Bad first shed, husbandry is fine, need a little guidance.

Personally I'd leave it. It does not hurt them and it will come off sooner or later.

Bad sheds are due to low humidity or stress and sometimes illness. Your temps seem fine so the next question is the snake eating reasonably well?

I suspect the accrite. I have never found them to be very accurate (I have owned three now and two were way way off and one acceptable by the specs but that is not great either.) it has a 20%+/- RH accuracy (at least the one I had did so say cheney the manufacturer) so it could be reading 60% but actually be 40% and still be inside the specs the manufacture sets.

My advise is simple test it for accuracy you already have a very accurate thermometer the herpstat the probe on it is better than more thermometers people use for accuracy +/- 0.9ºF (your accurite is +/-2ºF) a simple salt test (http://cigaradvisor.blogspot.com/200...-test-for.html) it is very hard on digital hygrometers but then so is dirt and dust.

There are simple cheap accurate adjustable hygrometers on the market if you find yours to be inaccurate (as I suspect) http://www.ebay.ca/itm/Western-Instr...#ht_1358wt_907

The analogue types with metal cards are much more reliable than the cardboard ones. The big advantages of analogue type ones are they can be checked and calibrated, and are not as sensitive to dust dirt and damage as digital (which are quite delicate really)

I do water remediation at work, so I'll bring home a Phoenix thermohygrometer (most accurate hygrometer on the market) to test everything.

My normal had a REALLY bad shed her first time. Not fun at all. One of the eye caps was stuck for almost a month and she was NOT pleasant during that time. Like you said, there is always next time.

I started offering a moist hide 100% of the time after that. She went in there 2 days before she even turned at all pink. 12 days from the first time I spotted her in there I found a shed crumpled in a ball that contained every single scale lip to tip including both eye caps. Highly recommended.

Resistive hygrometers are quite squirrelly at times I personally hate the darn things. I'd take a metal spring type over them any day.

What did you use for the humid hide? I just converted to cypress mulch from Aspen so I don't have to
mist anymore.

The guy at the reptile store said cypress mulch in a Tupperware is enough for a humid hide.

Our hygrometers at work are worth about $1000 and are as accurate as they get. The biggest feature is how fast they acclimate, under 10 seconds.

I've heard that tubs are the best way to go for maintaining humidity, although our babe is the tank we adopted him in. I love MrLang's idea and recommendation. :)

We also use cypress. Our Ball is currently in shed, he's adopted and his last shed was at his previous owner's house, and it was a horrendous shed (there were bits everywhere). I'm hoping that his previous owner never misted (there was no temp./humidity reading devices in the tank or in sight when we picked him up), so that he'll have a good shed from now on. If not, I'll probably include a moist hide with moss from now on. I suppose this shed will determine what he needs. Wish us luck! :gj:

For the hide I use an opaque tupperware with the lid on and a hole cut in one end that's about the same size around as the snake but leaning towards a little snug. Inside I put some sphagnum peat moss that I've run under water and then squeezed out so it's not sopping.

I did switch to tubs but if you're in a glass tank definitely follow the guides on here to close off most of the screen top using tin foil and duct tape. When I see them use the moist hide I mist the cage, but both of them don't usually get out much once they go in there.

Keep the moist hide on your warm end as you don't want them to catch a cold in there.

I have the sides and back covered with R2.75 building sheathing, and the top with tinfoil.

Tub just seems so much easier...

Humid hides are a great solution, the only comment is a closed hole (solid on all sides). Snakes sometimes get stuck (and flip out) I usually suggest a U shaped hole that if a snake gets stuck and starts pushing harder it usually pops the lid off and is free.

The thing to remember with tubs is heating can be a huge issue. They do not have any insulating value at all, the hot spot is easy but ambient and cool end is not. Typically the solution most use is to heat the room to 80ºF the options for not are limited basically the only option is a second UTH and t-stat.