quick shedding question

my male BP just shed about 5 days ago, the humidity was up and everything came off wonderfully except for some skin over his right eye and over his nose on the right side. i still have the humidity up, the skin looks like its loosened but it is still not off. is there something i should do about this? or will it come off when it is ready?

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Originally Posted by edie

my male BP just shed about 5 days ago, the humidity was up and everything came off wonderfully except for some skin over his right eye and over his nose on the right side. i still have the humidity up, the skin looks like its loosened but it is still not off. is there something i should do about this? or will it come off when it is ready?

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I would suggest putting him in a damp pillowcase, then put him back in his enclosure for about 30 minutes. As he moves around in the case trying to get out, he'll slough off the skin that's left. Then you just take him out of the bag and you're done!

"... over his right eye ..." - do you mean the eye cap is still in place?
If you have any mineral oil in the house (NOT baby oil!!!!) get a cotton swab out, dab it in the oil and liberally (self-explanatory: very sparingly around the nostril) apply it to the stuck shed skin. Wait about an hour then use a dry cotton swab and gently (!!!) try to roll the shed skin up from the edge. Be careful not to just tear it away as that could cause injuries. If it still appears stuck: Repeat the process.
Good luck!

I'd suggest you go with the pillowcase idea or just mist the snake and leave it be. Sometimes encouraging the snake to slither face first through a warm damp, slightly rough face cloth works very nice for stuck sheds on the head area. Physically messing around with eyecaps unless you know exactly what you are doing, have experience and an incredibly steady hand, plus a lot more guts then I have, can be a recipe for a permanently damaged snake.

We've had rescues come in with as many as 5 layers of caps. Soaking, the pillow case, the face cloth, etc. have always worked for us. We never go directly at the eye itself. What we can't get off in that initial cleaning up session, usually comes off in later sheds. I remember speaking with Adam from 8Ball when dealing with our first badly stuck rescue (the one with 5 layers of caps) and his advice is what we still follow to this day.....be patient, do the least amount of direct messing about with that eye, get off what you can with simple methods, encourage subsequent good sheds and it will be fine. He was right. :)

thanks so much for the help! i put him in a damp pillowcase in his cage for maybe 15 min. and the skins off, he looks great!