Baby ball python shedding or injury?

[Zimbie]

Hi, I'm new to snakes but I'm not new to having pet reptiles. I got a ball python a few days ago and so far it's been going well. Yesterday while I was handling him, I noticed a bit of dead skin on his back that wasn't there when I first got him. It didn't seem to bother him at all yesterday, but when I went to handle him today he seemed very skittish. I know snakes are typically more temperamental when they shed, but this doesn't look like what I'd expect it to look like. There's nothing sharp in his enclosure, but I did have an adhesive thermometer that he liked to perch on. He exposed the sticky back to it and I removed it as soon as I noticed. If this is an injury, that's the only thing he could have hurt himself on. Can someone tell me if this is scale damage or the beginning of shed?

Habitat info: 30-ish qt plastic bin, humidity 70%, cool side 70°, warm side 85-90°

[poison123]

Hi, grats on the new snake. To me it just looks like shed however it doesn't look like a healthy shed. Hard to tell from the pics though. Seeing that you got it just a few days ago its possible that you missed the shedding cycle. When a snake sheds they start looking dull first couple days or so then they go to a complete blue phase where their eyes completely fog up for several days (may defer depending species and age) then they may go clear for a couple days in my experience. After they go clear they than shed out. So if you just got the snake its possible you missed all the signs of it being in shed. What hydrometer are you using to measure humidity? Aspen often molds with higher humidity which makes me think you're using one of those crappy analog hydrometers i suggest going with a digital hydrometer/thermometer. Its completely possible that the shed was not ready to come off and he scraped against something causing that part to come off. A snake usually starts at the head which im sure you know.

[Zimbie]

Yeah I've been using an analog hydrometer. The humidity in the enclosure is pretty high despite me burning about 20 pencil sized holes in the sides, and another 20 on the lid. I guess the only thing I can do is burn more holes to reduce the humidity.

I figured that it didn't look like a normal shed because of where the dead skin is located. He has a few other spots that are a bit pale that make me think that he is about to go into shed, but they don't look as bad as that. Most of his coloration is crystal clear though, and his eyes look normal. I'm going to keep an eye on it

[Aaron_S]

It looks like a shed that needs to come off. If it doesn't come off on it's own then I would dampen a pillowcase and put the snake in it, tie it up and leave it like that in it's enclosure for about 20 minutes.