Can you help us (or do you know of someone who can help us) with our Honduran Tangerine Albino Milk Snake, Pumpkin? For the past few months his skin has been as dry as sandpaper and wrinkled in places. It also feels like there’s too much fluid under his skin. The man who sold him to us is afraid that either his old skin may have attached to his new skin (when he didn’t successfully shed) because the humidity may have been too high and he got fungus between the two skins… Or that the humidity was too low and this has kept him from shedding. Per his suggestion, we’ve had him soak for a few hours in water and for 30 minutes at a time in baby oil. His skin will look better at first, but always returns to the state it was before. We have a room humidifier, and made sure the humidity in his terrarium is between 30% and 50 % and that the temperature is at recommended levels (between 80to 85 during the day – warm side, between 70 and 75 during the day – cool side, and between 65 and 70 at night). On the warmer side, his terrarium has a reptile heating pad underneath (as well as a daytime bulb). He had a problem shedding his tail several months back, but having him soak and keeping his tail moisturized seems to have helped. Do you know of a colleague or a reptile veterinarian who could help us?
You can actually increase the humidity during shedding times. I'd aim for about 60% when you notice your snake going into shed. We actually had a snake with chronic shedding issues--a Tangerine Pueblan Milk Snake, believe it or not--and I found that providing him with a moist hide pretty much eliminated the issue. He would still have problems in a few patches, but I could easily remove those by hand if he couldn't rub them off himself. All you have to do to set up a moist hide is get a small plastic tupperware container, cut a doorway out in it, line the bottom with moss or paper towels, and thoroughly mist it twice a day to keep it damp. If you look up leopard gecko moist/humid hides, you can see some simple yet effective examples of what I mean. Welcome to the boards and let us know if you have any questions! =D