Good humidity, Bad shed

[chrid16371]

My humidity is always 55-65 but then Persephone was going into shed and I bumped it up and has been at a constant 75. Yesterday I look in and there's shed pieces everywhere. I took her out and she still had her neck shed and bits and pieces all over her. So I took her out and read the bad shed, no problem sticky and decided to do it. I put her in the tub with little water and when I took her out 40 mins later I really seen the spider gene in her. She was so stressed. She only has a slight wobble when eating but this time she was straight in the air kept curling. She ended up peeing all over me. I put her back in her enclosure and she calmed down and was back to her normal self. I'll never do that again. I did end up getting most of the shed off her except her neck, runs from just after her head about 5 inches down in one piece. Why would she be having bad shed with good humidity? Kratos has good sheds and his humidity is the same as hers.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G890A using Tapatalk

[Jon14]

I had the same issue with my normal. It seems like occasionally they can have bad sheds even with perfect conditions. Have all of her sheds been bad ones?

Sent from my SM-G900R6 using Tapatalk

[chrid16371]

I had the same issue with my normal. It seems like occasionally they can have bad sheds even with perfect conditions. Have all of her sheds been bad ones?

Sent from my SM-G900R6 using Tapatalk

This is her first shed with me. I've only had her for a little over a month.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G890A using Tapatalk

[Jon14]

She might be able to get the last piece off since you soaked her. If not you may want to repeat the soaking process, and hope her next shed goes better.

Sent from my SM-G900R6 using Tapatalk

[chrid16371]

I'll give her a couple days bc she is stressed. The sticky I read said to put snake in tub with water and put lid on and let sit for an hr. I only had her in there 40 mins and it helped but at the cost of a lot of stress. So if I soak her again it will be without a lid on.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G890A using Tapatalk

[Willowy]

I've been told that their first shed in a new place often turns out not-so-great, especially if they were in bad conditions before. So hopefully her next will be fine. Don't worry about stuck pieces unless they're on the face/eyes or wrapped around the tail/body. A few icky bits won't hurt her and she'll most likely get them off herself.

[Rob]

Some snakes are just bad at shedding even with good husbandry.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[chrid16371]

She was in a pet store before in an aquarium without the screen covered and no humidity gauges. They only had her a month before I bought her and were feeding undersized prey so she probably never had the chance to shed for them.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G890A using Tapatalk

[JoshSloane]

Some snakes are just bad at shedding even with good husbandry.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Agreed. Some snakes, especially within BPs are just bad shedders. You can always provide a humid hide for a few days while the snake is in shed, and allow them to sit at around 100% humidity for a few days. This really helps to loosen things up. I soak my boas, but everyone claims BPs dont enjoy water.

[For Goodness Snakes]

I have found through the 50 odd years that I've owned snakes that if you spray them down very heavily 3 times in a 10 minute period you can go back to the snake after that 10 minutes and peel the skin off very easily. I have found that soaking them in a tub will usually soften up the belly and side of the snake, but because the snake is buoyant the dorsal area is still pretty dry.

Another technique is to go ahead and spray down the snake 3 times in a 10 minute period then place the wet snake into a warm wet pillow case. Keep the snake in the bag for about 5 minutes, the friction from the snake moving around in the cloth bag along with the moist softened skin will usually produce a fully shed snake. This technique works very well for retained eye caps.

If you have any questions about snake husbandry, breeding or mite control feel free to call me at 408-981-6694.

Best of luck.

Brian Gundy
For Goodness Snakes