problems with baby rtb

[belladonna]

hi. i purchased a baby rtb about 3 weeks ago. a few days after bringing her home i noticed something weird going on with her skin. ok, how to explain this......you know how there skin is supposed to be all smooth and glistening? well, on her belly, there is a space of about 4 scales that seem really dry and they aren't smooth and glistening like the rest of her. the scales also seem to have gaps between them where you can see her skin .it has not changed. not worse, not better. overall she seems healthy, aside from this problem. her temps are about 78- 79 on the cool side. ambient temp is 80-82. basking spot around 90. i also have a 6 ft burm and i have never had any problems with her. i just want to know what this is and is my baby ok? any replies are appreciated.

[Stormyva]

What kind of substrate are you keeping the snake?
Do you have any pictures?

[belladonna]

i have her on the reptile carpet. sorry, don't have a camera

[belladonna]

also, when i got her, she had skin from the previous shed stuck on her tail and head. she kept rubbing her eyes on my hand to loosen the eyecaps. i used a moist washcloth to help loosen the skin, and successfully (and carefully!) removed her retained caps and skin. could the problem on her belly be from someone at the petstore pulling the old skin off? when i purchased her they had her in a tank with this hard grey pellet substrate. it looked like it was made out of some kind of plastic. i worked in a petstore for 3 years and i have never seen anything like what i saw when i returned to the petstore where i purchased the rtb. there were 2 hedgehogs in 1 cage, 1 with it's ear bitten off and blood everywhere, then a 7-8ft rtb with a severely raw nose from rubbing the wire top of her cage. i asked the guy if they were treating it with anything and he hesitated to answer me. and they were still attempting to sell these animals! it just makes me all the more worried that i purchased an unhealthy snake, from a store that has no idea what they are doing!

[batgrrl]

Let me guess it's a PetCo? It sounds like your snake might have parasites, or have had some trauma at the store (this is not uncommon). I would reccomend having it seen by a vet no matter where it came from that way you might be able to pre-empt any problems. The pellets you saw were probably rabbit "bedding" pellets. They are comonly used as cheap disposable substraight.
What is the humidity at in the RTB's cage btw?

[belladonna]

humididty level is 50%....sometimes a little higher. the area of skin seems to be healing, but with significant scarring. since i've had her i have seen a huge improvement, considering they had no heat source for her and the tank she was in was dry as a bone! the petstore was called ValuePet. i went there the other day to "look around" and check up on the 7ft rtb they have (whose health seems to be deteriorating) her nose is soooooo raw! i mean all flesh, no scale. i think she is hungry and trying to get out (or just wants love!) on the "feeding schedule" they have posted on her cage it says she was last fed 7-30-03! i asked the guy if they were putting anything her nose and he hesitsted and said yeah. when i asked what, he 'didn't know for sure'. it's a shame. if i had the room and the cash, i would get her and give her a good home. i think they are waiting for her to die because no one is buying her because of her size. sad.....

[jonjpl]

You should report them to the Humane Society

[belladonna]

i called the local humane society and they asked me what i wanted to report. i told them improper husbandry of animals, obviously sick reptiles, hedgehog with it's ear bitten off with blood everywhere in cage, plus multiple other innapropriate conditions. i gave them the address and they said they would send and 'investigator' . i hope they do something. i'll keep going there to see if anything changes or what happens. hopefully they close the place down!!!!!