Help me please

[Mantis]

My Boa is getting dry skin real bad on the top of his body. I cannot figure out what this is from. The humidity in my tank ranges from 55% to 80% constantly. I soak him in the tub when it gets real bad but he hates it. (Hes not too bright i put him in 1 inch of water and he can't seem to keep his head above the water). Is there anything i can do or is there something wrong with him that might be making this happen?

[Red]

Re: Help me please

sound's like dehidration.. You may want to see a vet.... There is alot of things that can cause this... If you could give back ground on this problem then we could help out more... for now I would say get some reg. pedelite no flavor at all and soke the snake in it.. give it to the snake as its water and keep the humidity about 65% in the cage...
Now for the info we need to know..
How long has this been happening?
Is it just the back or the rest of the body?
Has the snake been shedding well?
When was the last shed the snake had and was it complete?
Have you seen a drop off in activness<when holding, when in the cage,day and night.
What is the humidity level in the cage on the avg.
Do you have a humditiy and temp gauge..
Has the snake been eating well?
I think you get the hint
Tell us evey thing about your snakes habbits, and eveything about the cage set up.. I mean every thing..
I hope I can help..
eric aka...Red

[draco842]

Re: Help me please

To help keep the hummidity up use cypress mulch. Other then that Red gave you good info.

[eViL_KaRoT]

Re: Help me please

Another thing to rememeber is, what is your water at home like? I know that the water we have at our house is very high in iron, because it is well water. We used it at first, and it dried out her skin very badly. We changed immediatly to bottled water. So, if your water is bad water and high in Iron, that may also be a cause. But as everyone else says, keep the humidity high, try about 65 or 70%.

[Mantis]

Re: Help me please

Sorry for taking so long to respond.
My snake has been dry fro a couple of weeks now. Its just on the top half of him the bottom looks fine. He is looking better now I am soaking him daily in water so it is helping. The Humidity is normally around 70 to 80 %. the water is pretty nasty here there is alot of chlorine and other minerals in the water system in here but i bought a bottle of Reptisafe for his drinking water. Its a water conditioner. I also have another question. Well 2 actually. How can you tell if a snake is stressed ? I don't think mine is but i don't know how to check. And how do you tell if i snake is sick? Thanks for the help everyone.

[Mantis]

Re: Help me please

hot (left) side. that he hides under and basks on. there is a water bowl in the middle and a little fake greenery to make it look a little more pleasent. I am adding a picture to help make sense of what i just said.

[Mantis]

Re: Help me please

I guess i wrote too much in the last post it cut me off, I'll try to shorten it. its been happening for 3 weeks now. Its just his top half.He just shed a week age completely. He sheds well. he is as active as the day i got him. Humidity levels are 55 to 80%. I have 2 temp gauges and 2 humidity gauges. he eats once a week. hes about 4 ft long and about 9 months old. The cage is 200 gallons 6ft long 2 ft wide 2 ft tall. I use reptibark for lining(thinking of switching to astroturf but not sure if i want to do that). I have 2 60 gallon tank heater pads under the left side and a 150 watt CHE on top of the left side. on the right side i have a mist humidifier inside the tank. water bowl in the middle. on the hot side he has a hollowed rock to hide under and to bask on. there is also some greenery in there to make it more appealing. He really has no habits to tell about while he is in the cage he is normally by the water bowl or under the rock.

[LORI]

Re: Help me please

Ok first thing I noticed.. or missed possibly even.. is your temps.. What are they actually ? I do note that you have listed off quite a bit of heating going on in that cage though. Could be that you are "drying" out your snake unneccessarily possibly with all that heating going om ,aybe. Most people who use the CHE's do not utilize UTH also with them that I know. CHE's give off a ton of heat and therfore do not need the extra help from something like UTh's at all in most cases.
Also.. You really need more hiding/ground cover in the cage for the snake from what I see in the pic also. A snake , especially such a young one at that, will stress out if it does not have enough hide areas to utilize in it's cage at all. Stress can lead to bad shedding also btw. It also can lead to health problems for the snake like dehydration as a secondary problem to the stress possibly even.
Your humidity levels sound great though btw. One thing though with the soaking... lighten up a bit on it. You are most likely stressing out your snake by soaking it so often when it does not like what you are doing for it at all in the first place even. If the humidity is up where you say it is and your snake is dry on the "skin" some.. then it is most likely a bit dehydrated [ too much heat can cause this even with the humidity levels up where you say they are even possibly]. Really need to know what your temps are reading at in order to clarify on this further if it is the cause or not also. IF it is due to high heat, then you will need to reduce the amount of heat you are providing in that cage. try shutting down the UTh's and just goping with the CHE for a few days and see if that makes a difference. For water... just supply the pedialyte like suggested at 100% [ btw..take note that gatorade also will accomplish this and is much cheaper to use than the pdei stuff . Just note that if you use one of the colored ones like red.. your snake will turn a bit red but that will go away also...LOL]. Also soak the snake every other day in the gatorade and water mix ..50/50% for this. Also supply a log or something for the snake to hold onto a bit to help keep it's head out of the water also [ if the snake climbs out fully, then your just going to have to manually soak the snake down is all.. it lieing on top of the log or whatever you supply will not help to saok it at all hehe].
OH and to check if the snake is dehydrated.. just "GENTLY" pinch the skin right behind the head or a bit down the body on the snake's side...if it does not go right back into place when you let go.. then your snake is dehydrated...if it "bounces" back.. then it is not dehydrated.
BTW>> That stuff your useing for the water.. save yourself some $$ and just buy some bottled water to use for the snake is all also.
What is the snake eating for prey ? AND Can you provide a pic of the snake at all for us to see what is going on with it possibly even ?

[Mantis]

Re: Help me please

I did the pinch test and it seemed ok his skin just bounced back into place. I will try the gaterage tomorrow. The temp on the hot side is 85 degrees most of the time depending on hot warm it is in my house. I'll pick up some more hiding places for him later on (don't have any cash right now). Here is some more pics of him. Sorry about the quality of the pictures my camera kinda sucks. If you notice his tail is nice and shiny but the rest of him looks dull.

[Mantis]

Re: Help me please

heres another

[LORI]

Re: Help me please

Ok.. You can use just about anything for hides even btw.. A shoe box [ till he gets it soiled or wet will do even for now]. BTW.. What i was looking for in your temps was the following actually..
hot end temp :
cool end temp :
night drop temps :
where are your temps taken from [ ie 2' off the bottom of the cage on side, on top of the substrate etc] :
Also if your temps are not from the substrate/bottom on the hot side..please grab what they are [ just [place the thermometor on it for a minute or two is all to get it even ] :
Your snake doesn't look dehydrated at all in those pics either btw. Can usually see it in a pic if it is a bad dehydration even.
Any mites at all on the snake ? Check by running your hand down the snake's body and then checking your hand for lil black dots. Those can cause shedding problems also. and dehydration at times even also.
Still thinking it's in your temps or a stress thing possibly though with what might be going on.
How often do you handle the snake and for how long ?

[Mantis]

Re: Help me please

Thanks for all of your help everybody. Turnes out I think he was dehydrated. I switched him to bottled water and soaked him in a sports drink and i haven't had any problems since.

[LORI]

Re: Help me please

GREAT then ! Ya might wanna just keep offering the sports drink for like a week then just to make sure that he gets fully rehydrated is all. It won't hurt him none doing that either.