dehydration help

This is the first time with me dealing with dehydration, so my first question; is it natural for snake to shed while they are dehydrated? He didn't even have the pink belly, he just shed. And he shed from nose to neck, then stopped and now its shedding from its belly. second question; Is there anyway to help the dehydration? i have the humidity up to 70-80%, i have fresh water, i tried to soak him(which he is looking better from that, but i heard its bad to soak too much) and when i fed him the small rat, i dunked it in the water and he took it. Anything else? please and thank you! :)

also his shedding is in flakes and small pieces, so its not a good shed at all

What makes you think that he is dehydrated? The signs of dehydration and a bad shed are very similar. I have had a few snakes not turn noticeably pink before a shed.

Keep the humidity up and give him some time to get as much off as possible. If there is any left then I would give the pillow case trick a shot. If he isn't back to looking normal after all of the shed is gone then you can conclude that he is indeed dehydrated and then you can deal with that.

BP's get most of their water from the rodents that they eat so keep that in mind.

i thought he was dehydrated because he seems to have all the symptoms, and he's never had a bad shed. I cant think of a reason why he would. he always sheds in one piece. and nothing has changed except the size of his prey. like he's shedding in flakes... Maybe the prey stressed him out? does stress cause bad sheds?

Do you have a pic of him? He might not be dehydrated, he might just be having a bad shed. Keep his humidity up and if it doesn't work try what Aaron said with the pillow case trick.
Tom

Yes stress can cause bad sheds illness too. Soaking before the shed cycle is finished as well is known to cause bad sheds. It does not sound like dehydration. It takes quite a lot of neglect to dehydrate a royal. They keep water very well. When your snake pees is it just a dry chalky uranate ball or is the uranate ball moist somewhat and is there any liquid. Dehydrated snakes in my experience have small hard uranates with little or no moisture. Well hydrated snakes (fresh in must be fresh) uranates are like clay sort of and there is some to a lot of liquid with it.

They look wrinkly and the skin is loose and if you pinch a bit it stays pinched for some time (minutes)

The question is... do you think your snake is dehydrated not based on the shed?

did you soak it before the shed was done?

Is your hygrometer accurate? (many digital and paper face card analogue ones are painfully bad. Digitals get worse and worse as they age too.)

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Originally Posted by sandra

i thought he was dehydrated because he seems to have all the symptoms, and he's never had a bad shed. I cant think of a reason why he would. he always sheds in one piece. and nothing has changed except the size of his prey. like he's shedding in flakes... Maybe the prey stressed him out? does stress cause bad sheds?

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I'm curious, what are "all the symptoms" you think he has?

As others have said, keep your humidity up and give him a day or two to get some more shed off him. Then you can give him a soak to try and get it all off. Bad sheds happen from time to time. Its not really a big deal and its easy to prevent.

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