Shed problems

[Darkmocha]

Some of you may remember the BP that I adopted and if not here's the thread

Now about three days after I fed him for the first time, I noticed that he was all shiny and that his eyes had clouded over. The temperature in his tank is 88-90 on the hot side and 78-80 on the cool side and I bumped his humidity up to 70% from 50% and his shed was still all over the place. It was in a million pieces with a very large piece going down his back and absolutely nothing off his head except for perhaps the bottom of his jaw.

First question is, with his tank parameters being correct, will this shed problem fix itself in time, am I doing something incorrectly, or what?

Next question is, I helped almost all of his shed off except for what was on his head since I didn't want to hold him down and force him to soak his head and with him being a bit head shy I don't want to overly stress him out by rubbing all over his face to get the skin off. Do you guys have any suggestions to get the rest of the shed off?

[JLC]

It's possible that the bad shed was caused by previous poor husbandry issues, and not by anything you did wrong. Continued time in your care with the proper environment and proper diet...he should begin to shed more easily. Occasionally though, there are snakes that are just problem shedders, no matter what you do.


In the meantime...so long as there's no old skin fully encircling his head, I wouldn't worry about it at all. He may rub it off himself over time, but if not, it won't hurt to just leave it and allow it to come off with the next (better!) shed.

Good luck!

[Nate]

you don't have to hold his head down into water. i'd never do that.

What I like to do with troubled sheds is take a luke warm towel (not really even warm to the touch) and basically wrap the towel around it and it will struggle through the damp towel, forcing the shed to loosen and come off. I prefer to leave the head area alone. that method i usually use for the body of the snake.

[Darkmocha]

Thanks for the quick reply, I just want to make sure that I'm doing everything right. My little corn snake never had a shed problem and I just want to make sure this guy is alright under my care. He's still eating well as he just pounded down two mice last night so I can wait as long as he's comfortable.

[Nate]

yeh if he ate last night then i'd hold out till tomorrow.

keep us updated! good luck! you'll be just fine