Darkened skin color--no worries, just curious

[surfimp]

Hey all, just had an interesting observation. I noticed that my sweet little Fine Line girl looks quite a bit darker today than she has in the past. There's areas of her scales that show speckled today that have been "clean" before. Another example is the stripe on her cheek, in front of the eye towards the nose--it's much more defined today, whereas it was much lighter and almost invisible before.

Her temps are the same that they have been (80 F at night, 82 - 84 F day, background air temperature) and she's seems to be acting normally, so I'm not concerned about any sort of health issue (especially since she just went to the vet on Wednesday for a regular healthy pet checkup and was declared "in excellent health"), but all the same I was wondering about the change all the same.

I've heard that shedding can bring on a darkening in color, but her eyes have not clouded over at all, and I've also read about how certain boas (like Hog Islands, for example) can exhibit great variety in coloration.. Just curious if anybody would like to add anything, like I said I'm not concerned about her health but just generally interested in what might make her color change.

[surfimp]

Here's a couple pictures that I took that attempt to show her current, darker coloring:

http://www.stevelange.net/boa/images/darkened01.jpg

http://www.stevelange.net/boa/images/darkened02.jpg

And here are a couple of pictures showing how she looked when she was lighter:

http://www.stevelange.net/boa/images/naptime.jpg

http://www.stevelange.net/boa/images/orange01.jpg

I know it's hard to tell from the photos, but basically the color on her sides is much, much darker and "muddier" than before, to the point that they are visibly darker than the top of her back. Also, there's small speckles and patches of grey coloration on her head that were previously clean, i.e. no color difference.

Anyways, just kinda interesting, she's probably going to shed or something but I thought I'd share :)

[Erich_Gaertner]

Hey Doc,
I have observed this color change in a few of my boas as well. Especially in one of my Hypos. Some days she looks absolutely SMOKIN' and some days she looks very muddy and dark. I really have know idea why this change occurs, I'm guessing it depends on their "mood" or some unknown environmental influence. As I said, just a guess! ;) Regardless of the cause, the color change is pretty cool! On a side note, I have noticed(particularly in neonates) that after a feeding, their color will look more vibrant and rich. I would think that's definitely a "mood" thing happening! Maybe the color improvement is just a sign that they are content with their full bellies! Who knows? cwm25.gif Thanks for sharing the pics of your Fine Line, she's a beauty! :)
Erich Gaertner
www.strictlyboas.com

[surfimp]

Thanks for the reply Erich. I just took her out and looked at her a moment ago, and she's back to her "old" self, much lighter overall. Really weird. Maybe it's a temperature thing?

When I was first looking at her this morning, it was still around the nighttime temperature in her cage; now it's solidly into the daytime temperature and she's "cleaned up" and is looking really light.

I don't think it's a stress issue, because she didn't seem any more or less stressed this time around than when I handled her this morning. And she last fed on Monday, so who knows? Thanks anyways for your insights!

[surfimp]

Just wanted to confirm that I think it is temperature-related, at least in this case...this morning I found her on the cool side of the cage in her hide pot, and using the Raytek I found the surface temperature there was 78 F. I bet that later on in the day, when the overall cage temps are up into the 80s, she'll warm up and her color will return to "normal". Interesting little creatures, these are! :)