Shedding problem

[Matt Covington]

I have a 8 mo. Old who started its first shed about 3 months ago and still has lots of dry skin on him. I have him in a 25 gallon tank which gets hot about 90 degrees on avg and I have a real hard time keeping in humidity. What should I do about this shed?

[Rat160]

first shed at 5 months old? Am I reading this wrong? Do you mean his first shed in your care? Is there part of the tank that is cooler than 90 degrees? It should only be around 90 on one side of the tank. Problems with humidity come with using a tank. I dont personally use them but ive heard wrapping half the lid in saran wrap and misting often helps.

[arialmt]

Please start here if you haven't already :
http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showt...ius)-Caresheet

I would soak the snake in the tub to loosen some of that skin. I have read of warm moist towels helping also. Personally I use moist sphagnum moss and in her (plastic) hides when shed time comes around.

[KMG]

It sounds like you have some husbandry issues.

How are you checking the tank temp? Is it air temp or surface temp that is at 90?

What is your heat source? Lamp, uth, both?

You should have a warm spot with a surface temp of 90-to 94, then the rest of the tank needs to have an air temp of 80. You need a temp gun or a thermometer with a probe to get an accurate reading of the hot spot.

If you have an air temp of 90 your surface temps will be way to hot.

Providing a large water bowl near the middle of the tank will help raise the humidity. Also using a substrate of mulch or coconut fiber can help raise humidity.

Covering as much of the screen lid as possible with foil tape or a damp cloth will help humidity. Don't cover the entire lid though.

A good trick I use is make humid hides by putting moss in the hides that you can mist ever few days when they dry out.

Once you get your husbandry right you will have a great shed.

[kitedemon]

the way you have worded your post has raised red flags here.

90ºF is being measured where? is this an ambient air temp? a surface temp or? Ideally the tank will have two of the same hides under one should be about 90º (with in 2 degrees) The under the other hide should be 80º (with in 2º) The air inside the tank can be between 77-85 or so. This is ideal. It is unclear from you post what or where your 90º temp is if it is under the hot side hide this is good.

A shed cycle usually takes about 10-15 days after complete it is a good shed (all off the shed is off the snake and is ideally in large pieces or a single continuous piece.) or a bad or incomplete shed. This is a shed where chunks remain on the snake. In this case either correcting the RH issues and providing a humid area can help or even a soaking in water that is between 82-88º the water should not be deeper than half the width of the body of the snake (typically for a small snake only an inch deep or so)

Again you have worded things that sounds like the animal COULD be severely dehydrated as well. Has the snake been eating regularly? This answers most of the husbandry questions. Dehydration can be treated with soakings daily for about 20 min each (dry the snake before returning it) for a week or so. This is beneficial if the animal does not become very stressed by this process. Discontinue if it is stressed. Correcting the RH to 50-% will solve shed and hydration issues.