Shedding Questions From A First Time Owner

[ElleTonks]

Hey! My name is Cal, and I've been a snake owner for a whole two weeks. I got my 5-month-old (assumed for now, there was no certain age given) ball python at Petco about 2 weeks ago, and when I got her I was warned that she was probably going to go into shed soon and soon enough, a few days after I got her she went into shed.
I'm hoping it wasn't my doing, (Petco didn't seem like they were keeping the babies in very good conditions), but she ended up having a pretty bad shed. The first day I noticed how bad it was a raised her humidity to about 80 degrees, and left her alone to see if she would figure it out herself. The next day there was little change, so I gave her a 30-minute soak and eventually most of the shed came off, but there was still some from her neck up, and covering her head.
I've tried everything, the pillowcase method, using a Q-tip to try to remove her eyecaps (that's what I'm most concerned about), and different methods of soaking, but nothing seems to make the shed want to budge. When I first got her she had dented eyes and seemed pretty dehydrated, but since then they're no longer dented and she seems healthy besides the shed.
Does anyone have any advice? I've been planning to take her to the vet this week anyway for a new pet check up, but if I can't get the shed off then I'm going to ask them to help remove it.

Additional information: I keep her humidity usually around 50-60 degrees, but lately I've been trying to keep it higher to assist her in shedding. I've been misting her daily to keep the humidity up. I use alpine bedding and she has an undertank ZooMed heating pad that I monitor with a thermometer. She has two water bowls, a small one on the hot side, and a large one on the cold side by her hidey den, both changed daily.

Help! Is there something I'm doing wrong?

[Lady mkrj58]

Hi ElleTonks I had the same experience with a Petco and I gotta tell ya I don't care for Corporate Attitudes and ruled on how the snake eats, take her in for that well check appt , meanwhile it sounds like your doing all you can do. Petco Won't feed live prey and zi have seen a snake die from no food, my baby would have nothing to do with FT and as soon as I could I got her the Right size mouse and she's been eating Great since then and she's a beautiful Pastel yellow Ball keep us posted on your New Journey with your New Baby.

Sent from my SGH-T999

[Mr. Misha]

Hi and welcome to the forum. First of all, you need to get a thermostat ASAP for your heating pad. Monitoring it with a thermometer is not good enough ans there's a big chance of the snake getting burned. You can either get an on/off thermostat like Hydrofarm or you can invest and get a proportional thermostat like Herpstat or Vivarium Electronics. Thermostat is definitely a MUST!

In regards to the shed, just keep the humidity up in the 70s and your BP will shed all by herself. If there's a little bit of shed left, don't worry too much she'll take it off her next shed. Also, I wouldn't try to remove her eye caps either. You can seriously injure her eyes by doing that. The risk outweighs the reward. Be patient and keep up the humidity.

What are your temps like (hot/cold side)? What kind of enclosure are you keeping her in?

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using Tapatalk

[ElleTonks]

Hi ElleTonks I had the same experience with a Petco and I gotta tell ya I don't care for Corporate Attitudes and ruled on how the snake eats, take her in for that well check appt , meanwhile it sounds like your doing all you can do. Petco Won't feed live prey and zi have seen a snake die from no food, my baby would have nothing to do with FT and as soon as I could I got her the Right size mouse and she's been eating Great since then and she's a beautiful Pastel yellow Ball keep us posted on your New Journey with your New Baby.

Sent from my SGH-T999

Yeah, I'm just hoping the vet appointment goes well! Seeing three babies crammed in a small cage with no humidity gauge was so distressing, I feel so bad for the snakes there. The guy who helped me with picking out my baby seemed like he put a lot of care into them, but the conditions they were being kept in were just not good, even temporarily. I felt so bad.
Her first meal she refused to eat, probably since she was going into shed, but I'm lucky she doesn't seem to be too picky because she snapped up the frozen Hopper I gave her this week in less then a few minutes! The guy there recommended feeding the frozen Hoppers that they had, but do you think I should try to switch to live prey instead?

Hi and welcome to the forum. First of all, you need to get a thermostat ASAP for your heating pad. Monitoring it with a thermometer is not good enough ans there's a big chance of the snake getting burned. You can either get an on/off thermostat like Hydrofarm or you can invest and get a proportional thermostat like Herpstat or Vivarium Electronics. Thermostat is definitely a MUST!

In regards to the shed, just keep the humidity up in the 70s and your BP will shed all by herself. If there's a little bit of shed left, don't worry too much she'll take it off her next shed. Also, I wouldn't try to remove her eye caps either. You can seriously injure her eyes by doing that. The risk outweighs the reward. Be patient and keep up the humidity.

What are your temps like (hot/cold side)? What kind of enclosure are you keeping her in?

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using Tapatalk

Awesome, Noted! I'll run out and get a thermostat first thing tomorrow, thanks!
As for the shed, I'll try to keep the soakings and humidity up, I'm sure I'm just probably being impatient haha. Ever since I tried the Q-tip method a few days ago I've laid off the eyecaps, I was too scared to put any actual pressure with the Q-tips because I was afraid of hurting her, so hopefully either she sheds the caps off or the vet can do something.

As for the enclosure, I'm using a 20 long glass terrarium with a metal mesh top. I general keep the hot spot in her cage around 85-90 (Usually closer to 90) degrees, and the cold side of her cage around 80 degrees. I've read a lot of different temperatures that people use, are these appropriate to keep her at?

[KMG]

I second the tstat. It is the most important thing you will buy for your snake so buy the best you can. I'm a Herpstat guy and have four.

http://spyderrobotics.com/home/products.html

Cypress mulch is a great option for low humidity enclosures. It holds moisture well without molding. A good trick I use is placing moss in the hides. Keep it moist during a shed and wet it and allow it to dry out during regular times. This creates a humid hide so the humidity is a higher percentage in the hide even when the cage humidity is low. Since your snake spends most its time in its hide this benefits the snake greatly.

As for the stuck shed I second leaving it be until the next shed. Being young it will shed again in no time.

If you tell us more about your cage set up I'm sure we have some tips to keep the temps and humidity where they are supposed to be.

[KMG]

Awesome, Noted! I'll run out and get a thermostat first thing tomorrow, thanks!
As for the shed, I'll try to keep the soakings and humidity up, I'm sure I'm just probably being impatient haha. Ever since I tried the Q-tip method a few days ago I've laid off the eyecaps, I was too scared to put any actual pressure with the Q-tips because I was afraid of hurting her, so hopefully either she sheds the caps off or the vet can do something.

As for the enclosure, I'm using a 20 long glass terrarium with a metal mesh top. I general keep the hot spot in her cage around 85-90 (Usually closer to 90) degrees, and the cold side of her cage around 80 degrees. I've read a lot of different temperatures that people use, are these appropriate to keep her at?

The tstats you are going to find local are pretty worthless. If your keeping the ambient temps at 80 I would order you a good one and unplug the uth until it arrives. The big box stores are only gonna have one poor option.

I say skip the vet and place that money into your tstat. Snakes are not like dogs and cats and vet visits are rarely needed when they are kept correctly.

Covering the screen with aluminum foil tape will keep heat and humidity in.

Are you using a heat lamp to keep your ambient temps up?

[Mr. Misha]

Also, take a look at this thread if you haven't yet. It shows how to properly set up a 20 gallon terrarium
http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showthread.php?t=201740

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using Tapatalk

[Sea]

I've had some success in using Zoo Med's Reptile Shedding Aid to get the old shed off my girl's head. She wouldn't put her neck or head in the water when I soaked her, so we had shed stuck there, too. We sprayed her with the Shedding Aid and put her in a damp towel, and she took the shed off of her head by herself, eyecaps included. The neck gave her a bit more trouble, so we had to do that part manually with a little bit of gentle rubbing, but the Shedding Aid stuff really seemed to help, for what it's worth. Good luck to you! : )