ball python has wrinkled skin

Question
I just got a ball python about a week ago who's about 2 feet long and captive bred.  Today I noticed that his skin is looking wrinkled all over, kind of like the way a prune looks wrinkled.  Do you know why this might be happening?  Should I be worried?  (Just yesterday I thought maybe the hot half of his terrarium was too hot, so I went to lower wattage of heat lamp which lowered the temp from 90-95 to 80...don't know if that had anything to do with it...)

Answer
Hey Marc,


The temp was dead on. You should not have changed this. Check the moisture level. It needs to be around 60-65. Snake tend to look a little wrinkled when they are getting ready to shed. It is the old skin tightening up.

If it is overly wrinkled, have you fed it yet and did the pet store say it had eaten before? There are a lot of pet stores that sell imported snakes. These snakes have not eaten most of the times. The problem with this is your snake may be malnourished which can lead to death. Whatever you do do not try to rub the old skin off. Keep the snake moist and feed it.

Hope this helps,
Eric