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Dill
Lv 5
Dill asked in PetsReptiles · 9 years ago

Baby ball python wrinkled and dried? Help please!?

I have a baby pastel ball python who I got about 2 months ago. He's only eaten once about a month ago now, but other wise he's refused. Recently, I saw he was going into the shedding phase, this being the first time he has in my care. His eyes returned to normal about 2 or 3 days ago, yet not shed. Now he's extremely wrinkled and dry to the touch, but no shed skin yet. I've been misting his cage often, just to be sure his shed will go okay. By extremely wrinkled, I really mean EXTREMELY WRINKLED. All down his body and even on his head, it's pretty bad looking and I've gotten very worried. But I'm sure he's not dehydrated, I've filled his water dish daily and I have seen him drink before.

Should I be worried? This is the first baby ball python I've had, the rest I purchased as adults, so I don't know if this is normal or not. Will he shed soon?

The only thing I thought that may have caused this, he had mites when I first got him, and I've still been treating him. I'm worried that it may be a reaction to the spray I was using on him. I followed the directions, it said to spray directly on the snake. I did the last treatment about a day before I saw his eyes glaze over. Could this be the problem? I'm really worried. Any advice on what I should do? Please help.

Update:

There is no retained shed. There was no shed period. He's just all wrinkled. It's not a dry shed, my other BP currently has a dry shed, but they look nothing alike. This is nothing I've ever seen before.

4 Answers

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  • johnny
    Lv 6
    9 years ago
    Favorite Answer

    I feel that the mite medicine interfered with your snake having a healthy shed. You may want to luke warm soak your snake to help remove all of that retained shed. Just do not over fill the container that you are going to soak your snake in because he could drown.

    Source(s): Own ball pythons
  • Anonymous
    9 years ago

    Provent-a-mite for the cage. reptirelief for the snake. nothing else. He is probably getting skinny ontop of being in shed. Like someone else said, give him soaks. If he is a baby, and he is in anything bigger than a 10 gallon, and if his temps are anything but 90-95 on the hot side and 80-85 on the cool side, that could be why he isnt eating. digital thermometer only. If none of this helps you, ask on a real reptile website, not yahoo. check my sources for some info.

    Source(s): www.ball-pythons.net www.kingsnake.com www.snakebytes.tv www.bhbreptiles.com
  • kirroth
    Lv 4
    9 years ago

    Either he's dehydrated or severely underweight. Those are the only things I can think of to explain that wrinkling. Try giving him a little sauna. Fill a container, such as a plastic storage tub, with lukewarm water (it should feel cool to the touch, to you) only deep enough that he could rest his head on his body to stay out of the water. Supervise him during the sauna. Do it for about 15 min. That should help, if he is dehydrated.

    If he's underweight and refusing to eat, you may have to take more drastic measures, such as force feeding.

  • Anonymous
    9 years ago

    its dead give up

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