Cloudy Eyes When Shedding

Why exactly do the eyes of snakes turn cloudy when they shed?

Hi,

When they are shedding the old layer of skin and the new one are seperated at one stage with a kind of "milky" liquid I was told - may of course be complete :banned1: but thats what I was told.

Another possible explanation is that during the formation proces the new scales are not totally transparent or totlly opaque and that this is just more noticeable over the eye caps.

There was a great article on shedding posted not long after I joined this site I think - maybe someone can find the link?


dr del

There eyes are covered with a transparent scale, the brille or spectacle, which is another name becomes blue or cloudy when they shed.

The cloudy blue hue taken on during an ecdysis cycle is caused by a lubricant secreted under the outer layer of scales. This helps the layers to seperate allowing the new layer underneath to harden, and become much less permeable to water, as well as soften-up the outer layer in preparation for sloughing. The reason snakes will search out higher humidity during ecdysis, is that the outer layer becomes much more permeable to water than before, so that lubricant can begin to dry out and the outer layer of scales to become somewhat brittle, causing the it to break when the snake begins to slough it off. This is why higher humidity is important throughout an ecdysis cycle, and not just as the snake is sloughing the old scales.

-Evan

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