| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| speedy231278 |
Posted - 03/02/2011 : 10:39:27
I'm now worried, yet again, about Patsy. The last three mornings she's been curled up in her water bowl. On Tuesday I figured it might be because she fancied a bath (you know how women love spending half their life in the bathroom! ;-) ) however when I got back from work 12 hours later she was still there. Yesterday and this morning, I removed her before I went to work, and she didn't go back in again until some time overnight.
You'll recall I've recently had to treat for mites. Haven't seen a single one since. There's not been a single one of the blighters in her water bowl this week, and I'm as sure as I can be that there aren't any on her. We've obviously been keeping a pretty close eye out for the things, but everything has seemed fine. She does have very small brown speckles on her underside, but I'm 99% certain these are just her colouration, as are the very slightly larger black speckles she has as well. They are much smaller than the few mites that were in her water sish when she was definitely carrying them, and they're not at the edges of the scales.
I can't say if she's off her food or not because I haven't fed her for a couple of weeks as she was only getting fed three weekly at the shop I got her from, and when I tried a second feed closer to the first, she refused. Admittedly this may have been due to the mites, but I figure that she'll probably be set in her ways. She's certainly drinking quite happily, and a few days after the rat I was treated to a giant marshmallow and a flood of epic proportions. A few days after that, I had another small flood to clear up, and ten minutes after I'd finished that job and stuck her back in the viv she showed her appreciation by leaving a rather more solid deposit in the corner....
She's not sulking in any way, in fact the last couple of nights she's been wanting to come out to play for a good part of the evening, although she's taken to resting her head on the door runners for ages before coming out just to let the heat out and ramp up the electric bill. There's no outward signs of anything nasty around her eyes or mouth as best I can tell, but as I mentioned in a previous thread she is quite crunchy underneath, and with our corns that's usually a sign they're going to go into shedding mode any day. I've had her six weeks now, seems like six months, and she hasn't gone into shed mode yet. When I took her out of the bowl on Tuesday she did make a couple of slightly squeeky noises which worried me into thinking that she might have an RI, but they stopped after just a couple of seconds, and I'm inclined to think that they were more likely a half-hearted hiss. She was certainly very cold at the time and probably feeling rather fed up. Another thing I thought I noticed last night was a very slightly pinky patch where the back of her jaw and neck meet. However, when I asked my missus to take a look, we then couldn't find it again, so I'm not sure if it was a trick of the light. If not, I'm inclined to think that she's bashed herself on one of the hides as every now and then she recoils like a shot when we open the door to let her out.
Nothing has really changed in the environment she's in. Hotspot is consistantly 89-91F, ambient of 78-80F. Humidity if the sensor can be believed is 45-46%, which a lot of people will tell me is a bit low. I do have a tub of dampened sphagnum moss in the viv which has been there since Tuesday, and so far it's not seemed to make much difference, it's maybe raised it by 1 or 2%.
I'm going to try and get some pics of her tonight for a second opinion to see if I've missed something silly. I can't see anything that stands out as a real problem, but then I'm a complete novice with Royals and there's obviously something amiss and I'm hoping it's something someone here will be able to point their finger at as I'm tied up until after the weekend which makes a trip to the local reptile shop very difficult in the short term. Obviously I want to find out if something is wrong asap as it's not fair to leave her as she is if there's something amiss other than maybe tinkering with the viv setup, never mind the danger it could get worse.
Heeeeelp!!! Ta. |
| 15 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| Blackecho |
Posted - 21/02/2011 : 15:54:35
Good, at least you know now. Perhaps a larger water bowl nearer the heat source would help. |
| speedy231278 |
Posted - 21/02/2011 : 14:41:22
Got back from being away for work for a few days to find that she'd shed and was eager to come and play. Wasn't a good shed from the point of view that the humidity was a bit low and therefore the old skin came off in a zillion bits, but there appear to be no leftovers anywhere, with the possible exception of a couple of scales on the back of her head. And she's not living in the water bowl either.... :-) |
| blackskull |
Posted - 13/02/2011 : 12:59:46
my royal still roams about when he is getting ready to shed ive never seen him go patchy he just goes all blue and he never soaks himslef. all snakes are different tho its just a case of getting used to their own individual habbits |
| speedy231278 |
Posted - 13/02/2011 : 10:24:14
Well, she stopped soaking again a couple of days ago, and has now started to show visible signs of shedding, ie her eyes are starting to go a little milky and she's got patches where the rest of her is starting to follow suit. Hopefully that explains tha one.... Do royals often display this sort of behaviour? Our corns simply stop coming out for a few days then go milky, while she's been coming out quite happily, but soaking quite often too. Or are they all different? |
| blackskull |
Posted - 10/02/2011 : 18:20:06
this link describes the life cycle of the might and what they look like, sorry no pics though
http://www.herpcenter.com/snake-mite-identification-removal.html |
| speedy231278 |
Posted - 10/02/2011 : 10:50:12
She's always had the same hides, and only since the initial mites incident has she ever bathed. I'm sure she's not in shed, she's not gone dull, no milkiness of the eyes, no obvious signs of mites anywhere. Tied up with work at the moment, but as soon as I can I think it might be an idea to give the viv another dose of the mite spray in case I'm going blind. Last time even with the humidity being a tad low she stopped bathing immediately. Really, really struggling here. How do I identify mite eggs and young? The adults were so obvious even an idiot like me spotted them! |
| Royalbob |
Posted - 10/02/2011 : 01:24:51
Bit confused. is she in shed?
Does she have 2 hides to squeeze into 1 at hot and 1 at cold end? They should be tight fitting.
They can sometimes use the water bowl as a hide or for security if it's nice and snug.
Double check temps with another thermometer.
Are the adult mites, youngsters and eggs definitely gone? |
| speedy231278 |
Posted - 09/02/2011 : 14:16:26
...and then on Friday it's back to bathing.... aaaargh! The moss has helped the humidity into the mid 50's, which I thought was supposed to be about right, and only needed to be a bit higher when the snake was actually about ready to shed the skin rather than thinking about going all faded and misty eyed? She's still perfectly happy (and very eager) to come out for a fuss in the evenings, and there's still no sign of anything amiss as far as I can see, but surely there's something not right somewhere? |
| speedy231278 |
Posted - 04/02/2011 : 10:23:09
Well, last night I had a lake to clear up. The new bark where I spot cleaned, if you can call about a third of the viv a spot, has helped increase the humidity to an alleged 60% this morning, and for the first time since Monday I didn't have an aquatic hiss to fish out. So that seems a little better. She's still very playful, and not doing the several day's sulk we get from the corns before there is any outward sign of a shed. |
| Royalbob |
Posted - 04/02/2011 : 00:00:16
Yep as BE pointed out, sounds like a shed coming. Look out for a dullness in her color and the slight pink belly. Then the clouding over of the eyes. Once the eyes clear this is when I up the humidity slightly with moss or as sandi suggest. Just on the hot side. Make sure whatever medium you use it's just damp though. Also an easy thing to do is just move the water bowl closer to the hot end. |
| sandi |
Posted - 03/02/2011 : 22:09:29
I recently used a sponge type cloth soaked in water and put it under her bark hide. works jusy as good as moss and is machine washable! |
| speedy231278 |
Posted - 03/02/2011 : 15:24:57
At the moment the moss is sat in a plastic takeaway tub. I figured bieng open topped it would evapourate nice and easily and increase the humidity. Might try making a box, it'll mean removing one of the bark hides, but I guess if she's using the bowl rather than a hide it's not really a loss in the strictest sense of the word... lol |
| Blackecho |
Posted - 03/02/2011 : 12:35:23
As you can see, if she wants more humidity she'll use her water bowl so I wouldn't worry too much. You could just provide her with a damp hide or two filled with Sphagnum Moss to use.
http://www.theroyalpython.co.uk/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=710
http://www.theroyalpython.co.uk/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=1399 |
| speedy231278 |
Posted - 03/02/2011 : 11:31:58
I did wonder that, but I've been convinced she's coming up for one ever since I got her. I think it was Bob who mentioned looking out for her belly going pinky, and there's a little bit there, but not very much.
I'm trying to increase the humidity a bit because I think it's not helping the crunchiness of her scales, but at the smae time I don't want to try too hard incase I give her an RI.... |
| Blackecho |
Posted - 03/02/2011 : 11:10:35
quote:
Originally posted by speedy231278
I'm now worried, yet again, about Patsy. The last three mornings she's been curled up in her water bowl.
quote:
Originally posted by speedy231278
Humidity if the sensor can be believed is 45-46%, which a lot of people will tell me is a bit low.
quote:
Originally posted by speedy231278
I've had her six weeks now, seems like six months, and she hasn't gone into shed mode yet.
I would say these three points are most likely linked and she's on her way to a shed, especially if she has recently had mites. |
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