Cecilia's bad shed and how I helped her out of it [pics!]

So then. For the second time Cecilia (the Swedish ball python) completely surprises me with her shedding. I didn't notice any change in her colors, no blueish eyes, nothing. the only thing I noticed was that she was hiding most of the time, but figured that's pretty normal for a bp. I fed her (it took her about one second to strike at the mouse), she looked absolutely normal. Then, the next day, I notice shreds of skin all over the tank. The humidity was around 60%, she has a humid hide but apparently she doesn't really like it, I've never seen her use it. She got most of the skin off, but there was some along her sides and on the top of her head and neck. And one eyecap. I soaked her for 30 minutes, the skin on her sides came off. I let her slide through a damp towel, but the rest of the skin remained. So, I boosted up the humidity to 80+% for two days, and then tried again. And I got it all off!! I used a damp Qtip. It took me 30-45 minutes, and she didn't like it, but to my great surprise let me gently rub her head and the eye. Pics below!

She didn't poop though, and I'm a bit concerned about that. The last time she pooped was well over a month ago.

http://koti.welho.com/pboije/ball/shed01.jpg

http://koti.welho.com/pboije/ball/shed02.jpg

http://koti.welho.com/pboije/ball/shed03.jpg

http://koti.welho.com/pboije/ball/shed04.jpg

http://koti.welho.com/pboije/ball/shed05.jpg

http://koti.welho.com/pboije/ball/cec07.jpg

http://koti.welho.com/pboije/ball/cec08.jpg

I love her so :heart:

Nice looking ball python, and good job on helping her with her shed.

My bp did not shed completely about 3 weeks ago, had a little skin left around his head and neck, but I think it will come off next shed. :)

I'm glad you got her shed all cleared up. Sometimes it takes more than one try to get it all. By the way, for anyone with an incomplete shed: you can try waiting for next time to see if the old skin comes off then, but it is not advisable to leave eyecaps, tail ends, or any skin that completely encircles the body. You can end up with a blind snake or one with necrotic tissue if you do so. Patches other than that can be left without fear of harm to the snake.

Glad to hear you got that cleared up man! On the question of poo: in my experience its more relative to how many times they have been fed. How many times have you fed her since then? A month is not anything to really be worried about.

I know I could've waited for the next shed, but I was uncomfortable with the eyecap, so I figured might as well take it all off while I was working on it. I think she'll feel better, and, look better too (a snake with skin left after a bad shed looks so uncared for). She'll be left alone now until her next feeding, which should take place after five days or so. Don't want to stress her too much. I feed her around once a week, every 5-7 days, but it might be that the mice have been a bit small, since I ran out of adult mice I gave her young mice (the guy I get my frozen mice from had none in store). I'm going to wait for the poo :D

I've also heard soaking a Q-tip in vegetable oil can help remove eyecaps...Roo's never retained hers, so I've never had to do this before. Has anyone done it? Opinions?

I just used a Qtip soaked in water and the eyecap came off pretty easily (I'm sure it had something to do with the high humidity she'd had for the previous days).

I would sooner try the method described by firedragon than use any kind of foreign substance. I dont know if vegetable oil is ok. I've heard mineral oil is good, but i'd be leery to try anything but high humidity for a few days and a Qtip with water.

Ooops, it was mineral oil, not veggie oil.
Right thinking, wrong typing.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by UberAlice

Ooops, it was mineral oil, not veggie oil.
Right thinking, wrong typing.

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I hate when my brain does that :wink: :D

Congrats on getting the eyecap off, Firedragon. Boosting the humidity up for a few days can do wonders for retained sheds.

Looks like you have a realtively young BP too...I've noticed that all other things being equal, younger ball pythons will have shedding issues every now and then, even if your conditions are perfect. Just something about the little guys, I'm really not sure why its like that.

the last time rocky shed it was very humid in his cage like around 65, 70 and he still didnt get it all off, maybe as they grow they get more practice and get better at it......i dunno..maybe !

If your snake doesn't get complete sheds make sure your hygrometer is accurate. I was using one of those analog ones but when i switched to digital the analog read 60 and the digital read 35. So there could be alot of error in the analog ones. Also when a ball python sheds their eyes will only become cloudy for a day or so then they will clear up. You also need to handle your snake every day so you can notice subtle changes like that not only for sheds but for any other ailments even if its just for half a minute or so just to look her over a little bit. Great job on getting that eye cap off if a shed is incomplete that is the most important part is to clear the eye caps.

Again try a digital hygrometer you get them at walmart and they usually come in a unit that has the tempreture and a probe to measure tempreture away from the unit.

I have the digital combo, it's great. To be on the safe side, I could compare its readings to those of another combo (got several of them lying around). Next time I'm going to be more alert and check her every day. I've been a bit stressed out lately and haven't had much time.

She's only four months old and this was her second shed with me. Her brother, same age, shed a few days after her and his shed was nearly perfect - everything came off in one piece, it was just a little ripped here and there. I found it in the humid hide all neatly rolled up. I have the 80% (maybe less would do, but I wanted to be on the sure side) humidity to thank that for, as soon as I noticed he was going into shed I let the humidity go up. When he'd shed I of course let it drop down to the average 50-60%.

By the way, we don't have wal-marts in Finland :D but of course you couldn't know that's where I'm located.

Dont have wally worlds in Finland :shock: . Man that must be tough .. what do you do ;) j/k WalMart is such a staple here in the US, somepeople wouldnt know what to do without them :)

Haha, I agree, you could get almost everything you need for your ball there (and everything else you need, too) except for mice/rats :D I think we've got enough of multinational american companies here already, though.