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Concerned about my Black Milk snake

lovin2act

lovin2act

I gave my wife herps
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So my male just shed a few days ago and I am kinda concerned about his underbelly scutes? Check these pics out. It seems like they are cracking apart or something. This is not just un-shed skin either after examining it. Anyone know what might cause that? He eats like a horse and has zero behavioral changes at all that would lead me to think he was sick. He is active when he gets hungry, drinks from his water dish regularly, and all in all seems as healthy as my similar sized female who does not have scutes like that. Maybe this is a normal thing they go through as they grow into full size adults? Not really sure, havent seen or noticed it before. I will be setting up a trip to the vet here but thought Id check to see in here if I am over reacting or if I have an issue on my hands that might be a problem. Some of his scutes that dont have the crackle stuff, look like they are split down the middle rather than one whole peice going across his underside. No injury or anything like that, they just have a split line on some of them for a while and then it goes back to no line at all and whole scutes with no split line. He is an 06 so he aint all that old either. Thanks for any input anyone can give me!!
 
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Hey Markus, what kind of substrate do you have him on? Is it at all damp? I've never seen that kind of symptom on my black milks ever. When was the last time he shed, and was it in one piece? Is he shedding abnormally often?
 
Hi John! I have him on ZooMed Aspen right now. I would say no that it is not damp really at all. Yeah its a very weird thing and my female has nothing like this and she is in pretty much the exact same set up. This guy shed about a week ago and it was a bit shredded here and there but overall it looks like he did it all at once. I didnt have to do any extra work on him to remove skin anywhere that might have gotten stuck on him. He was totally cleaned off from the shed. I will say that yes both my blacks are shedding alot! Almost every 3 weeks or so. Here is a pic of his cage and set up:
 
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Hey Markus, sorry for the delay, been a busy couple of days. The set up looks and sounds fine from what you have said, it's got me kind of stumped too. I'd only be speculating, but I suppose it could be fungal in nature (but that is only a non-professional suggestion)....a herp vet visit is definitely in order amigo.
Oh, one other thing I have learned is that if temps are too high, it can cause a black milksnake to shed very frequently. Just a side note. Best of luck and please let me know what your vet finds out?
 
No worries at all!! I know how that goes! I was thinking something fungal as well as its way different than any mite or bug infestation I have ever dealt with. And right now it looks to be healing a bit as the crackle scales kinda fell off and now it looks more like new skin coming in to replace the crackly area. But yeah I am diggin around for a good vet here that wont waste my time or money telling me who knows what when he dont know anything more than I do on the issue, but wants my hard earned cash.

And thats good to know on the temps, I keep them at room temp here in So-Cal with no additional heating sources and they thrive! But the weather here has been pretty hot and I dont keep the a/c on all day or else I will go broke on the electric bill. The room they are in though I would say never goes over 75-80 at its hottest. But its been pretty consistently up around that temp during the days the last few months so thats most likely why both my male and female are shedding quite a bit.
 
He shed last night and thankfully most of those odd crusty scales healed up and he looks almost normal again. So a great sign that he is in the healing process and not getting worse. The vet was not a ton of help when I went, kinda got the same info from him as I did online. But anyhow, things looking better and he is back out on patrol waiting to be tossed a nice yummy rat to eat.
 
Yes much relieved :)

Now I can go to the Anaheim show tomorrow with a large weight off and have more fun there!
 
Okay I had too much fun at the Anaheim show and now I have 3 black milks :) I found a year and a half old male that has lost most of his color and is about 2.5 feet long. San Antonio line with big 6foot+ parents. Sure I like all the balls n stuff with the different morph patterns, but they seem so trendy to me I guess and I just dig how these black milks are amazing eaters, dont bite, are hardy, look really cool, and dont make my electric bill go up cause they dont use any :D

I just dont get why these are not more popular snakes!
 
I have seen this on a ball python I bought from a store. The problem there was it was warm and the humidity was less than perfect. I ended up giving the snake a bath and it seemed to help a lot then the snake shed and everything was good. If you see it again I would raise the humidity. I ended up having to move my balls to a completely different room to raise the humidity in my house.

that has just been my experience as far as being in a location where humidity can fluctuate a lot. It is up to me to keep humidity up. I also had to move them to sterlite boxes cause it hold humidity way better.

Glad to hear it is doing better though.
 
Yeah I think you are definitely on to something there. It is pretty dry in my snake room and they seem to shed in pieces more often than they do all in one piece. So I am looking into tubs for them rather than the large custom cages I use that seem to dry them out. He just shed again a few days ago and all looks good still so thankfully the skin/scale issue seems to have subsided. But yeah I give them warm water baths here and there just to keep their skin somewhat moist for the time being. Plus here in SoCal the weather has been crazy hot and dry for months. Fall is coming so things should cool off here real soon though. Thanks for your thoughts James!!
 
Yeah no prob. I greaked when I first saw it. For the time being you could put a empty whipped creme tub in there with a hole in it and a bit of water to bring humidity up. Also heard about covering half the to[ with saran wrap. just some of the normal tricks.

Never really seems to bother them though so I don't think you have too much to worry about. Overall the snake looks good and healthy.
 
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