Bad Shed. Read the sticky, still need help

[Bleepr]

First off, I'm a new bp owner so this is all brand spankin' new to me. Anyway, I was away for about 4 days, leaving my brand new female het albino snake all to her lonesome. I had someone changing the water every day, although when I returned her dish was bone dry. I noticed she started her shedding process and I predicted she would shed while I was away. When I returned yesterday she hadn't shed, but on further inspection she had tried, and only got part of her head off (eye caps still on I think) I took her out and placed her in a luke-warm bath and let her soak for a while (40 mins or so, per the sticky) and it didn't seem to help. I was able to start a little shed on her belly where the "neck" would be but I don't want to be too rough with her so I left when I got just sitting there. I'm hoping she can get though the rest herself and I've already taken measures to increase the humidity. My questions are how rough do need to be? Shes not used to being handled yet being I've had her only a short time. And should I try soaking again? Some different strategies? Let her be? I'm just looking for any good advice.

[LadyOhh]

Soak her again for a bit, gently try and help her remove some pieces, and do it again in a few days.

Gradual.

Or, you could just leave her alone, but the shed won't come off unless you have a good next shed.

[Kagez28]

I would keep your humidity in her enclosure up by misting and making sure the water dish is full. Make sure she has something rough to help her rub the shed off. give her a day or so and see how she's doing. If that doesn't work another soak could help. after the soak sure a warm wet cloth and let her slide through it as you hold it. this will help pull some of the stuck shed off.

[stevenkeogh]

You can get away with doing it manually if you must.
Shoebox tub, half inch of water, right on top of heat source (if using flexwatt)
After an hour the shed should be quite easy to peel off. Much like your own after a bad sun burn. Edge of finger nail to start it.
People will argue that you could end up hurting the snake but let's face it... it's a python... not a china doll.
Use your own discretion.
-Steven

[kc261]

It is no wonder she is having an especially bad shed if she ran out of water. She was probably dehydrated from the inside as well as just having dry skin. You might consider asking a different person to snake sit for you next time, since it seemed like this person didn't do their job.

The soak, combined with raising the humidity in her enclosure should help a lot, even if it did not produce immediate results. You might find that by the time a day has gone by, she has managed to complete the shed. You can also repeat the soak every day or two, if it is necessary.

To ensure she has access to plenty of humidity until her shed is complete, I recommend you put a humid hide in her enclosure. This is just a hide with some damp moss, paper towels, whatever in it. If you just add some to her regular hides, that will help a lot, but if you make a special humid hide out of a water tight container (rubbermaid food storage type thing), leaving the lid on but making a hole in it just big enough for her to comfortably get in & out, it will create a micro-environment where the humidity is very high.

When I got my first BP, it took quite some time before I had the humidity in her enclosure reliably stable at an appropriate level. It seemed like a tiny adjustment would make the humidity jump up or down 20 points or more (and yes, I was using digital, so in theory those readings were accurate). And then winter set in, so suddenly the humidity was way too low again and I had to start all over again. So she had a few bad sheds, and those humid hides seemed to really do the trick every time.

I'm surprised Heather (LadyOhh) said it would be ok to just leave it until next shed. I thought that if shed was left on that made a complete circle around the body or even just the tail tip, that it could cause problems. Is this only if it happens repeatedly? To be honest, that makes more sense to me, but from what I have read I understood that even one shed could cause an issue. Heather, or anyone else, can you shed some light on this?

[LadyOhh]

I'm surprised Heather (LadyOhh) said it would be ok to just leave it until next shed. I thought that if shed was left on that made a complete circle around the body or even just the tail tip, that it could cause problems. Is this only if it happens repeatedly? To be honest, that makes more sense to me, but from what I have read I understood that even one shed could cause an issue. Heather, or anyone else, can you shed some light on this?

Circulation can be cut off by bad sheds.. But only if it happens often and isn't handled/fixed at all..

It can cause problems. I've recieved an animal back in the olden days that had almost all of the tip of her tail disected by bad sheds. It was ALWAYS a problem spot after that, as there was a significant divet in her tail that always had stuck shed in it.

One shed can cause an issue, but in most cases it doesn't.

As long as you are on top of your husbandry and watch your animals for signs of worsening, it is really not a huge issue to let it run its course if it only happens once.

Being proactive is the best suggestion, but being as this guy is a newbie and worried about hurting his animal, it may be better off letting the snake handle it...

[Bleepr]

Like I said this is still brand new to me, so I'm definatly still getting all the kinks out. My countless hours of research don't compare to actually owning a bp

Thanks for all the comments though! I do appreciate it. I just checked on her (about 10 mins ago) and shes starting to roam about her enclosure (20g long) and rub on her shedding rock; which is just an old disinfected back side to a thunder egg, not terribly rough but rough enough I suppose (please correct me if I'm wrong). Thats seeming to work, its just flaking off, but coming off none-the-less.

I haven't checked the humidity but it seems like whatever I did is working. Basically did a few mists, changed water, covered the top a little more; was about half open half closed now its about 8th open, just to increase humidity for the time being.

[kc261]

Circulation can be cut off by bad sheds.. But only if it happens often and isn't handled/fixed at all..

It can cause problems. I've recieved an animal back in the olden days that had almost all of the tip of her tail disected by bad sheds. It was ALWAYS a problem spot after that, as there was a significant divet in her tail that always had stuck shed in it.

One shed can cause an issue, but in most cases it doesn't.

As long as you are on top of your husbandry and watch your animals for signs of worsening, it is really not a huge issue to let it run its course if it only happens once.

Being proactive is the best suggestion, but being as this guy is a newbie and worried about hurting his animal, it may be better off letting the snake handle it...

Heather, thanks for this great explanation. It helps a lot to align what my instincts were telling me (that an animal is unlikely to be hurt by one bad shed), with what I had read (that even one bad shed is a problem if a complete circle is left behind). If I understand your response, it really is both: one bad shed is UNLIKELY to cause an issue, but it CAN.

As far as letting the snake handle it, I'm a big fan of that sort of approach to things, when appropriate. I'm sure that's part of why I used humid hides when I used to have humidity and therefore shedding issues, because it seemed a good compromise between doing something, but not quite the take-over-and-do-the-snake's-job approach of peeling the shed off by hand.


Bleepr, I'm glad to hear that things seem to be headed in the right direction!