Baby BP shedding problems

[sunnig96]

Hi! I’ve had my BP for exactly a month, I ordered him from underground reptiles as a baby so he is probably 3-4 months old, and he is currently shedding. As soon as i noticed his skin changing and his eyes turning blueish, I started to mist his enclosure several times a day to increase the humidity. I have a digital hydrometer in the cage that says his humidity is at about 70%. But as of about two days ago he is actually shedding, and it’s coming off in small pieces. The majority of his old skin is still on his body and several small pieces have come off. He’s actively trying to get the skin off by rubbing his body all over the rough things in the enclosure and I can tell that he is very stressed so I’m not sure what to do!! I’ve heard that you can soak him in warm water, and I tried doing that but he did NOT like it and kept escaping the bowl and I felt like i was stressing him even more so after a few minutes I put him back in his cage. What should I do to help him?

[Sunnieskys]

You can soak but you need a locking lid lol. Get a washcloth wer with warm water and ring it out and he can keep slithering through it while you are gently applying pressure so it comes off. Keep some sphagnum moss damp inside each hide at shed time. Just the front corners will do because they like to curl up in the back. Keep misting paying attention to the opening of the hides. You need to get some moisture in the hides.

[SDA]

Ok to soak a ball python you need to create a condition where he cannot escape. This will be accomplished with a sterilite storage bin. About a 6 or 12 quart should do. Just need to have it big enough to keep your snake in there. Now you are going to put luke warm water in the mid to low 80s in the tub and just enough to cover the lower 1/3 of his body.

In the tub you will either put a wash cloth or paper towels. Wash cloth is better. You will poke some holes in the lid. A soldering iron works best but you cna use a hammer and nail if you have nothing else. A large nail heated up over the stove works also but watch you don't burn yourself.

Once you have the holes in the tub (of course you do this before even setting it up with water, don't try it with a snake in it duh!) you can get the water and wash cloth in there.

Put the snake in there and close the lid. Do not for even one minute walk away or distract yourself. You need to watch the snake at all times while this is happening. Also make sure you are doing this in a somewhat warm room. Don't try this in like a 50 degree house!

After making sure your snake is not drowning and waiting around 20-30 minutes you can check the condition of the old skin. If it has not come off on its own that is what the wash cloth is for. You can use that to let the snake slither through which should get all the loose skin off. For troublesome spot you can use q-tips to GENTLY rub some of the loose shed off.


Since you have low humidity normally, it might be better advised to raise humidity when the snake's belly gets pink and not when you notice it in blue. This will give more time to get humidity up to level.


Example of sterilite container - of course get size appropriate for your snake.

https://www.target.com/p/sterilite-1...93#lnk=sametab