question

[cpt_retic]

hey my retic , when he sheds sometimes gets light grey or white scales on his head. Is this normal ? Its kind of like the scale is lifted . he has a good shed most of the time but i'm not sure if he presses too hard on his shed log with his head or is shedding too early . I have the humidity fairly high. after he sheds sometimes his skin on his head feels tender and moist not silky smooth like the rest of his body . sugestions please?

[Bobby]

I have seen that happen to mine also. Seems to be normal.

[cpt_retic]

any others have this?

[CHRISANDBOIDS14]

Well, I had my old rat snake do that once but it shouldn't happen all the time. It might be a little tender but normally the snakes are most fragile during this time. It could be lots of things.

Chris

[cpt_retic]

I'm having trouble , trying to get a cut to heal on top of my retics head, I'm using polisporin but every time it goes away it seems to reopen when he sheds , any help pls. i feed him well enough I don't understand why it won't heal.

[kevyn]

Does you retic do alot of rubbing? It could be nervous. You may want to remove anything really abrasive and switch to newspaper substrate until the wound heels. Just keep it clean and if it dosen't close go to a vet.

[ReptiZone]

hey man sounds like you are having a hard time. lol

Stuff like this is bound to happen tp even the best of us it is times like these you get a chance to add on to your experience and overall knowlege cause no mater what ppl here say it is the results that you see at home that realy matter I could say black and you try it then you say white and get 110 times better results then I could have told you.

well any way let see if my past experiences can give you a hand.

this happend to me with a ball python just 6 monts ago.

now I tried the whole keep it moist and all that trash you have heard a 100 times by now.

this may sound crule but this is what I did and it worked like a charm I was tired of strugaling with the animal day in a day out causing nothing but stress and discomfort on the snake so I waited till it shed then I purposly removed the scab and swabed what litle I had of blood then I took a clean Q-Tip an socked it with rubbing alchole and let it drip in the open wound and then apply evenly with the Q-Tip after that I place the python in a enclosure with nothing but newspaper and a hide 24 hours later I give fresh water if you take a good look you will see where you placed the alchole will be all dry and a bit wrinckly 2 days after you place the water dish you can start sprying 2 times a day and then 3 time when you start to see the first shed phase coming around.

here is where it starts to be realy neet and rater intresting.

Because where B4 you probebly had a big black scab kicking around and it just looks unhealthy and then sheding time comes around and it is all caught up in the scab.

Well the way I just explained dryes out the cut and leaves a sort of like invisible scab BUT insted of poping out like B4 it just leaves this hole like apereance well when the animal sheds it sheds around the hole and actualy cuts away when it gets to the hole it is hard to explain but I am sure you get the general idea.

2 monts later the head was perfect condition I only repeated the proces 1 extra time to insure every thing was going ok. To my surprise the 3 time I was gona try there was only one little white scale left to heal so I said why mess around and stress him out 10 days later he shed it all away and it was all clean with a small white scale 1 month later all the colour was restored.

sorry for all the spelling mistakes just wanted to try and help.


Marc Doiron
&
Lucie Masson
(ReptiZone)