Retic shed

I’ve had my purple albino tiger retic for about 3 or 4 months (he’s roughly 9 months old). He’s shed for me before with no issues. I keep my humidity at about 70%, so when I noticed he was going into shed I kept an eye on the humidity and even sprayed down his substrate (repti-chip) every couple days just to help him out. Well, I checked this morning and it looked like a shed explosion happened! I’ve seen bad sheds on BP’s before, but DAMN! The biggest piece I found was maybe 2” or 3” long! I’ve heard bigger snakes sometimes don’t shed in one piece but this was pretty bad. Is this a normal thing for retics? Should I bump the humidity up a little higher when I see him about to shed? I’m not sure if I should keep it much higher than 70% all the time.

That's just how retics shed when they start to gain some size. I challenge you to find a bigger retic with a full one piece shed. I'll wait lol. Just give him a good soak for about 30-45 minutes and run him through a paper towel or soft rag and it should all come off.

Ok good. I was getting ready to head to work when I saw the mess, so I soaked him for about 10 minutes or so while I jumped in the shower and got ready. Got off some of the shed before I left, and sprayed his enclosure down good also. His enclosure looked like a confetti cannon with shed skin went off! The substrate needs to be changed, it’s almost 4 weeks old (I spot clean daily and replace what I take out with fresh, but I haven’t done a complete change since the end of June) but I should be getting a new enclosure this week and I am gonna do some snake shuffling when I do, so I am waiting to get that in before I do a complete change.

I've watched my bigger retics shed. They're very "enthusiastic" about it, so much so that yes, when they are done it looks like a shed explosion inside of the enclosure.

Yes, that is very typical.

My guy is in shed right now, and I know it is going to be all over the place in a day or two.

If you keep a variety of species, you will notice that retics have a thinner shed. They are very soft snakes and their shed skin seems to be a lot more delicate than many of the other snakes, at least in my collection.

Not to worry, they don't shed in one piece usually.

Yeah they tend to shred them up pretty good. When I still had them my male would make confetti bombs with his but weirdly my female, even at 10’, would regularly give me completely intact sheds.


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What a good question! Only natural to think something is wrong, the way everyone talks about their intact sheds from other kinds of snakes.

Just as retics apparently have thin, delicate skins, some other kinds of snakes have just the opposite: when I kept rattlesnakes, I couldn't help noticing how thick
their shed skins felt...which is a really good thing because not many of us want to help them "undress". :rolleyes: I assume this relates back to their often dry & harsh
environment...amazing what nature creates.

I’m just so used to ball pythons. In fact I remember when my first snake shed. I had her in a 20 gallon with a screen top on aspen bedding. So yeah, not a great shed. I moved her to a small tub on paper towels and when she had her next shed and it was in one piece I was elated. It felt like I was maybe getting a handle on her husbandry. Several snakes, and sheds, later and everything was going great. Every shed on every snake (even the previous shed on my retic) have been perfect. Then this happened and I felt like a failure again. Good to hear that maybe it’s not all my husbandry.

As long as the snake gets all of the shed off that’s what’s important. Doesn’t necessarily matter that it’s shredded apart


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He just shed again, but this time it came right after a substrate change and deep cleaning. While I had him out of his tub last week I noticed he was about ready to shed so I really soaked his reptichip and kept it extra moist by spraying it down every couple days. He had a perfect shed. I really don’t like keeping humidity that high (it stayed at or slightly above 80% this week) but I may have to keep an eye on him and if I notice he’s getting ready to shed I can bump it up for a week or so without any problems.