Hi New here with shedding problems...

[TheDude]

Hello all, I'm Mike and have a young ball python named "The Dude".
He lives in a 150 gallon tank with his hatchling mate "Monty". This is his first first shed since i have had him, about 7 weeks, and while he has lost all the skin on his body he hasnt gotten the skin off his head yet, along with both eyecaps.

Now I know one thing I did wrong to begin with... about 4 weeks after i got him he turned dusky and I assumed he was abotu to shed, this being my first snake I headed down to my local "Experts" aka: petsmart (I know! I know!) and asked if I should wait to feed him till he finished his shed. The genius there told me that if he was going to shed he wouldnt eat so to go ahead and try to feed and that it should be fine. Well he did eat but this caused the skin to break around his neck when he swallowed. Now he took it like a champ and was able to shed his entire body over the next few days but it came off in patches and was not a clean shed by anymeans.

I'm just startign to wory aobut this last head peice since it has been 3 weeks now. Its just the skin on top of his head and the eye caps. I have been keeping the humidity in the tank at 50-60% and temps range from 95 on the hot side to 75 on the cold side. I have a huge water dish which he doesnt mind being in but rarely hangs out in. And have tryed giving him little baths but obviously wont hold his head under water, lol. My latest trick has been drapeing a warm damp washcloth over him while i hold him but this isnt really doing all that much. And he isnt really tryign to run the skin off either. Last week I fed him again and he jumped on teh hopper liek nobody;s buisness but I'm still a bit worried.

Any advice? Heres a pic but its hard to see. Also the skin isnt really all that dry.

[Evan Jamison]

First off, welcome!!!

Secondly, a 150 gallon tank is a little overkill for a BP, and is usually very difficult to control heat and humidity in (any glass tank is, but a 150....I wouldn't even try....). Your cool side is too cool, see if you can get it into the low 80s. The bad shed (a good shed will always be in one piece) was caused by humidity being too low during "The Dude's" shed cycle, so be sure to bump his humidity up to 70-80% next time he turns blue. As for the stuck shed, put him in an escape proof tub with about an inch or so of warm water in the bottom for an hour or two, and it will come right off. If your conditions are right, he should never need to bathe (either forced or voluntary) to remove a shed. Good luck, and if you realize it is too much hassle to control temps/humidity in that huge tank, there is always the CB-70 fan club here to assist you in converting over.

-Evan

[TheDude]

Ah i had not thought of jsut lockin him in something! Thats Great!

Yea the 150 is very hard to keep temps in mainly because its jsut so dang wide! its why I am running 3 hides and 2 water dishes now, but I think I'm jsut going to get him back into his 20 gallon. The 150 was a score for free cause its cracked which after a bit of tape and some creative backing it looks great but its jsut too much open space, surprisingly enough the humidity is pretty constant in it, I jsut can control it, lol. you can mist that sucker all day long and it only goes up a few %. I think I'll swap him out tomorrow.

Thanks for the quick response! Oh and whats a CB-70? Do they bite? :eek:

[Evan Jamison]

Thanks for the quick response!

No prob!

Oh and whats a CB-70? Do they bite?

Ah, the workhorse of the BP world.....The all around greatest underbed storage tub ever created....The amazing CB-70!! I guess they could bite if you consider slamming your finger in one biting....

-Evan

[tigerlily]

If this is a young bp, then a smaller tub might work well. Evan's advice is right on, and the only thing I would add is to separate the hatchlings. There are no real benefits housing multiple snakes together and plenty of reasons not to (ie disease/parasitic transmission, cannabilism).

Welcome.

[frankykeno]

Going from that huge glass tank to manage to putting each snake in it's own nice plastic tub is going to make your life so much easier and the snakes so much happier in the long run. You won't get the display properties that a glass tank offers but BP's aren't a great display snake anyways as they tend to be in their hides a lot. Really boring to have friends over and they peer in a tank and see a coil stuffed in the entrance of a hide and that's about it LOL

You could find a lot of other nice critters that would love that big glass tank I'm sure and for a very reasonable price get Dude and Monty into there own seperate homes.