Stuck shed

Ok,so we got Lucy (black eyed leucistic) around the 2nd week in November from petsmart, they were feeding her wrong as was i,she didnt miss any meals,i had a little trouble with her humidity at first,still do a little..i spray it 2x a day..my cooler side stays more humid than my warm..i finally did get digital readers for the temp and humidty the warm side temp is tucked behind the hide resting on top of the substrate and the humidity gauge is placed about 2 inches above the hide,the cool side thermometer and humidity are at the bottom on top of substrate in the middle of the depth of the aquarium..the reading for the warm ranges from T87-91 H52-72 (highest after misting lowest 7hrs later)the cool side ranges T75-79 H62-75..well on the 20th she started shedding,she had already been through the milky phase...well she still hasn't shed..shes ate twice since and she gets out and drinks and moves back and forth between hides like she should,shes not stressed..why hasnt she shed yet?she got her belly off and her head and neck but her whole back is still there,ive also noticed when she rubs to get it off she doesnt even rub the areas with the remaining shed 😑 i hear a lot of people say soak her and a lot that say not to soak because of stress..im including a few picshttp://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/2016...4b3ac34c24.jpghttp://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/2016...5ed1f57c5f.jpg

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I don't soak. If I end up with stuck shed and a humidity bump doesn't work I have the snake crawl through a wet towel a few times in my hands to get it off.

Generally at the point where there are stuck bits I personally lend a hand. You have to be gentle, don't try and rip it off, just kinda softly massage it with the grain of the scales. Your humidity seems ok, your hot side is going to be lower. It happens sometimes

Try the damp towel/pillow case method. Get something big enough that you can cover the whole snake, get it damp with warm water and let her spend 15-20 minutes slithering around in it. The rubbing + moisture should get the stuck shed off.

Soak her. Just get a small plastic tub with a lid like a little Rubbermaid or Sterilite. Then put enough lukewarm water in it almost cover the snake but not so deep it has to try and tread water or it might drown. Then put the lid on with a few air holes and let her sit in there for about 15-30 mins. Then with a damp paper towel or wet washcloth, just let the snake crawl through it while you wrap it around her. I do this when my snakes get funky smelling from eating rats and stuff except I don't use a tub, I just wet a paper towel and wrap it around them and pull it down them.

Also once your snake comes out of blue, that is when you the humidity boost will really help. Try and keep it up around 70-80%. You can also move the water bowl over part of the heat for evaporation. Looks like you got the top covered with tin foil so that is good.

I would do the humidity boost before blue personally. I Usually start misting when I see pink belly.

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Originally Posted by Sauzo

Soak her. Just get a small plastic tub with a lid like a little Rubbermaid or Sterilite. Then put enough lukewarm water in it almost cover the snake but not so deep it has to try and tread water or it might drown. Then put the lid on with a few air holes and let her sit in there for about 15-30 mins. Then with a damp paper towel or wet washcloth, just let the snake crawl through it while you wrap it around her. I do this when my snakes get funky smelling from eating rats and stuff except I don't use a tub, I just wet a paper towel and wrap it around them and pull it down them.

Also once your snake comes out of blue, that is when you the humidity boost will really help. Try and keep it up around 70-80%. You can also move the water bowl over part of the heat for evaporation. Looks like you got the top covered with tin foil so that is good.

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As above as regards the soaking .. .. Afterwards I get a rough textured towel and soak the towel in warm water .. Then let the snake continuously slither through the towel in your hands whilst applying very gentle pressure , this method rarely fails .

Presume you know that the snake's clear up and they get their normal colouration back and then there's a few days delay ( sometimes longer ) before they actually shed the skin ..

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Originally Posted by Lizardlicks

I would do the humidity boost before blue personally. I Usually start misting when I see pink belly.

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Before blue does nothing. The blue is actually a liquid the snakes body makes to help with the shed. Once the snakes body absorbs the liquid is when they will begin to actually shed. That is the time they need the extra humidity to keep the old skin from sticking to the new skin.

But in all honestly, you should keep the snake's humidity correct all the time. Too low of humidity over the years can actually affect the snakes internal organs and liver or at least I was told that. I keep my boas, BP and retic at around 80% with the cocochips. Stuff is awesome and the snakes seem to love it except my JCP. She seems kind of scared of it and wont actually sit on the floor lol. She goes from her perches to her rock hide and then back up on the perches. It's like when you were a kid and jumping on the furniture pretending the floor was hot lava :P

Better safe then sorry I feel. Isn't keeping a BP in high humidity all the time bad for them as well though? My kids usually sit as 50-60% when not in shed and get boosted up to 70-80%when a shed is coming on. I have them on plain old aspen which I know some people have trouble with humidity wise but I don't ever seem to have a problem. I do have to do general misting a little more often during the winter when the heat is on in the house, but that's like once a week instead of once every other week.

I too used aspen for years and it was fine. Did have to lay folded up wet paper towels on top of hides in the winter. I switched to the cocochips aka ReptiChips, Exo terra Coco Husk and other of the same stuff and it is awesome. Well, I look at it this way, I check where said snake comes from and what environment they live in and try to replicate the humidity by that. Since BPs live in Africa in mostly termite mounds and abandoned rodent dens, the humidity for those 2 places would be fairly high. The temps in the termite mound would be pretty warm too I imagine while the rodent den would be cooler. I do let the stuff dry out more on my BP though. I generally don't respray it until it pretty much completely dries out as I have her in a ProLine cage which holds humidity pretty good(not as good as AP cages though).

Now my boas and retic, they are kept 80% humidity as they come from a much more humid area. If you check the temps and humidity for places like Peru and Colombia, the humidity gets up to 90%+. The surprising part though is if you look at Colombia average temps now, you will see it drops to the 40s at night and 60s during the day. That's why I also have a 75-79F cool side for my boas and their 90F hot spot. A lot of people told me to offer them a mid 70s cool side. I really didn't believe it until I actually looked up the weather in those areas and saw by god they were right.

Thanks yall im gonna try the warm wet towel tomorrow(she just ate yesterday) and help her out! I just know a lot of people say not to soak or intervene unless nessacary and i wasnt sure when nessacary would be..is it that shes not quite 100%on the shedding process yet? Like will it get better as she gets bigger and realizes what she needs to do? Or could it be from previously poor care from petsmart?i went this week and some of their snakes they had when i got lucy are 10x worse on the shed issue and most look really dehydrated 😏 and i didnt take 100% care of her from the getgo as i was learning and you guys have helped me a lot,thanks!

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Lucy came out exploring so we went ahead and tried the warm wet towel 😊was able to get it all except a tad on her tail but since putting her back in her enclosure is like she understands now and is lifting her tail to rub against stuff,she's almost got it off!thanks everybody!!http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/2016...bd42ebaca3.jpg

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Originally Posted by Hlow87

Lucy came out exploring so we went ahead and tried the warm wet towel [emoji4]was able to get it all except a tad on her tail but since putting her back in her enclosure is like she understands now and is lifting her tail to rub against stuff,she's almost got it off!thanks everybody!!http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/2016...bd42ebaca3.jpg

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Lovely to hear :)

pink belly so beuti.

She's a gorgeous girl, I love the orange spots on the super fires!

Thank you 😊 me too and she has spots most the way down her back 😍

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Very Nice Snake

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For some reason I'm having mold issues with my Reptichip substrate. Even with a new block, I get surface mold in about two days. Just mixing up the substrate lightly will mix in the mold though, not sure what is causing it. But I can't keep it too moist or I get a bunch of mold. Seems like I may have gotten a strain of mold that likes coconut husk, I didn't have mold problems for months and then all of the sudden it popped up. Because of that I tend to keep it on the dry side, try not to let it completely dry out, but if I see a stuck shed I spray it down real good and that usually gets the she off. In some cases I do give the snake a water bath but never leave them unattended in the tub, I keep the lid off and help them stay in the water. If they are freaking out I don't push it, maybe one minute max, and I usually don't rub them at all until it's falling off without much help. My retic seems to get the worst stuck shed out of all my snakes. Even with my mold problems the coconut husk is still the best substrate in my opinion, keep the smells to zero and keeps the humidity up.