shed

ok im pretty sure rex is shedding. but i want to be sure. his eyes are kinda cloudy, but not totally, and a little part of his body underneath is pink. i picked him up today to check, and he kept striking. he usually strikes when i go to pick him up, but not when i have him in my hand. so what do you guys think? is he in shed? i appreciate the help, u guys are so damn smart. :D

Deffinetly sounds like he is in shed mode to me.....

Ditto what Carl said. Watch for his eyes to go totally cloudy tomorrow.

Yep time to bump the humidity up to 75-80%,his eyes should clear,followed by a nice shed all within the next few days.

thx 4 all the help

also, hes been staying in his hide, his cool hide. he usually comes out at night and explores his tank. could the shedding be the reason hes staying in his hide? he hasnt been out since i fed him last thurs, except to get a drink, and thats it. is this cuz of the shed?

Well, at first it was probably because he was digesting. Now it's probably because of the shed.

Just let him be a ball python and don't worry. Amber moves from hide to hide in the days after she eats, and doesn't do much else. I don't handle her for at least 48 hrs after. When she's in shed, she doesn't move from the cool hide, and is really shy when I try to pick her up for a soak right after her eyes clear up.

But when she's not digesting or in shed, she's otherwise pretty content when being held, and tries to escape her tank all night long.

yeah it's hard to get used to the hiding aspect, I totally know how you feel, my bp was active every single night for the first few weeks I had him, then just started hiding.. I think that it means he has settled in so take it as sort of a compliment, he has let go of the flight response :)

That is certainly what I am hoping to be the case with Hissy Jonah! All that bum does lately is lay around in her hides. She used to come out at nite & explore & I think that part of that was her hunting for some eats as well but since she ate, she rarely comes out. She spends most of her time just chillin under her hides.

Another good sign for me is that she spilled some water in her tank (I put a cup in that ended up not being heavy enough to not tip when she crawled on it) & I had to pick her up from under one of her hides. I made a promise to her (not that she listened) & to myself that i would never pull her out from under a hide just to play with her. But when i picked up her hide, she didn't even Hiss at me. I think that means that she is really, really comfy with me. We hung out for a couple minutes after I changed her substrate & she was fine.

Right on! Congrats man! I attempted to feed Icculus today and before I put him back in his home I let him crawl through my hands a bit and it was awesome, he has never hissed or struck... at anything unfortunately. I appreciate his gentle nature but sure wish he would freakin' eat! I'm happy for you though and how good you are getting along with your BP. I sure hope I will be in the same place you are some day soon.

Rex...shedding-time is a very vulnerable time for a snake. Besides the fact that their eyes cloud over for a day or two...just try to imagine how that would feel to have your skin starting to completely detach and separate from your body! While we can't know exactly what they're feeling, I imagine it to be a very itchy process at the least, and perhaps even tender or painful. Handling during sheds should be kept to a minimum for this reason. (It could be why he was in such a bad mood when you tried to check him out.)

Eddie...if you promised you'd never take your snake out of her hide, you may never get to take her out! LOL That's certainly the way it is with Caesar. (a gopher snake we have) We never, ever see him out of his hides, so if we want to play with him (which he seems to enjoy as much as any snake can) we have to take him out from his hide. This is why I've made sure that all his hides can be lifted straight off of him. Having to reach INTO something and drag him out seemed a lot more invasive and stressful to me. ....just my rambling thoughts on snakes and hides. :)

Judy, I am starting to realize that! I actually sat around watchin Hissy's tank for hours (while watchin TV as well) just waitin for her to come out of her hide so i could play with her. She never did. She stayed in the damn thing ALL DAY LONG!! LOL!! The hides that i have can be lifted off of her, the only problem is that when she feels a presence over her hide, she puffs up & sometimes this causes her body to expand out to the inner walls of the hide. So, when i picked the hide up to clean up her spill, she was still stuck inside of it! LOL! It was SO cute! But alas, she did not hiss & that is the important thing! :)

And don't worry Jonah, it may take some work but I am more than certain that you & Icculus will have a wonderful relationship. It is more than obvious that you care very much for him & that makes all the difference in the world!

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So, when i picked the hide up to clean up her spill, she was still stuck inside of it! LOL!

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Yeah...One of Caesar's hides is REALLY snug around him that way. He's not puffing up or anything, he's just crammed into it. So when I pick it up, I have to jiggle it to dump him out of it. I'd worry about the stress of it but he never seems to mind...just looks at me like "NOW what do you want???"

I have seen Jojo go into this small hide and he is hiding under it but its lifted off the ground by like 1/2" its pretty funny. Now i dig a little indention in the substrate so he can fit but they find the funniest ways to hide.

We got to wath Benny shed yesterday.

i came home and saw the requisite mega-p00 near his warm hide and sure enough there was a partial shed in there. Popped him in plastic with a little water to swim around in to ease what he had left on him and put him back in his cage. He shimmied around his hide and worked himself across the bark (substrate) a bit then slid into the hide letting his shed catch on the side of the entry hole and the bark and slid out of it. I've been lucky to've caught a few of them in mid shed (even got to watch Neph's first shed all the way through from the noserub on out) and watch it happen - it's mesmerizing.

Freak occurence or not - in the past 10 days or so pretty much every single snake in the house went for a shed - now I am wonderig if the radical shifts in weather here lately (from 75 degrees to snow back and forth a few times) contributed.