Scales greying on corns

[Invictus]

Hey all,

I've been noticing with one of my corns that his scales are losing pigment, especially around the saddles. Here's a pic:

http://www.invictusart.com/images/greying.jpg

Is this just a sign of age, or something I should be concerned about? He seems to get more and more grey with every shed. I've noticed it on my older male corn as well.

[Simon]

I personally think that it's just a little lose of pigmmentation....because of age. How old is it?

[ChaosCat]

One of my male corns has that too. I have no clue on his age, but he is getting white tipped scales with every shed:

http://chaoscat.lowerground.net/herps/cornsnakes/charlie-hypomelanistic%20normal%20male/charlie8-4-03i.jpg

http://chaoscat.lowerground.net/herps/cornsnakes/charlie-hypomelanistic%20normal%20male/charlie8-4-03p3.jpg

Maybe its something like "gray hairs" in humans? :)

-cat

[Invictus]

Interesting... so it's not just me.

Simon - This is one of the corns that was given to me by a co-worker. The 3 I got had 3 previous owners, so I have no idea how old any of them are. Adults, that's all I know. :) The guy in this picture is about 5 feet, the older male is 6 feet, so I'm guessing they are at least 8 or 9 years old.

The greying is kinda sad, because you can see the brilliant reds on this guy. (His name is Neo, btw..). He is (or at least was) the most beautiful normal I had ever seen in my life.

[Andy_G]

It IS a sign of aging. Their colours begin to dull once they are a bit older, some more than others.

[Invictus]

Is there kind of a set time that this starts to happen? It just started happening with Neo about 2 months ago. It might help me determine his age.

[Andy_G]

It definitely varies, but it usually happens with corn snakes after about 6 or 7 years of age as far as I know.

[lordkovacs]

must be age.... my reverse okeetee has that. but to tell you the truth, I think it looks kinda cool... cheers,
MIKE

[sapphire_moon]

I read somewhere about piebaldisim in corn snakes...and something about when they get older they lose their pigments....And some of them start growing lesions and tumors and such.....I can't remember the web page.......but if I find it again I'll link it....

[marisa]

Not related BUT my female snow lost a lot of color while breeding and being gravid this year. It hasn't come back. But I still love her. Here are some comparison pics.

Before being gravid:
<img src="http://members.rogers.com/mattl/1femalesnow02-18-03.jpg">

About a week prior to laying I kept asking myself is she going to have ANOTHER prelay shed? Where is all her color? The pics look like a little change but in person it looks like she is in perpetual (sp) blue now compared to how she looked before. *shrug*
<img src="http://members.rogers.com/mattl/femalesnow05-16-03.jpg">

Aren't snakes interesting? Its amazing some of the odd things they do that we still have no idea why they do them.

Marisa
P.S. lighting also makes a differance in the photos but these two are as close as possible to what she looks like in real life before and after. And trust me, I have taken probably 500 pics of this girl to get an accurate representation.

[Thomas]

I have a 2 yr old corn and he has started to get grey scales, he has 2 or 3, weird