Bad Shed

When i woke up this morning and i looked in the cage i saw little pieces of skin everywhere. Gonzo's skin didnt come off in one piece.... What should i do better next time or did i not do anything wrong. I also saw these big poop like things in the cage is tha poop??? What does it mean, What should i do wit them

I take it this is your first shed??

If there are little pieces of shed all over, yes, you did something wrong. Hate to break it to you, but improper husbandry is the problem when it comes to bad sheds. For next time, you need to give your snake a humid hide to soak in (usually a plastic butter dish with a hole cut in the top or side and wet paper towels or moist sphagum moss in the bottom) and totally jack up your humidity during the whole shed cycle. from the time you notice his eyes turning blue until you find the shed all rolled up in one nice piece. Humidity should be 70% minimum. Some people here disagree, but very high humidity totally solved my guy's shedding problem, so I swear by it.

As for the poop, well, it's poop. You'll often find a big surprise when your snake is done shedding. What kind of bedding are you using? If you're using newspaper, take it out and toss it and replace it with another sheet. If you're using wood chips, scoop it all out and flush it(make sure you get all the surrounding chips so there's no contamination left). Be sure to thoroughly clean and disinfect any hard surfaces in the tank that the poop might have come into contact with. I know my guy just LOVES pooping on the side of his hide so I'm constantly cleaning surfaces.

Good luck with your next shed!

This site is great. Thelma just had her first shed for me, and it came off in pieces too. She still has some dead skin on her tail. Next time she will get a moist hide. I misted her cage twice daily but I guess it wasn't enough.

^^ What's great is that after you get your sheds down, you can help people with shedding problems too! My guy had a nasty first shed for me, and I did some tweaking and the second one came off in two pieces, and so I did MORE tweaking and ever since then they've been perfect, thanks to the guidance of the folks around here. :)

Gotta agree there Erica. This forum helped us through the first crummy shed with Rionach and since then with tweaking and being more aware of when a shed is coming on, we've been able to get complete sheds on all of them. Not pretty ones just mostly shed balls in the corner but as long as it's all off, I'm a happy snake lady! LOL

Just keep reading up on shed threads and tweaking your husbandry. We push humidity to 70% the second we see the first signs (pink belly, dull color, blue eyes...whichever you notice first) and leave it there till they are completely done. Thanks to Adam's advice to be more observant of those signs, we are having stress free sheds all around.


~~Jo~~

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Originally Posted by PrincessErica

For next time, you need to give your snake a humid hide to soak in (usually a plastic butter dish with a hole cut in the top or side and wet paper towels or moist sphagum moss in the bottom)

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Does your snake go in the humid hide by itself or will you have to place him/her in it.

Be sure to that all the skin comes off. If it comes off in pieces, try next time to up the humidity like the others have said. As long as all of the skin comes off then your fine, but you don't want retained shed especially if it encirlces any part of your snake. (ie tip of tail) An easy way to get rid of any retained shed is to take a small rubbermaid container and fill with an inch or so of water (depending on the size of your snake). I throw in a wash cloth as well. Then return the closed container with snake inside back to the warm side of cage (temp 92). Leave for an hour and then use the wash cloth to gently wipe away any shed. I've only had to do it once with my rescue, but it worked great!

HP with humid hides, you just place them in there like any other hide. They will make use of it all by themselves.

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Originally Posted by suzanne

This site is great. Thelma just had her first shed for me, and it came off in pieces too. She still has some dead skin on her tail. Next time she will get a moist hide. I misted her cage twice daily but I guess it wasn't enough.

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!!!!make sure u get thatskin off!!!! it could lead to potentialy losing the tip of her tail

I misted her cage down really well, and gave her some wet paper towels in her hide. She just ate yesterday, so I didn't want to get her out and soak her. If its not off by tomorrow, I am gonna soak her and use the washcloth.

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Originally Posted by HelicopterPilot

Does your snake go in the humid hide by itself or will you have to place him/her in it.

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Actually, my guy doesn't use a humid hide at all. I always offer him one, should he decide he wants one, but he's never used it to my knowledge. I rely solely on my humidity levels to help with his shed.