I think he's petted!

[elusivereptiles]

Ok so my VERY first ball python.... is SOOOOOO petted it's not even funny. His name is "Sir Hiss" and he's just a normal, but he's apart of my family and for a long time was the only snake I had. I fell in love with this little guy, and for some reason he tends to get more attention.

For instance when he sheds. I know he has enough humidity to have a full shed all by himself (because he has done it before). BUT he won't complete his shed, because he'd rather have me give him a bath and pull it off of him. He'll seriously go 5-6 days after shedding his eye caps waiting for me to bath him.

He gets handled a lot as well. I think this happens because anyone that knows me and my snakes personally knows that "Sir Hiss" is the calmest one of the bunch. You can pretty much do anything with him and it doesn't phase him. I think he likes living the captive life, having food tossed to him, bathing him, and being held.

Anyone else got a snake like this?

[rabernet]

I honestly don't think that Sir Hiss has chosen to wait for you to bathe him to help him shed. If he's not shedding on his own, you probably need to be measuring his humidity with a digital hygrometer. What is your humidity?

Yes, I do have some snakes that adapt better to handling than others.

[elusivereptiles]

His humidity ranges from 70-80% almost all the time, on rainy days it's more, on cold days it's less. But the weather here has been pretty steady for about a week now, and it's running anywhere between 70-80%. So I know it's not the humidity that's the problem. Plus he soaks in his dish when he's in shed too.

-Matt

[JoshJP7]

Gonna have to agree with Rab here... if you need to bathe him then the humidity isnt high enough. Shouldnt have to help with a shed. Sure they may seem to enjoy you getting the skin off for them when its a bad shed but its extremely unprobable that he just wont shed himself bc he wants you to help... I got some fussy snakes who dont like to be handled at all but most of them are pretty cool with it and dont mind.

What are you measuring your humidity with? Its very unlikely that you have 70-80% humidity and he still wont shed on his own... I NEVER see my snakes in their water dish unless theyre droppin a number 2

[elusivereptiles]

Well that's the thing... I'm pretty sure that he's not waiting for me to bathe him either... but it just kills me to think that he might. He is in a rack system with 9 other snakes, and they all full shed EVERY time they are in shed. But for some reason hiss won't.. and i'm not sure why.

I've been measuring with the new R-Zilla Digital Thermometer / Hydrogometer.

All of my snakes have the same substrate, and all the 32qt. tubs have the same water dish, and my 67qt. tub have the same water dish.

Almost all of my snakes will hit the water when they are in shed, and my hydrogometer is always between 70-80 percent.

I have a space heater in the room, and a humidifier as well. I keep the room monitored constantly because this is also where my incubator is.

-Matt

[JoshJP7]

Id check your thermometer/hygrometer against something else just to make sure its correct... I only use Accurite 2 in 1 and in my roughly 2yrs of owning snakes have yet to see any snakes use the water dish when shedding. My guess is that your thermometer/hygrometer is inaccurate and you really dont have as high humidity as you think.

[elusivereptiles]

That's odd because I always see all of my snakes do it. Even before the tubs, when they where in glass, and they had damp towels on the top of their tanks... they would still soak in the water dish. None of them have ever had mites, or parasites or anything like that to my knowledge, and I use a white substrate so i'm sure I would see them if they did have them. I just can't figure it out... I always just assumed that this was natural ball python behavior.

[rabernet]

None of my 24 soak either. The only soakers right now are gravid females.

[elusivereptiles]

Well yeah I mean two of my females are soaking, but i'm pretty sure they are gravid also. However all my males are doing the same thing, and even my non gravid females are soaking. Who knows maybe I just got a bunch of oddballs.

[elusivereptiles]

I've got about 12 snakes in shed right now.