Horrid Shed

I just got home and saw that my BP had tore up its cage. Theres stuff everywhere, and its shed was all in pieces everywhere also. My humidity is at 50 to 60 percent. Im having major problems getting it to stay consistent. It looks like the old shed left a complete layer on its body from head to tail still. I think ill try the soak method to remove excess skin. It looks pretty bad :(. It makes the sample pic on the bad shed sticky look like a normal shed. Its eyes are still cloudy and the scales look really wrinkled and frayed.

What should I do?:confused:
I want to know how do I keep humidity at a constant level and raise it for sheds?
Does misting the cage cause a bad shed?

A little more information about your caging and husbandry settings would be helpful.

As for keeping humidity up, do you have your snake in a cage, a rack or a tub? A tank? I've got my snakes in some of everything. You can keep the humidity up in a tank---you just need to take a few extra steps.

What's your setup like? How are U monitoring temps? What's the bedding? Caging? All that sort of info would be helpful to troubleshoot your issue.

** Usually a bad / incomplete shed < if there aren't obvious health reasons > is b/c the humidity is too low...so misting is a help, not a hinderance. **

I had the same problem.. Soak him for like 45mins in ROOM TEMP water with a lid. Then you can try helping get the rest off but I just put mine back in the cage and he was fine! As for the humidity.. I had the same problem also. Switch to a UTH and turn the overhead light off. Makes a world of difference! I also threw in some live plants (he's still too small to really crush them) and covered about half the hot side screen with a sheet of plastic. Putting your water bowl closer to the hotter side would help too. And maybe getting heavier hides so he can rub against them during shed and not mess anything up! Hope this helps if you have a tank set-up!

Something we do for ours if they have a bad shed that they seem to like a lot. We get a big towel wet with real warm water (watch it -it cools down fast). Hold the snake through the towel and let them rub on the towel as they move around. It works real well and gets a lot of stuck shed off.

Good luck!

If the eyes are still cloudy, then he's not done with his shed process. The fact that there's shed everywhere is confusing though. Can you please post a picture?

Also, don't soak in room temp water for 45 minutes, that's too cold. Soak in tepid (lukewarm) water. Place the soaking tub (with lid) in the warm side of your enclosure so that your snake doesn't get too cold.

For what it's worth, I keep my humidity at 50% all the time, including sheds, and mine all shed fine. Is this a new animal to you? Sometimes the first shed or two will be bad in a new home, and then once the animal is fully acclimated, the rest of the sheds are fine.

How are you measuring humidity in the enclosure?

Are you using a dial or a digial reader?

(hint: if you're using a dial thermometer, get a digital one, they are much more accurate).

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by rabernet

Sometimes the first shed or two will be bad in a new home, and then once the animal is fully acclimated, the rest of the sheds are fine.

---

Looking back, I agree with this (if it means anything...)

There is more to a bad shed than just humidity right? What about having something in the cage that allows them to easily start the shed process?

Im measuring my temp outside of the tank right now. My room temp is 80 deg. The humidity is being monitored by a analog dial that reads anywhere from 50 to 60. My tank uses newspapers and paper towels as substrate. Yes this is its first shed for me. I looked closer and noticed the shed on the belly side came off but the shed on the top side has not. Its a very uneven shed. I have a UTH its at 90deg

Measuring the outside temp isn't going to help. Accurite makes an inexpensive 3-in-1 unit....put the unit on one side (inside the tank) the probe on the other.....I have the unit on the cool, the probe taped to the glass, right over the UTH, and then it has the humidity gauge built in. That will tell you your ambient temp (cool), the UTH (hot spot from the probe) and the more accurate humidity. Those analog dials aren't worth the sticky to keep them on the glass....not accurate at all.

Check your INBOX for PM w/some ideas. :) :D