Shed questions

[das_nooblet]

Please bear with me, I am still new to reptiles and tend to ramble

I took Manasa out about a week and a half ago, and noticed she looked slightly faded and her eyes seemed slightly cloudy, so immediately put her back in her tank (as I figured she was finaly going into her first shed since getting her), and started regularly misting to up the humidity. I checked her hides back this past Tuesday, as she looked back to normal (based on her head stuck out of the hide), but did not find any shed, so I figured it had been a false alarm.

As I had postponed a feeding (since I read they tend to go off-feed during a shed cycle), I decided to feed her the next evening. She took the first mouse, but exploded it (over her water dish, fortunately) and left it (also in the dish) in the process, so I fished it out, and defrosted another for her, which she took.

When I went to see about wiping her down with a damp paper towel on Friday (figured I'd wait the 48 hours before handling) to clean off any entrail residue, her skin was back to looking faded, but also saggy (as I've seen in some threads of snakes with stuck sheds), and then later that night, she had some shed peeled back from her head.

For those of you who have slogged through the back story ... as of this evening, she still looks the same as she did Friday: faded, saggy, and with bit of shed under/behind her head. No shed elsewhere in the tank. When should I start being concerned about it being a stuck shed, and consider giving her a soak to help loosen it? Could residue from the mouse guts be causing a feeding temperament, overriding going through with the rest of the shed ?

With misting I've been mostly managing to keep the humidity in the mid-high 70s when I'm home, though it drops to the mid 60s while at work. Temps are 90 on the warm side 80-84 on the cool (usually sits at 80 but we're going through a pseudo heat wave at the moment).

[lunasjy]

A full stuck shed can be an issue. I personally peel the skin off myself and I never leave it longer then 3 days as the old skin begins to fuse with the new skin. People always recommend not doing it but leaving a full body stuck shed could do more damage in my opinion. I have never had an issue peeling skin off myself when I need to, only if they cannot get it off themselves.

What substrate do you use? Is it a tub set up or glass tank?

[Reinz]

I think you handled her during cleanup just within 12 hrs or less of her going into shed on her own.

You were doing everything correct. However you may have been a bit too anxious about the shed trying to rush it. My snakes eyes will clear up after being cloudy for a week or more. Then in a day, two, maybe even three, they will shed.

Even if regular feeding is near signs of shedding, I hold off until the process is done. But then I have adults, not growing pups.

When your husbandry is correct as yours is, all you can do is wait.