Bad shed

Ok, I know everyone gets tired of these questions but thats what this group is for right? My snake had a really bad shed this time. She only shed small pieces at a time and still has some of the old skin left just below her head and around the bottom ventral scales. Its probably about a 2 inch chunk of skin on both sides of her body. What does everyone suggest to get this off? Oh yeah, she started shedding about 7 days ago so I think this should be gone by now. Does anybody think soaking her and gently rubbing the dead skin off is ok? Should I pull the skin off for her? Does it mean the temp is too high? :confused:

Well your humidity is too low for sure. I keep mine around 50% unless a shed is coming and then up it to 70%. Do you have anyway to measure humidity? And how are you measuring your temps?

When you soak, the water should be about 1/2" to 3/4" deep and should barely be warm to the touch. Put a rock and/or towel in for safety, security and for something to rub against to aid the shed. Soak for a couple hours and then let the BP crawl thru a damp towel to get the rest off.

HTH
Jeremy

I have a temp gauge but nothing for humidity. I do spray water in the tank to make sure it is moist. What do you suggest?

I used to have a digital humidity monitor but it was broken when moving. what would be a good cheap replacement?

I would take a trip to WalMart and look in the outdoor thermometer/air conditioning section. There you will find an Acu-Rite Indoor/Outdoor Digital Thermometer/hygrometer combo unit w/probe. It will run about $15, and is a must have for all snake owners. The analog thermometers/hygrometers are notoriously inaccurate and you could be cooking or freezing your snake and not know it.

I place the unit on the floor of the cool side, laing flat, and rub the probe over to the warm side hide, place underneath warm hide. The unit will measure cool and warm side temps, plus the relative humidity of your enclosure.

Ive found that 80% humidity works better for me, the higher the better.

Sometimes on my digital thermometer it says HIGH, it doesnt give me a reading.

my bp had a bad shed this time too! adam told me to get a cheap container that your bp will fit in and that seals up good. put about 1/2 inch water in it and place your bp in it. I put a few holes in the lid.although adam said it probably would'nt have to. I did it any way not to many though, you want it to build up humidity, so you place it on the warm side of your cage. the water should be warm also, and leave her in it for about 1 hr. the humidity really did build up in it and when I took her out the skin came off real easy like the tatoos we used to put on as kids. worked great for me. although she did'nt seem to like it for about 15 min but then she settled down.