[Cazador]

Robert,

Immediate steps:

This sounds very much like a failed shed. Babies are very susceptable to them. Personally, I'd soak the snake in tepid water (~85F or 30C) for a minute or so, and see if you can pinch a little of the skin and pull it loose/backward. If it's a failed shed, the skin should separate fairly easily and become transparent again, but when it dries, it will re-harden. If you choose to peal the old skin away, you should periodically re-wet the snake. It becomes difficult to peel when the skin dries and hardnes. If you don't want to peel the skin, you might try the wet bag trick. I'm not sure how effective that is for very young snakes, though. Even if you try the wet bag trick, you should give it a soak to make the old skin more supple.

If it's a failed, hardened shed, the snake will have difficulty moving, so you might need to support its head while it's soaking. Keep us posted, and in the meantime, hopefully James (or others) will chime in with details about what types of fabric work best for wet bagging a snake.


Curing the root cause:

Lack of humidity in the enclosure probably contributed to this type of failed shed. Be sure to wash the water bowl thoroughly and add fresh water. It often promotes drinking, but this will not help the youngster's current situation. It will only help the others, and will help this snake in the future. Secondly, you raise the humidity by misting the tank once a day while it remains dry. You can also move the water dish under the heat lamp or over the under tank heater (whichever you use) to increase the humidity. Finally, you can partially cover the top of your enclosure to help it retain moisture. Doing one or more of these things will help to prevent this from happening to your other snakes, but you need to deal with the one with symptoms soon. Best wishes,

Rick