WTF happened? Bad Shed...

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Originally Posted by NYHC4LIFE8899

Remember,what's hot for you is way hotter to your snake..let's say u weigh 150lbs and he weighs 2 lbs..what feels like nothing to you may be just enough for him

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Off topic but I totally support this. People tend not to give much thought to this fact and they bathe their snake in 80'F - 90'F water then don't understand why their snake is flipping out all of a sudden. Fact: Snakes like to chill in chill water. (Room temp. ~75'F)

Also, soaking snakes when in blue is a bad idea- they do have oils that they secrete in this time especially that help with removing shed and soaking during this time may lead to skin sticking like glue. (or other adhesive substances) And to whoever might have missed this fact, snakes turn dark/normal color after going blue but before the actual shedding process begins. Any shedding occurring while they are in blue phase may lead to skin injury, raw flesh, and entirely missing scales as I have witnessed myself.

[QUOTE=brettliff;2192417]

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Originally Posted by AlexisFitzy

I just uploaded a pic to my gallery

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Help out a noob - how do I access your gallery?


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Originally Posted by pythonminion

Off topic but I totally support this. People tend not to give much thought to this fact and they bathe their snake in 80'F - 90'F water then don't understand why their snake is flipping out all of a sudden. Fact: Snakes like to chill in chill water. (Room temp. ~75'F)

Also, soaking snakes when in blue is a bad idea- they do have oils that they secrete in this time especially that help with removing shed and soaking during this time may lead to skin sticking like glue. (or other adhesive substances) And to whoever might have missed this fact, snakes turn dark/normal color after going blue but before the actual shedding process begins. Any shedding occurring while they are in blue phase may lead to skin injury, raw flesh, and entirely missing scales as I have witnessed myself.

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Yeah he never shed in blue. But I had clearly dried his tail out

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Originally Posted by brettliff

Yeah he never shed in blue. But I had clearly dried his tail out

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Then I would give that tail a heavy misting and see how it goes.

What Pythonminion is saying, correct me if I am misinterpreting you man, is that "blue" is the snake's natural physiology designed to aid the shedding process....do not fix what is not broken...intervention is only needed when you observe retained skin post blue, which is the case here with the tail. It's the reason why many people will let small bits of retained skin stay on until next shed simply because in the end, nature knows best. If it ends up being stubborn, just let it go and focus on your humidity like we discussed earlier

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Originally Posted by Physician&Snakes

Then I would give that tail a heavy misting and see how it goes.

What Pythonminion is saying, correct me if I am misinterpreting you man, is that "blue" is the snake's natural physiology designed to aid the shedding process....do not fix what is not broken...intervention is only needed when you observe retained skin post blue, which is the case here with the tail. It's the reason why many people will let small bits of retained skin stay on until next shed simply because in the end, nature knows best. If it ends up being stubborn, just let it go and focus on your humidity like we discussed earlier

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Very close, but your timeline is slightly off. "Blue" refers to the period when fluid builds up beneath the currently exposed eye scale, and the fresh one beneath it making the eye appear cloudy or bluish. The fluid build up is thought to help loosen the skin prior to shedding. After going "blue" (which is usually 5-7 days after the first signs of pink on the belly) the fluid recedes and the eye will appear normal again, in fact the whole animal looks pretty normal, it may be slightly dull or dark, and feel a bit rougher to the touch, but generally normal. 2-4 days AFTER coming out of blue is when you would expect to see the actual sloughing off of the skin. If they pass that time frame without shedding, that is when you want to start thinking of intervening. If they manage a partial shed (like you say with small bits) then it can safely be left until the next shed. If there is a complete circle of retained skin skin around the neck it has to be addressed before then as this could interfere with feeding, or retained eye caps since they won't be able to see very well.

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Originally Posted by Badgemash

Very close, but your timeline is slightly off. "Blue" refers to the period when fluid builds up beneath the currently exposed eye scale, and the fresh one beneath it making the eye appear cloudy or bluish. The fluid build up is thought to help loosen the skin prior to shedding. After going "blue" (which is usually 5-7 days after the first signs of pink on the belly) the fluid recedes and the eye will appear normal again, in fact the whole animal looks pretty normal, it may be slightly dull or dark, and feel a bit rougher to the touch, but generally normal. 2-4 days AFTER coming out of blue is when you would expect to see the actual sloughing off of the skin. If they pass that time frame without shedding, that is when you want to start thinking of intervening. If they manage a partial shed (like you say with small bits) then it can safely be left until the next shed. If there is a complete circle of retained skin skin around the neck it has to be addressed before then as this could interfere with feeding, or retained eye caps since they won't be able to see very well.

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I have never found it necessary to intervene before a specimen has attempted to shed, but I am also fortunate to live in an area with decent humidity and am pretty good at keeping my cage humidity up so yes I can see why someone would intervene in that time frame. Thanks for going into more detail, I wanted to keep it simple since Pythonminion nailed it down pretty good, but further clarification is always good.

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Originally Posted by Physician&Snakes

I have never found it necessary to intervene before a specimen has attempted to shed, but I am also fortunate to live in an area with decent humidity and am pretty good at keeping my cage humidity up so yes I can see why someone would intervene in that time frame. Thanks for going into more detail, I wanted to keep it simple since Pythonminion nailed it down pretty good, but further clarification is always good.

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No worries, I just wanted to be absolutely clear for anyone who reads this thread in the future that there is a normal, natural, delay of a few days between coming out of blue, and actually shedding the skin. I would hate to see someone injure their snake thinking it was in trouble because it returned to a normal appearance but hadn't shed yet.

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Originally Posted by Badgemash

No worries, I just wanted to be absolutely clear for anyone who reads this thread in the future that there is a normal, natural, delay of a few days between coming out of blue, and actually shedding the skin. I would hate to see someone injure their snake thinking it was in trouble because it returned to a normal appearance but hadn't shed yet.

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I hear ya, in addition to snakes I also worked with tarantulas at the store a lot...and ever since I got a phone call from a customer claiming that her new Rose hair gave birth to a still born overnight (of course it was just a shed obviously), I was extra careful to tell all future customers that the shed is done in one piece. ;) .

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Originally Posted by Physician&Snakes

I have never found it necessary to intervene before a specimen has attempted to shed, but I am also fortunate to live in an area with decent humidity and am pretty good at keeping my cage humidity up so yes I can see why someone would intervene in that time frame. Thanks for going into more detail, I wanted to keep it simple since Pythonminion nailed it down pretty good, but further clarification is always good.

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NEVER intervene when the snake is in blue! They aren't ready to shed, they're just getting ready. The only time you should assist is after the snake has already shed and has stuck shed.

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Originally Posted by patientz3ro

NEVER intervene when the snake is in blue! They aren't ready to shed, they're just getting ready. The only time you should assist is after the snake has already shed and has stuck shed.

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That's what I meant...man exhaustion from finals must be leaking into my grammar. Sorry about that.