Shedding novice

[Myenia]

My neonate GTP is shedding. It looks like its coming off in one piece, but its been almost 3 days, and I havent seen it ONCE rub up against anything. It's 3 months old...could it not know what to do yet? I havent soaked it because I don't want to stress it, but I have given it a 2-minute dip and let it crawl over a towel in hopes of the shed coming off. The humidity has been between 80-90% (would have kept it up to 90 if I had been able to tell it was about to shed), it has access to a water dish for soaking, and stuff to rub up against. Should I be doing anything, or just let it figure the process out?

[chondrogal]

Has it shed like halfway down it's body already? It's unusual for a baby to sit with an incomplete shed for 3 days. This is one time I would recommend handling your baby..... very gently, if it's rolled part way down the body like a donut I would mist the baby well and let it slide the rest of the skin off in my hands while VERY gently holding it. Recommend sitting on a carpeted floor in case the baby gets away from you so it won't injure itself.

If it is donuted on the body I would not continue to "roll" it, try to get it to stretch back out in more normal type shed. In all my years now with these snakes I have NEVER seen one soaking in a water dish before a shed on their own.

[Myenia]

Its about halfway down the body, but its not a perfect donut. The front-half of the shed was hanging off the other day so I was able to cut it. It doesn't look like the snake has taken any effort to get the shed off itself. It actually hasnt taken a bite at me yet, and has no problem with being handled...but I'm really afraid to do any gentle rubbing, and put too much pressure by accident.

"In all my years now with these snakes I have NEVER seen one soaking in a water dish before a shed on their own. "

Unless I misunderstood what you meant here...My gtp hasnt soaked. So, since its NOT donut-ed, should I still just mist, or go ahead and give it a soak like I would to my other snakes?

[chondrogal]

Ah, my reference was to finding one soaking in a bowl of water on it's own. When "soaking" a gtp they don't have the option themselves, but it's a great tool for nasty sheds.

I would definitely keep yours very heavily misted for the next couple of days, if it doesn't shed a soak in deli cup on wet paper towel may be necessary. This is a critical time when these guys must shed completely. Check your humidity monitoring device, if your humidity has really been as high as you believe something else could be wrong.

[Myenia]

Thank you for your help! I try not to just go off of the gauges for humidity or temps...you've got to use good judgement too. It's in a plastic tub, with a damp towel on part of the bottom, water on the warm side, and is misted twice a day. Especially when the towel is in there, I find it hard to believe that the humidity is dipping, but I'll check it with a different device.