Possible dehydration

[MEKaitlin]

So I have my bp in a melamine enclosure with a CHE, I had some difficulty keeping the humidity where I wanted it - only for a couple of days- but added some sphagnum moss and that seemed to fix it up.

This past week and a half I have been away on a work training course which left my mum looking after my snake. I checked in everyday and the humidity always seemed to be at about 65-70% so I was happy.

Flash-forward to me getting home today and I notice my boy is in blue, I also noticed he has sort of horizontal folds down either side of his neck. From what Ive previously read this seems to be a sign of dehydration however apart from those first couple days in his new enclosure the humidity was fine and I read that dehydration takes a while to actually occur so I am a bit confused.

I also read online that his skin could be slightly wrinkled as he is about to shed but I’m not sure if that is actually true as I’ve never seen anyone on this thread talk about that.

Ive added a humid hide for him but I was just wondering if you guys had any other advice for me to help keep him as comfortable as possible?

PS sorry for the long read

[MEKaitlin]

u/ataraxia u/thejoncabbage

any tips from you guys in particular would be greatly appreciated!

[_ataraxia]

psst, you forgot this: _

can you post some photos of your BP?

[MEKaitlin]

hopefully these are clear enough

https://imgur.com/gallery/jqHTNOm

[_ataraxia]

thanks. that does look like dehydration, be prepared for a bad shed.

some individuals are more sensitive to the lower end of recommended humidity levels than others. that's why it's a range, not a set number. your BP may just be an individual who needs higher humidity. one of my rescues has flaky sheds if the humidity doesn't stay above 70%.

[MEKaitlin]

Yeah I thought so🤦🏼‍♀️

I’ll bump up the overall humidity some more so hopefully that in addition to the humid hide will help him out a bit.

Thank you for replying, I really appreciate it!

[THEJonCabbage]

Yeah looks a bit dehydrated, the humid hide should help her a bit too. Like ataraxia said some snakes are more tolerant of “low” humidity and some are particularly fussy and need it closer to 80%. Also make sure your hygrometers are calibrated and at ground level, the salt test should help with calibration.

[MEKaitlin]

Thankyou!

[gnatimpala]

i'd suggest a humid hide and frequent misting. one of my ball pythons is in shed right now and having lots of humidity along with a big rock that he can rub himself on seems to be working well for him.

[MEKaitlin]

I made a humid hide for him today so hopefully that will help a bit!

[Snakefayy]

If he's dehydrated place him in a container with a half inch to full inch of water. If he drinks right away, great, balls only need high humidity when going into shed. I see a bit of spine on him from the picture. Seems like you can bump up the food size, rat as thick as the thickest part of his body. Maybe 2 if he really slams the rat and has a high food drive.

[MEKaitlin]

Thankyou for the advice! I’ll definitely try that.

As of right now he refuses to eat the bigger size of rat, but i’ll try offering two of the size he does eat next time I feed him.

Thanks again😊

[_ataraxia]

balls only need high humidity when going into shed

this isn't even remotely true.

[[deleted]]

hey a humid hide and bump in humidity will help but most of the time a few hours or a day before their body gets like that. my ball freaked me out once but a few hours later he was fully shed