In shed or not?

[Greekinese]

Hey guys, last Wednesday I noticed my snake had a pinkish belly. I thought he was going into shed, so I increased humidity.

It also seems his colors are dull, but I haven't seen his eyes cloud over at all. Not blue or anything.
The skin around his neck seems a little wrinkly (dehydration??) when he's looking up and his behavior seems more defensive.

I added cave hides last week and he hasn't been coming out at all.
He's been eating regularly, but the lack of blue eyes is making me wonder if he's really in shed or if the addition of the hides is making him more defensive when disturbed. He actually struck for the first time since I've gotten him. Nowhere near me, but he was definitely not happy about being picked up!

Here's a quick video...doesn't really show off the belly too well (sorry about that), but you can see his colors and behavior.
Also, eyes don't seem blue at all:

[WmHrbst]

He doesn't look in shed to me. How are you picking him up? Try to go from the side rather then straight down.

[Greekinese]

I usually try to pick him up from behind him if I can, strange though, his colors seem "dirty".
Maybe I should lower the humidity to 60%...right now I have it at 70%.

Wonder if the addition of the hide is what's making him an anti-social jerk hehe.

[Mike41793]

Post a pic of his setup please. He should feel more secure with the cave hides, if anything. He has about the same attitude as all 3 of my snakes that are that size.

[Greekinese]

I guess he's more secure, he barely comes out of the cave anymore! lol
When I took him out today he was pretty cranky. Temps were pretty low in the right cave (after adding moss), so I wanted to move him to the warmer cave.

He wasn't this pissy before I added those caves (he used to just have the half log & statue head) & used to cruise around at night.

Here's the setup:

[Greekinese]

Update: So it looks like he's not in shed after all, his change in behavior is due to the addition of those 2 rock cave hides.

He still doesn't come out, in fact he's in a worse mood now than I've ever seen him since getting him. He doesn't like being disturbed and he just missed his first feeding. He was eating regularly before this.

I've seen people advocate not using hides at all so they're used to seeing us.
What're your thoughts? I'm not too worried about his missing feed, he ate 5 days ago, but I just want him to chill and tame out and eat regularly.

He hasn't pooped as of late either, he used to poop quite a bit.
Hides are supposed to help, but he seems to have taken a step backwards.

[Greekinese]

Guess he was shedding after all...I just never saw the blue eyes or really pink belly.

Not a one-piece shed, but mostly big pieces:


Most importantly, eye caps:


1st shed complete!

[Capray]

See...they can be sneaky with those things! He was pissy cause he was working hard producing shed lubricants or something..lol

[nighttrain_1991]

So weird. I read your post yesterday and then had a similar experience last night. I got a female bee and lesser a couple weeks ago. The lesser fed on the first try and my normal boy has never missed a meal, but the bee would not eat. At first I thought it was because she was still settling in or because I was trying to switch from live to f/t, but last week I thought I noticed her belly a little pink so I thought maybe she was going into shed. Tried feeding again on Sunday, and she refused again. Checked her out and couldn't see any sign of shed in her eyes, didn't look the least bit cloudy to me. I decided to try feeding live just to get her to start eating. She took it right away. When I came back to check on her she had started her shed. Each one really is unique. My male displays all the classic signs when he goes into shed, but it looks like my new arrivals might be a little harder.