Strange Skin Condition

[Craiglee]

Noticed today that my garter's skin seems to be pale-ish in color to what it normally was, almost a dirty appearance, and his skin wrinkles when he moves and seems to be flaking open. It looks very dry and have been scouring the net trying to find some sort of an answer. All I can dig up is that his cage is dirty. Is this possibly Vitamin E related maybe? He eats minnows, I do put Calcium and Vitamin B1 in the water. Any ideas?

[Stefan-A]

What are the conditions in the enclosure? Is the humidity alright and what substrate are you using?

[Craiglee]

I have been using layers of soft paper towel for the floor, and various sticks and leaves.

[mustang]

humidity??

[Craiglee]

I have a lamp on one side of the cage. Cage is a screen mesh air flows through it. One side of the cage is definitely warm, and his water area is on the cooler side.

[guidofatherof5]

Welcome to the forum.

Sounds like you need to get him in a shed box. Wrinkly skin usually means a retained shed.
Minnows are a problem but not related to the shed problem.
http://www.thamnophis.com/forum/husbandry/5014-cheap-shed-box.html

Here's a link to the care sheet.
Garter Snake Care Sheet - Caresheets (http://www.thamnophis.com/caresheets/index.php?title=Garter_Snake_Care_Sheet)

[ConcinusMan]

Yeah give him a good soak and get that skin off soon. Sounds like he needs to shed and didn't for some reason. My gravid girl just recently went through that. A nice long soak in luke warm water, and a little help from me took care of it.

Does it look sort of like this? Feels sort of "crunchy" and "crinkly" ? If so, shed box and/or soak. That skin needs to come off. This is usually caused by very low humidity and very dry conditions in the enclosure.
http://img21.imageshack.us/img21/8774/shed022large.jpg

[Craiglee]

The skin didn't look like that exactly but similar enough. I have ruled out anything serious at this point. He definitely is just shedding his skin, however it's coming off in a million little flakes. Earlier when I saw him the skin was just starting to flake, and appeared potentially serious, also I am colorblind and so the faded skin color threw me off cause I couldn't tell if he turned an unhealthy color or what. As of 5 minutes ago I took him out for a brief examination and he seems fine. Just an abnormal shed. Shed box/ soak is in order.

[guidofatherof5]

Retained sheds can be deadly. More deadly in younger/smaller snakes.
Hopefully the shed will be off soon.;)
Best of luck. Keep us posted.

[gregmonsta]

Greetings :D

[ConcinusMan]

Now that you know it has happened to him you might be able to prevent it next time. When you see the cloudy eyes, followed by them clearing up, then provide misting or high humidity for a few days until he sheds. Sounds like maybe conditions were just too dry. The shed should happen 1-5 days after the eyes go clear. If it's been 7 days or longer, watch out for a retained shed. After 5 days of clear eyes, I decided it had been too long. Went and examined her closely and that's when I found the problem pictured above. Caught it in time.