• Hello!

    Either you have not registered on this site yet, or you are registered but have not logged in. In either case, you will not be able to use the full functionality of this site until you have registered, and then logged in after your registration has been approved.

    Registration is FREE, so please register so you can participate instead of remaining a lurker....

    Please be certain that the location field is correctly filled out when you register. All registrations that appear to be bogus will be rejected. Which means that if your location field does NOT match the actual location of your registration IP address, then your registration will be rejected.

    Sorry about the strictness of this requirement, but it is necessary to block spammers and scammers at the door as much as possible.

Wrinkly Hatchling - Burns or ...? Quick Advice plz

C

Cornelia

New member
I need some advice from some knowledgable folks.

I have a hatchling that has really wrinkly skin on approximately the last 40% of his body. I noticed this about 1 hour ago. The weird thing is, he looked completely normal last night. I left him in a deli cup overnight (not heated) to eat and since I had to go to work early I had my boyfriend put him back in his tub when he woke up about 6 hours ago now. I checked on him when I got home and noticed the wrinkliness. The reason I am worried about possible burns is because he is in a rack I just finished setting up and calibrating yesterday. The thermometer says the temp is 89 directly on the heat tape, same thing it said last night. The tape feels warm to my hand because I have really poor circulation in my hands (my hands probably sty at about 80 degrees when it is cool out) but when I tested it with my upper arm which actually stays at body temp it felt cool. This means that the temp is definitely below 98 degrees right? He was only in the tub for about 5 hours before I checked on him, and he was sitting right over the heat tape when I found him. Could he be burnt, or could he have become dehydrated in that amount of time? My boyfriend did say he "thought he looked weird" when he put him back in his tub today but he didn't pay enough attention to say anything more specific. I tried to look up how to tell if a snake is burned but all the info I could find said redness. He is a pink colored snake so I can't really tell if he has redness...he might look a little darker in the wrinkly area. I have other hatchlings that were also sitting above the heat tape when I checked on them and they looked normal. I have seen no signs that he is in shed but I have had him almost a month and he hasn't shed yet so he might be due for one.

I need opinions please, I am so confused and worried...I haven't seen anything like this before.
 
Sounds like a stuck shed to me. Pop a small container in with him (at the cool end), with some damp kitchen paper in it. Instinct should tell him to go and sit in it to moisten the skin and help the shed.
 
Ok I will do that, is that how a stuck shed looks? I would have thought that his whole body would look like that if that were the case. All of my other ones have shed with no problems so I don't have any experience with that lol.
 
Well 2 days I gave him a "bath" like the sticky says to do and put in a moist hide, he's not wrinkly anymore but I couldn't find any shed skin either so I don't know what's going on.
 
How long have you had him? Has he shed with you before? How long since his last shed? Is it possible he could be getting ready to shed? Did he use the humid hide you put in his cage?

My snake, Mango, is a rescue and had some skin problems when I first got him. His skin would seem fine and then out of the blue it would get crinkly and some skin flakes would stick up or come off. That was the sign that he was about to go into shed mode. His skin condition cleared up with time and now he sheds like a normal snake. ;) Just a thought.
 
Cornelia said:
Well 2 days I gave him a "bath" like the sticky says to do and put in a moist hide, he's not wrinkly anymore but I couldn't find any shed skin either so I don't know what's going on.
Click to expand...

No shed? Sounds like dehydration. Ensure temps are not too high and keep fresh water in Cage.
 
I got him a little over a month ago, I stated in the initial post that he had not shed for me yet but I looked back at my records an he actually did shed shortly after I got him (10/6) and he had no problem with it. It is possible that he is nearing another shed but I haven't seen his eyes go cloudy. I have not seen him in his humid hide but he did leave some poop in there the other day so he definitely has gone in there.

Temps are good and he always has fresh water available, I double checked that when I noticed that he was wrinkly because I thought it might have been dehydration too.
 
Is your snake eating and keeping its food down okay? Is it active? I am asking, because I have noticed that snakes that are failing to thrive (either not eating or regurgitating) will get a wrinkly look them right before they die. I hate to sound negative, but that has been my observation.
 
He's not that great of an eater but he does eat, he absolutely refuses to eat f/t so I've gotten him live pinkies a couple times and he did eat those. I got one non-feeder a while back that had a wrinkly look right before he died so I kinda know what you are talking about there, but his skin looked like it was folded up where as this one looked more crinkly if that makes sense. He is pretty skinny but still looks healthy to me...he was only wrinkly for a couple of hours before I gave him a soak.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top