Update on new BP!.. First Shed.

Just an update on the new bp :)

I wasn't exactly sure of the shed timelines, but today his eyes were nice and clear. His eys were slightly blue when I brought him home, so I don't know exactly when he started shed.

I have two different humidity meters in the tank (one is just a stick on, and the other is part of the accurite). The Accurite is reading between the 40's and the 50s (the sensor is next to the substrate on the cool side). The stick on is closer to the top of the cage, and it's been reading between 60 and 85. I've been using a damp towel and some moss to keep humidity up. He also has a humid hide, but I haven't seen him use it yet. There's also a gallon water jub with an airstone in it in the room next to the cage to try and keep up the general humidity near the cage.

I'm not really sure which humdity sensor I should be going with.

Since his eyes were nice and clear, he got to hang out in the tub in some warm water for 30 minutes. He seemed quite happy to sit in the water for a while. I was thrilled that he was acutally outside his hide for a change :)

Some of the skin started to pull away (but not break off) and I put him back into his cage for a bit. A few hours later most of the shed had come off, except for a bit on his tail and a small piece on the very top of his head. I got most of the rest of it off, and put him back in some warm water to soak for 10 minutes. The rest of it came off quite nicely, and he was nice and active and seemed quite happy. I'm guessing his eyecaps slipped off without any help from me, but I'm really not sure.

How exactly do I tell if his eyecaps have been retained? His eyes aren't cloudy or anything, and it seemed like he could see just fine.

The cage temps are still too low, but they're a lot better. I'm going to do some more adjusting tomorrow. The human heat pad helped a lot, but it doesn't seem to be enough.

Also, he seems to like being held.

Look for the head piece of the shed and see if you can find the eye caps. With eye caps on the eyes will look a bit silvery I think. Not sure. But ya just check through the shed skin pieces and see if you can find the eye caps.

As for which humidity meter to go with, Acurite all the way. It's the more accurate one. I think the stick on is reading higher because you have it placed up higher in the tank, where the humidity rises and escapes, and they're not too accurate, lol. So just go by the acurite digital. It's more accurate and it'll be a better reading since its on the ground where your bp is. Doesn't matter what the humidity is up high in the tank. Your bp will be on the ground right? :)

Congrats on the shed, and good luck on the humidity and temperature stuff. :)

Eye caps usually pull right off with the shed. After shedding, the eyes look like tiny black shiny marbles. They gleam every bit as much as their new skin.

His eyes are nice and gleaming, so I think they came off without a problem.

I did some more cage adjusting today. He left me a present in the middle of the night, so some quick cage cleaning was done. Hopefully some of the new additions will bring the heat and humdity up to where it should be.

I'm going to try feeding him for the first time tomorrow.

I was going to do it tonight, but I want him to feel at home. Plus, apparently one of the neighbors on the corner on the other side of the fence is having some sort of major construction work done. There's a little bobcat loader in there, and I keep hearing grinding noises. Looks like water pipes are going and they're cutting up some trees. The noise is annoying enough to me, let alone a snake. Meh. At least he's got an entire room to himself, and it's the quietest room in my apartment.

WOO HOO! First feeding went very very well. He took right away to the frozen thawed mouse. It was pretty rank when it came out of the thawing bag. Anyway, my bp is quite happy in his tank and probably going to hang out in the warm side for a while. Temperatures have been fixed, just need to get the light on a timer now.

In the meantime, Nebula (my cat) is quite put out with me, and has been searching for that yummy mouse that suddenly disappeared when she got shoved into the bedroom.

LOL Maybe next time you should pick up one for Nebula too. :) Glad the feeding went well for you.

Thats right .. keep it from the cat :twisted:

Congrats man! It sounds like everything is going well for you :D