Stuck eye cap

[jess6905]

My pin stripe has a stuck eye cap from 2 sheds ago. I've tried to let him soak, and run himself through a damp towel no luck. I bumped up his humidity. Still no luck. Anyone have any ideas that might help?

[irishanaconda]

soak a pillow case in luke warm water while ur snake soaks too. Put him in the pillow case and close it up and stick it somewhere like in the tub or in ur tank for about a hour or so. He should be trying to get out and rubbing all over the pillow case.

[melonymalsom]

Every once in a while one of my snakes has this problem, as Ball Pythons are notorious bad shedders. After a good soak or a misting down with a shed-aid spray, wait about 15 minutes or so and lightly dab him off. Take a piece of scotch tape and gently press it over the eye cap so that some of the tape is on the skin around the eye as well. gently and slowly peel the tape off in the direction of the snake's normal shed (from nose towards the back) The eye cap should come off with the tape. Make sure the tape is not too sticky and don't use duct tape. Hope this helps.

Melony

[FoxReptiles]

Here's a reply that I posted quite a while ago to a similar topic about a stuck eye cap. It includes an alternate method for removing a stuck eye cap. It has worked for me and seemed a little less tricky than the tape method mentioned above (which I haven't personally tried yet.)

One of my guys had a stuck eye cap that was dented like you describe. The eye cap was left over from a shed and had a slightly creased/dented appearance. You can soak him like mentioned above to see if it will resolve itself. If soaking him doesn't work, his next shed will probably take care of the issue. Some people avoid soaking their snakes because it can dry out natural oils in their skin.

I was worried about the dented cap bothering my guy so I actually helped him get rid of it by gently rubbing applying warm water to the stuck cap with a Q-tip. After a few of minutes applying warm water, he actually got into it and started rubbing his head like he would to remove a piece of stuck shed and the cap came off without much effort.

I would only recommend attempting something like this if you're SURE it's a stuck cap and feel that it's worth the risk trying to remove it. If your snake is overly head shy or you're the least bit nervous, definitely refrain. Again, there shouldn't be much harm waiting for the next shed cycle for him to get rid of it himself.

[satomi325]

Every once in a while one of my snakes has this problem, as Ball Pythons are notorious bad shedders. After a good soak or a misting down with a shed-aid spray, wait about 15 minutes or so and lightly dab him off. Take a piece of scotch tape and gently press it over the eye cap so that some of the tape is on the skin around the eye as well. gently and slowly peel the tape off in the direction of the snake's normal shed (from nose towards the back) The eye cap should come off with the tape. Make sure the tape is not too sticky and don't use duct tape. Hope this helps.

Melony

You never want to use tape when removing eye caps. Any kind of tape. You can remove the live membrane as well with this method and permanently damage the eye.

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[Foschi Exotic Serpents]

You never want to use tape when removing eye caps. Any kind of tape. You can remove the live membrane as well with this method and permanently damage the eye.

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True!! We have posts on here where people have blinded their snakes doing this!! Don't use tape! Or anything that pulls on it!!

Believe it or not, sometimes it's not a stuck cap. The caps can get dented and appear to look like an extra cap but it's just dented due to being dry. Adding a humid hide is the best way to be 100% sure it is a stuck cap.

Make a plastic hide box with a hole in one end. Fill it with cypress mulch or moss. Dampen it very well and put it in the enclosure. The snake will use it often. Leave this hide in during the entire week they are in shed. I'd also regularly spray the enclosure during this week.

If you suspect one or more stuck caps, raise the humidity very high during the week of blue. Like 70-85% at least. Doing this only for the duration of the shed cycle will not cause harm or scale rot but it will help old caps come off.

Another trick as a last resort is to apply a dab of bacitracin to each eye once daily during the week of the shed cycle.

If you do all of this any stuck cap will come off.

[jess6905]

It's definitely a stuck cap. Thanks for all the advise. I think I'll try the q-tip method since it is such a small area. Maybe even the pillow case method mentioned. Hopefully it will work out for him.

[satomi325]

This should not be used regularly, but a dab of mineral oil to the eyecaps can soften them enough for you to slide them away with a qtip.

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