Shed issues

Okay, so you guys may or may not have seen my thread about my new ball, well he went in to shed, the day after I got him (last Wednesday) and he has had the shed on him since then, and he has a "spinal piece" of the shed gone, the eye caps, and all the head, but the sides and tail are still stuck, and the shed is turning white! I've tried the soak, anything else I can do? :confusd::confusd::confusd:

1) Put him in a warm damp pillow case for 30 mins to an hour.

Or

2) just wait for the next shed and get the humidity up

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I totally forgot about the pillow case trick!! Thanks Nikki! I'm assuming the shed will slide on off?

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Originally Posted by therunaway

I totally forgot about the pillow case trick!! Thanks Nikki! I'm assuming the shed will slide on off?

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It should come off if he moves around

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Well, I got most of it off, just a tad bit on the tail & some on the neck. :o , try again tomorrow or let it go naturally.
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Honesty, I'd try to get only the stuck shed off his tail and leave his neck alone for him to shed next time.

I recently just had a completely stuck shed for my first time ever keeping balls. What I did to remove it was warm up some water to about 85-90F, fill a sterilite or similar shoebox size tub with air holes, add a wash cloth so they have something to rest on and rub against. Let sit for 20-60 min depending on how much shed and where I'd say, also make sure to keep warm for the duration or the water will quickly get cold and the wash cloth will be freezing I did this by placing it on top of some thermostatt'd flexwatt set at 90F. I feel this also helps keep up the humidity up to a point where it really helps the bp skin absorb the moisture. Of course you must be watching him in the tub at all times in case anything might happen(I did since it was my first time at least)

Then from here I hear it usually goes two ways, either the ball has worked off the shed himself or you can assist him with removing by gently rolling his skin back and it'll eventually get the picture that you're helping it.

With mine since it was a fully stuck shed went a bit slower, also I didn't submerge him in water to his belly, my washcloth was quite large and soaked most of it up. So he wasn't swimming, more like sitting in a sauna. I started with the loose already peeling skin on his neck then firstly rolled off the head skin and eye caps, make sure to be very careful before the eye caps make sure the skin is moist enough and removes easily. Then slowly work your way down from neck to tail.

First soaking I was only able to get about 2/3 of the skin off including the head, after removing that I was going to wait a day before removing the rest...by morning he had worked the remainder of it off himself.

Come to think of it he probably would have been able to do it once the head skin came off but I was babying him.

Hope this helps.

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Originally Posted by Bobbafett

Honesty, I'd try to get only the stuck shed off his tail and leave his neck alone for him to shed next time.

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Originally Posted by Ryan Chin

I recently just had a completely stuck shed for my first time ever keeping balls. What I did to remove it was warm up some water to about 85-90F, fill a sterilite or similar shoebox size tub with air holes, add a wash cloth so they have something to rest on and rub against. Let sit for 20-60 min depending on how much shed and where I'd say, also make sure to keep warm for the duration or the water will quickly get cold and the wash cloth will be freezing I did this by placing it on top of some thermostatt'd flexwatt set at 90F. I feel this also helps keep up the humidity up to a point where it really helps the bp skin absorb the moisture. Of course you must be watching him in the tub at all times in case anything might happen(I did since it was my first time at least)

Then from here I hear it usually goes two ways, either the ball has worked off the shed himself or you can assist him with removing by gently rolling his skin back and it'll eventually get the picture that you're helping it.

With mine since it was a fully stuck shed went a bit slower, also I didn't submerge him in water to his belly, my washcloth was quite large and soaked most of it up. So he wasn't swimming, more like sitting in a sauna. I started with the loose already peeling skin on his neck then firstly rolled off the head skin and eye caps, make sure to be very careful before the eye caps make sure the skin is moist enough and removes easily. Then slowly work your way down from neck to tail.

First soaking I was only able to get about 2/3 of the skin off including the head, after removing that I was going to wait a day before removing the rest...by morning he had worked the remainder of it off himself.

Come to think of it he probably would have been able to do it once the head skin came off but I was babying him.

Hope this helps.

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That was my original plan, worry about tail, leave neck alone. It shouldn't be long before he sheds again! I couldn't keep the pillowcase warm, so I turned the dryer on and sat on their, he was nice & warm when I felt the bottom! :)

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be careful of using pillowcases it should have a very open weave wet cotton expands closing the openings in the weave and sealed with water it is air tight snakes can get pressed into it and suffocate. Make sure it has a very open course weave.

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Originally Posted by therunaway

That was my original plan, worry about tail, leave neck alone. It shouldn't be long before he sheds again! I couldn't keep the pillowcase warm, so I turned the dryer on and sat on their, he was nice & warm when I felt the bottom! :)

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In my experience balls respond better to having their upper body skin removed head/neck rather than lower body skin, in terms of lethargy and eating. The only thing I would be worried about on the lower body is the area around the cloaca, just make sure that area is clean and not harboring any build of feces or the sort.

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Originally Posted by Ryan Chin

In my experience balls respond better to having their upper body skin removed head/neck rather than lower body skin, in terms of lethargy and eating. The only thing I would be worried about on the lower body is the area around the cloaca, just make sure that area is clean and not harboring any build of feces or the sort.

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The issue about leaving tail shed is that the shed could cut off circulation if the snake grows too fast. Many snaked have had this occur to them, which eventually lead to dead rotting tails.

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99% success rate

You really should never have to bath (fill up a tub and soak a BP), other than maybe for mite treatment

The best shed help:

1) Find snake bag or other very coarse bag, like the snake bags you often get at reptile shows

2) Run it under the hottest tap water you can stand, until soaked

3) Wring out just enough water to carry to the enclosure.

4) Put snake in the sack, in cage right away. The bag will have cooled down enough to not harm the animal

Rinse, repeat if necessary.
Works like a charm!

I just dampen a washcloth with warm water and then place the snake on the wash cloth. I wrap up the snake like a burrito (leaving the ends open for air circulation) and allow the snake to slither out of the washcloth while applying gentle pressure. Usually the warmth and coarseness of the cloth along with a little pressure is enough to get the skin to slide right off.

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Originally Posted by snakehobbyist

I just dampen a washcloth with warm water and then place the snake on the wash cloth. I wrap up the snake like a burrito (leaving the ends open for air circulation) and allow the snake to slither out of the washcloth while applying gentle pressure. Usually the warmth and coarseness of the cloth along with a little pressure is enough to get the skin to slide right off.

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I'll definitely try this sometime in the future

This worked pretty well:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Wxf9cmS0qQ&feature=plcp

Looks like 3 balls with shed issues in that video...guess they need to up the humidity so that problem doesn't happen so frequently :P


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Originally Posted by hypnotixdmp

Looks like 3 balls with shed issues in that video...guess they need to up the humidity so that problem doesn't happen so frequently :P


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You talking about my video? There's only one ball in that video. I also have a washcloth in there for him to rub against.

Ahh that's what I saw was a washcloth!!! Thought it was 2 more my bad


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Originally Posted by hypnotixdmp

Ahh that's what I saw was a washcloth!!! Thought it was 2 more my bad


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That shed issue was right before I got my RBI rack. Once you go rack, you'll never go back. :D

When our snake was stuck, I soaked her in a tuppleware full of warm water then gently rubbed on the skin until I could slip my finger under the skin. Then I just held on (gently) at two points and let the snake pull against me to wriggle out. She figured out what to do pretty quickly and it all came away

Personally I have only really had issues with rescue animals that have old stuck sheds I find that if a humid hide is added to the enclosure or the humidity is corrected they will get the shed off on their own with no risk to the animal. I would recommend correct the problem and leave the snake be causing additional stress is never a good thing.