Excessive shedding?

[blushingboas]

Hello! My ball python is almost 4, and it seems like he's shedding more than he's supposed to. Just last year he was shedding about every 3 months, now he's shedding every month. This has been going on for about 6 months. The sheds always come off in one piece and he's eating fine. I haven't been able to find much info about this problem, so i'm hoping to find someone who has had a similar experience before I call up the vet!

he's currently in a AP T8, paper towel bedding, with flexwatt if that makes any difference

[melcvt00]

Has he gained a bunch of weight?

[blushingboas]

No drastic weight gain or loss, he's been the same girth for a long time. He eats 2 small rats every 2 weeks.

[Aztec4mia]

it's fine, there is not a set amount of times that he is supposed to shed. The snake would know better then we do.

[paulh]

I am not sure whether one shed a month is excessive or not. I am inclined to think it is not for a well fed ball python.

On the other hand, I had a juvenile corn snake that was shedding twice a month, which was excessive. All I did was put a drop of a good bird liquid multiple vitamin in a dead mouse and fed that to the snake. It only took a month or two for shedding frequency to drop back to once a month, which is what I expect from a young, growing corn snake.

The vitamin dose was repeated once a month for 3 months. The vitamin preparation was Avitron, made by Lambert-Kaye. Probably any liquid vitamin designed to be added to cage bird water would be acceptable.

[se7en]

i've had an adult female shed 5 times in 57 days.

[Reinz]

When my BP was 13 or 14 she went into the blue right after shedding. These guys can be all over the map sometimes.



Elvira, Normal BP

[KMG]

My BRB has shed back to back before. He has done that a couple times.