Shedding With Unusual Kink In Tail.

[Carrie G]

Originally Posted by Aaron_S

1. Out of all the baby ball pythons at repticon your friend picks the one with a kink? There had to be other healthy ones. Now you face a possible problem.

2. Might want to increase your hot spot to 95 degrees. Also a thermometer isn't a thermostat. A thermostat will cut the power to your heat source if it were getting too hot. Thus avoiding any injury. A thermometer you have to check on a regular basis, you cannot do this in your sleep.

3. Substrate change will be easy. It's almost 2 decades since the 90's so things have changed. Snakes shouldn't need a bath or help shedding if humidity is correct. I recommend a mulch type.



Tub is a good option.

Towels are a bad idea if they are dry since the point of a towel is to suck up moisture. A wet towel doesn't do this The other options listed are also good.



Also a good option

Aaron, I appreciate your advice, but one of the things I did not ask for advice on is a critique of my friend. He knows me, and if he didn't think I could properly take care of him or that the snake couldn't survive with that kink, he would not have purchased him. He had him for two weeks before I got him and the snake had fed, shed, and defecated. Even after buying him, if there was something wrong, he would have kept the snake himself. He is also a biologist, was one of the curators at The Bronx Zoo Reptile House, and breeds a lot of reptiles himself (as I have stated.) I have a 12-year-old anery Kenyan sand boa he bred. He was the only one to survive the clutch, and I had to wait months to get him. My friend wanted to make sure he was strong enough to survive. And if I wanted to return the snake to him and buy one of the normal ones at Pet Supermarket, I would've done it.

Having said that, I thought I'd reach out in a couple of forums to see what other people might suggest. I've been surprised. Criticizing my friend is not helpful. Nor is removing his tail. His cloaca is in the area where the vet would do the actual amputation.

I have put in a humid hide, am spraying the enclosure, and have covered it with wet towels. Yes, I do know they can get moldy, and I am being careful. It has raised the humidity up to 70%. I also got saran wrap to put in place of the towels. And before his next shed, he will have a repti-fogger misting his tank on a timer. Actually, I'm ordering that tonight.

If I thought that the only option is to put him in a tub, I would do it in a heartbeat, but he is a pet, and I just can't shut him up in one of them and stick him somewhere. That's a personal feeling. I know that they are kept successfully that way. It just goes against the grain for me.

Again, thank you all for your advice and help. I have learned a lot.