How to Soak?

Cleo has yet to have her first shed in our care, but we want to be prepared for when she does.

Her viv sits at a pretty constant 60% humidity, and we're ready with a small mister bottle to try and keep that up around 80% when she starts her shed.

We hear a lot about "Soaking" during shed to help the snake. What we are not completely clear on is when to do this and how.

Do you always soak your snake during shed as a matter of proceedure, or only when the shed is looking difficult?

All guides say not to disturb your snake, or handle during shed... now you would have to handle to soak yes? Any special proceedures for handling a snake during shed to soak?

How do you soak your snake? I was thinking of getting a serilite, filling it with just enough warm water to cover the snake (so about 1-1.5" for us at the moment), putting the sterilite on a human heater pad on low, and monitoring the water temp with my temp gun. Does this sound right? Any advice or proceedures would be greatly appreciated!

What temp do you keep the water at? How do you maintain the temp? How long do you soak for? Anything we should watch out for?

Thanks!

I actually went to a vet to help me with retained eye caps. It was a walk in type thing and she just let me ask her questions so I didn't actually take my ball in with me... Anyway, this is how she told me to "soak". Someone correct me if the vet was wrong...


Put her in a container of some type where she/he has enough room to strech. You do not want the ball to have to swim. The water should only be about half way up on the ball python so he/she is comfortably resting her/his body on the bottem and NOT SWIMMING. Soak for about 30 minutes at a time, if there is a problem with a shed you can try this every day for a few days. The water should be "the temperature you would put a baby bottle at." Warm but not warm enough to burn. She also said that every 5 minutes or so you are going to want to empty the water that's turned cold and add more warm water.

Again, I am not an expert. This is what my local vet told me. As for when and why to soak... that is for others here to answer. I was soaking because my humidity wasn't high enough and she was getting "balls" near her rear opening. They were like pea that had hardend due to lack of humidity. The soaking worked great to make them go away.

Let me add. Linda, my ball python, did not "like" being in the water and wanted out! She is very docile and never attempted to bite but she didn't like it.

You don't need to soak when they are in shed. You can try to boost the humidity in her cage by misting or provide a humid hide. I usually place a deli cup with a well soaked paper towel in their cage to boost the humidity, and that always seems to do the trick. If they have a stuck shed, you can soak them for a few minutes then try to gently rub the stuck shed off. Another trick to remove a stuck shed is to place them in a moist pillowcase in their cage for about 30 minutes to an hour. Make sure they are not in direct contact with a heat source, though.

Good luck!

I was just going to say that too Krynos. ;) I forgot. Let them crawl around in a damp pillow case. Good looking out!:)

Oh, just one more thing. The water to soak in should not be as warm as your vet mentioned. The water should be about 90 degrees, which is lukewarm.

I usually put the container back into the cage, that way the thermostat can keep the temps stable. ;) And I let them soak for an hour exactly.

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Originally Posted by tigerlily

I usually put the container back into the cage, that way the thermostat can keep the temps stable. ;) And I let them soak for an hour exactly.

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Ooh, that sounds like a good idea. Safety of home and monitored temps. =)

Exactly. ;)

Hopefully you won't have to soak at all. It's not a routine thing and most snakes won't need to be assisted with their shed if their humidity is around 50-60% non-shed and about 70% from the moment they show the first signs of an impending shed (pinkish belly then blue eyes).

You can add in a humid hide to help your snake. Some use it some won't. Just take an appropriate sized margarine tub with the lid snapped on...flip it over and cut a small entrance door into it....put in either some spaghnum moss or papertowels damp but not dripping wet...check papertowels daily as they dry out fast. Pop it in your warm end and hopefully the snake will use it.

Sometimes they have trouble sheeding for a few times after you buy them if they've had poor husbandry but with stable care they pretty much shed with few problems (most of them anyways).


~~Jo~~

Great information - thanks all!