Weird Shed

[greenmonkey51]

My new pastel male has been shedding for the last week. Its like hes having a lot of trouble. When he got part of his head off, I finally found out he was in a shed cycle. Hes been wrinkly and dull looking for atleast the last 5 days. I put him in a small container with a damp wash cloth and and 1/8" of water in his tub. All my other snakes have been shedding great. Is there anymore I can do.

[piranhaking]

You may want to try putting a humid hide in its tub. To make a humid hide take something like a ziplock bowl or small rubbermaid tub (depending on size of the snake) and cut or melt an opening (making sure there are no rough edges) some distance off the bottom (the true bottom or the lid can be the bottom of the hide depending on how you want to sit it). Put either damp paper towels, or damp spagum moss, etc. in the bottom of the hide. That will give the snake an area to go with much higher humidity than the rest of the tank, and also give some thing to rub against to help it shed. That sounds more or less like what you have done, but its not good to leave the snake in standing water for very long, and the humid hide is probably more likely to be used than just an open bowl with a damp rag in it and no lid. By making a hide you give the snake good humidity with out the problems of leaving it in water for too long, and also give it some security while it is getting that humidity.

But, all that being said, I've just soaked mine for a few mins when its been an issue and that has seemed to solve it for me. I would think a humid hide would be much less stressful on the snake though than being handled during a shed and put somewhere its not used to being, since it is free to come and go as it pleases. I do plan on making one to use from now on, i just havent got around to it yet. That way when I see one go blue, i can just put the hide in with it and its pretty sure to take care of itself.

[greenmonkey51]

He's going to town in the wet box. I drained most of the water out, left the lid off and Im gonna leave it in there overnight. He should be completely good by morning.

[arcane]

My Pips' first shed with me was a retained shed. After upping his humidity and soaking him it wouldn't budge. So I used the sauna method. Basically you take a plastic conatiner, put paper towels on the bottom and cover with warm water (enough so there is a small layer of water on it), put the snake in and cover (make sure he has air holes), and set it on a heating pad. Make sure to watch the entire time (ie don't leave them alone), and Pip shed rose up and slid off within two hours.