Scaleless FL Banded Water snake

One of a kind. This male was found last fall as a baby. He lives here now.scalelessflwatersnakeb

18 Likes

Found in the wild?

So cool. Glad to see it has scutes.

1 Like

Have there been documented cases were scaleless snakes have no scutes? Are they mobile?

Wow, so I did some research myself. I was surprised at how many wild caught scaleless snakes have been reported. As far back as 1942. Snakes ranging from juvenile through adult…and thriving. Even found a few scientific studies showing heat and moisture loss ratio compared to to normals. Still haven’t found anything on lacking ventral scales. Interesting to say the least.

2 Likes

I have heard ball python scaleless had a lot of trouble moving around and thats why it took extra years for them to consistently be produced and kept alive. But I saw so many scaleless bps this year I think that was all BS. Any scaleless colubrid I ever saw has belly scales and moved just fine.

I’m excited for you and a little jealous at the same time. The odds of finding that are infinitesimally small, it blows my mind. I’ve caught 100’s of northern water snakes over the years, not to mention the other colubrids caught and never came across anything out of the ordinary.
Have you noticed anything unusual about him, shedding, feeding, growth rate? Is he adapting to captivity well?

2 Likes

Hes been in captivity for a year. Doesnt bite, strike, puff up. Hes more tame than any other snake I have.

1 Like

8 Likes

yo can i see the setup, im debating if i should get a banded water snake

1 Like

Whoa, that’s awesome!

1 Like

You can keep them just like garter snakes… bedding and a water bowl.

1 Like

3 Likes

Are you going to try breeding him to see if it’s genetic?

Scaleless is a genetic morph. Maybe one day we will see babies.

4 Likes

To answer your question, scaleless ball pythons have no belly scoots. I have 3 of them, and have yet to see mobility issues. However, they cannot be kept on normal substrate because of it. Their skin will start to create sores if left on moist substrate too long, and dry substrates such as if you let mulch dry first before using it, cause iritation because of the wood dust.

The reason they are hard to keep is because of husbandry issues so far as ive seen. They shed very often, and it isnt always a clean shed because of the lack of scoots and difficulty of holding humidity in a enclosure that has paper towel / reptizorb bedding.

Sorry, was not trying to hi-jak the post, but felt the question was worth answering so they know why its good that your snake has scoots :slight_smile:

2 Likes

How’s he doing?

1 Like