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scale dis-coloration

headly1994

headly1994

New member
hello all before i post pics i will give you some back story. about a month ago my butter corn had a weird looking purplish spot on its head i ignored and thought it would come off with its shed. the shed came and it got bigger and now its almost the size of half the snakes head now. iv felt it it feels perfectly normal not rough or anything. the snake doesn't act lethargic and is eating great. also the snake was from a mom and pop pet store so the genetics are not a definite it just looks like a butter. thank you for all your help
 

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Is it swelling at all? A lot of anery's and albinos start to "blush" as they get older and its just part of their coloration. It could also be a bruise if the snake took a tumble any time recently. Albinos of any type tend to show bruising and discolorations a little more in my experience. Keep an eye on it and note any feeding changes. If nothing else happens it sounds like it might be just a coloration thing!

Also! yay for more baltimore people! We should hang out :DDD! Have a snake photo outing haha
 
Neevr seen any 'blushing' on that spot of the head... usually that is on the cheeks, the photo is too fuzzy to see anything actually, sorry. Are the scales still there?
 
sorry the attachments didnt register
Your file of 589.7 KB bytes exceeds the forum's limit of 293.0 KB for this filetype i have no idea how to fix this lol sorry can post them
 
It looks like the scales are loosing their color. I know the bloodred morphs tend to have some transparent/white scales on their heads sometimes, but that's usually on their noses. I have never seen anythinh like this. It does not look like something to worry about though (so far at least).
 
I also think there is no health issue there whatsoever. It looks like that area is simply void of the yellowish pigment(xanthine/erythrins) and you are actually seeing through the parietal scales on the head into the soft internal head tissue, etc....It is very typical on young snakes to be able to see through their much thinner scales into the blood and tissue giving them a pinkish/purple hue. Just like in many extreme hypos and amels you can see their eyes through the top of their skull, especially when very small.

There are also certain conditions in the pigment cells (chromatophores) of snakes that can cause them to actually lose coloration instead of gaining more. Not much is really known about this, but lacking pigment of any type alone is not cause for any worry.

Take some pics and save them to refer to later as it matures so you can compare notes on the progress. I have seen certain snakes start out completely normal, or just slightly void of pigment here and there, and later as they mature be completely "calico" and look like a totally different animal altogether. Nature is truly bizarre, and no human will ever completely understand alot of it.



~Doug
 
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