shedding

I was planning on handling Monty for the first time tonight, just 5 or 10 minutes of sitting him in my lap and hoping he uncurled really. When I picked him up (and he really didn't like that at all, very tight ball and even a little hiss) I noticed that his skin looked definitely slightly pale and opaque but his eyes are not blue/milky.
I don't see what else it can be but an impending shed, so how long does it usually take for his eyes to cloud over and for the shed proper to start?
I put him back without handling him (more patience :() as I've read that it isn't a good idea when they are waiting to shed.

It's an impending shed. I usually see them go into blue about a week later.

LOL if nothing else Ball Pythons will teach one patience won't they!

He'll look dull, I always think mine look like they've had a dust bath, his eyes will go cloudy/blue, he may well refuse to eat (one of ours refuses to eat in shed, the other eats regardless but she's a total piggie snake) and won't likely want to be handled. Suddenly Monty will look totally fine and you'll wonder what's up. About 2 days later give or take....shed!

Remember to push the humidity up to 70% to help with a good shed.


~~Jo~~

I haven't seen much of him recently, for the last few days he only seems to poke his head out of his hide - Is this also normal shed behaviour?

Both of mine go into lazy mode when shedding. They don't even poke their heads out, and usually are just content to stay in their hides. In fact the do the whole process in their hides, and I know they're done when they come back out again. Don't worry about lack of activity it's normal!

Mine are pretty much "leave me the heck alone" during shed times (other than the aforementioned piggie snake who apparently thinks mice are about to go extinct and she best eat any she can as fast as she can LOL). Neither of them wants to be bugged and Baby actually hides to shed. We just see her emerge all fresh and her shed's a ball in the back of her warm hide usually. Sounds like your ball is being...a Ball ;)


~~Jo~~

i noticed sunday morning that my Bp's eyes were cloudy. i had noticed that his skin color was somewhat dull prior to sunday and he also didnt come out and explore much at night like ussual. yesturday morning which was thursday she shed. she never seems to come out while her shed so i pretty much leave her alone.

It makes total sense to me that our snakes would go into a quiet, hiding mode whilst in shed. Were they out in nature they must be terribly vulnerable to predation during this time when their sight is severly cut back and I would imagine their skin sensation is far from normal.


~~Jo~~

Well he was due his feed today but he hasn't taken it, the first failure in 3 attempts. He came over to sniff it and even looked like he would strike a few times but it stopped there. I rewarmed it and tried again to the same result, he comes over and sniffs it, follows it around when i move it but ultimately won't take it.

It could be because he I left it in his enclosure for a while first and it dried out/lost scent, or more likley he just isn't in the mood for eating with his shed.

His skin looks brighter today though.

Kashmire did the same thing when he was in shed. I would wait until he finishes his shed.


Kashmire also got "normal" looking, shiny skin clear eyes, the whole bit, and the next day his skin was "silvery" looking and he shed out that day! Won't be long now!

When I went to bed last (Saturday) night Monty was rolling around in a most unusual way, rubbing his head on himself, the newspaper and his hide so I figured something was up. I had the humidity up to around 70%.

When I woke up he was curled up in a tight ball looking much lighter in colour than normal with a shed ball under his hide.

The ball is complete form teh tip of the tail to the angle of the underside of his jaw - my only slight concern is the top his head. His eyes looks clear but there are a few flakes of loose skin around the back of his head. I don't know if this is unusual?

Anyway, here he is post shed:

http://www.apso12.dsl.pipex.com/misc/postshed.jpg

And here is the shed ball:

http://www.apso12.dsl.pipex.com/misc/shedball.jpg

I fell like a proud parent with their baby's first haircut!

I will try to feed him again tonight or tomorrow - not too suprising he didn't want to eat on Friday I guess :)

You can wait until the next feeding time to give him his meal, if you want. Don't worry about it. Again if you want to feed that fine too, but sometimes it's better just to wait. Congrats on the shed. I have a lot of my sheds still, but haven't framed them or anything like that yet. It does look like you may have a little retained shed there on the head. You can try a wet cloth and gently wiping, if it doesn't come off in another day or so. :D :clap:

One of ours refuses to eat during shed, the other one eats when eyes are blue, when shed is half off, she don't care just bring on the mice!

Glad to hear your first shed went so well other than a few scales retained which will probably come off with that warm, wet face cloth thing.

We have one due to shed any day now.


~~Jo~~

Well being impatient I just tried to feed him again, less than ten seconds after sliding open the doors and dangling the rat (hairless pink things I guess they are weanlings?) BANG. He's swallowing it as I type. I need some longer forceps as I can certainly see the potential for a miss hit.
So no worries to his appetite :)
Ill try to rub his head when I handle him for the first time (properly) in a few days, but I'm hopeful he'll have just rubbed it off by then.

I almost wonder if he would take another rat at the moment - he has swallowed it and he definitely looks like he is searching for something.
I always assumed that after a large meal he would just want to find a warm spot to sleep it off in but after eating actually seems to be one of his most active times.

Today I handled him properly for the first time.
Had him out for about 5-10 minutes or so whilst we cleaned up his viv.
He clearly didn't enjoy it but he didn't respond as I thought he would by curling into a ball but was very active (looking to escape I know, another stress response), he flinches with sudden movements and gave a hiss or two as well.
I was pretty nervous (about him somehow escaping, getting very stressed or turning out to be a biter) but I'm pretty happy with how things went.
I learnt a few valuable lessons: not to be nervous about getting bit and that pythons are faster than they look.

Time to leave him alone for a week or so now, he is clearly a stressed out snake, cruising around his tank looking for a an exit like he did when we first got him. I think the fact he has spent most of the last week or two mostly hiding with very short periods of movement is probably the sign of a happy snake.

How fast do they grow? I would bet money on the fact his is both a bit longer and a bit fatter since I got him just over 3 weeks ago.