCat, I know there is allot of debate about the whole oil in pine shaving issue. Cedar is absolutely toxic and the aromatic oils will harm reptiles, but the jury isnt out yet on the pine. I have seen conflicting information there.

I dont think the pine is the problem because Ive had all my snakes on pine and this is the first time I have ever seen anything like this; I have owned snakes since about 1996...and no, it was not a rapid succession of animals <eeek>.

Proileri, thanks again for the betadine dilution er, recipe.
I will keep you all posted on his progress.

OK. I am having trouble uploading the pictures I took; cornsnakes.com says they are too big and I dont know how to resize them.

Update on my snake: He shed, and looks allot better. Hes almost his normal handsome self. AND, he ate THREE thawed mice! WOOHOO, his last good meal was in March. He is still in the hospital tank and will be there for a while; his insurance covers it, he has COBRA! <grins>

Thank you all so much for the advice, suggestions, and encouragement.
-Lyreiania

That's great news! Congrats. Probably best to be more conservative with feeding whilst his digestive system gears back up, but with luck you won't have a problem.

Good to hear he is almost as good as new

I wonder if he does not get chubby on 6 small mice every two weeks? In general people feed their corns one medium or large mouse every 10 days - 3 weeks, depending on the snake, or two small mice. 6 mice seem an awfull lot.

He may indeed get chubby...but when he decides not to eat for a few months as he did, I dont get all that concerned as I know he has a reserve. But hes not taking all 6 mice now, I bed him June 2 and he only took two. But if hes chubby to start with, its OK.

Corns are evolved to go for several months a year without food. They brumate during the winter when there are none of their natural prey animals available. It's not a problem for an otherwise healthy adult to miss feeds for a couple of months - many adult males go through this as part of their breeding season routine.

It's not necessary to keep a Corn slightly "chubby" to safeguard them against these sorts of situations - they are perfectly natural in a Corn's life and can occur for a range of reasons. Nature has designed them to live well on much less food than they generally get in captivity.

A chubby snake isn't always a healthy snake.... being overweight can shorten their lives in all honesty.

Their little lives are so proscribed; trapped in a cage, even my 135 gallon terrarium is confining if that's where they are the majority of the time. If they are happy with an extra mouse, fine by me. If I'm anthropomorphically thinking they are happier with an extra mouse, thats OK also. If it means they have high cholesterol levels, atherosclerosis, and snake diabetes, (if a snake can even get diabetes secondary to obesity) they may indeed live a shorter span, but perhaps, more contentedly. And that is fine by me as well.

OK, to put it in anthropomorphic terms then...

My mum's overweight and has high cholesterol, arthritis, sciatica and diabetes - all caused by or made worse by the excess weight. She certainly isn't content. She's in constant pain, she has breathing difficulties, a loss of heart and lung function, can't sleep properly and can't move far. She can choose to put down the biscuits but refuses to -a captive Corn can't make the equivalent decision because they're driven by instinct.

She suffers. I wouldn't be so quick to deliberately inflict those health problems on an animal and say it was fine.