Difficult shed.

[snake_lady83]

Well after a few soaks my snake shed with a little help. My question is, there anyway of telling if she was able to get the eye caps off? Her eyes look clear...I just want to be sure. Thanks for any advice you can offer.

[JLC]

If you can find the old skin that came from her head, you can usually see the eyecaps in there. But if its too shredded, it might be hard to tell if you're not sure what to look for.


As for looking at the snake itself, retained eyecaps are clear, and don't look all that different from normal eyes....but you'll usually see a tiny jaggedy edge around their eye...as if they were wearing a raggedy contact lens that is just ever so slightly too big for them.

If she does indeed have retained caps, it won't hurt to just leave them alone. Keep the humidity bumped a bit and most likely she'll rub them off herself, eventually. If not, and so long as you fix any humidity issues you're having....they should come off fine with the next shed. The risk of serious eye-injury is just too high to mess with retained caps when they don't pose any health risks themselves.

[snake_lady83]

Ok. I feel better. I've had the humidity about 50%. Should I maintain it higher than that? I didn't expect her to have a difficult shed and I feel really bad about it...I know she's fine, I just wish it could have been avoided.

[tmlowe5704]

Ok. I feel better. I've had the humidity about 50%. Should I maintain it higher than that? I didn't expect her to have a difficult shed and I feel really bad about it...I know she's fine, I just wish it could have been avoided.

50% is a bit low. is she in a tub or a aquarium? if it is an aquarium, what type of top does it have? we can give more advice if we know what it is in. be as specific as you can. also, remember to type what type of substrate you use

[tigerlily]

Ok. I feel better. I've had the humidity about 50%. Should I maintain it higher than that? I didn't expect her to have a difficult shed and I feel really bad about it...I know she's fine, I just wish it could have been avoided.

Sometimes bad sheds just happen. It's really not a big deal. I keep my humidity at 50%, but when I notice that they've gone blue I'll up the humidity to about 70%. I drop it back to 50% after they've shed. Don't worry, bad sheds happen to the best of us.

[snake_lady83]

She is in a basic tub setup right now. UTH on one side, water bowl, identical hides-one on each side, and I'm using paper towels to line the bottom. The paper towels aren't pleasing to the eye, but they seem to work.

[snake_lady83]

Thanks tigerlily! That makes me feel better. How do you up the humidity for your snake(s)? Just a water bowl on the warm side? Would a damp paper towel on the warm side work well?

[frankykeno]

Christie is right, sometimes poor sheds just happen especially in the standard home with dryer fall/winter conditions. Also depending on where you got the snake, sometimes their previous husbandry issues (and your own at first) have to get worked out so a crappy shed or two is sort of par for the course.

Check the room the enclosure is in and see first what your enclosure is dealing with. Sometimes if you can put a small humidifier in the room it really helps (and will help the humans too as long as you don't make the room sopping wet lol). Also you can cover a few of the vent holes in the lid of your tub to keep in more humidity, move the water bowl more to the warmer side, add another water bowl if you need to (remember wide low bowls allow for more evaporation so will up your tub humidity). You may even need to spritz the tub occasionally on really dry days. Sometimes when it's really dry here I just give the underside of my own tubs a very light misting in the morning and it does the job without creating a damp substrate.

What are you using to measure your temps and humidity?

[snake_lady83]

A digital Acu-rite.

[frankykeno]

YAY! I was so hoping you weren't going to say one of those round analog jobbies that never work LOL. You can just steal that Acu-Rite for a few hours and get a read on the room the tub's in so help you see if that's an issue.