Bad shed - how much to intervene?

Hey guys. Checking in with a question on bad sheds. Silmaril was already in mid-shed when we got her and I think between the move and my initial inability to keep humidity consistently high enough we messed up the shed.

I have been reading the advice here and we gave her a bath two days ago which greatly improved things but didn’t completely get it off. Earlier today I held some warm wet washcloths in my hands and let her slither through them, which seemed like it worked almost as well without stressing her so much.

At this point her eyes, head and vent and tail tip are all clear but she still has some crunchy parts on the top of her neck and back where the bath water didn’t reach. She seems totally fine other than the bad shed. She’s her usual calm sociable self (she is an extremely friendly bp with a very laid back personality). She also is eating like a champ - just put down two fuzzy mice this evening and is lying on her basking tree looking very pleased with herself.

My gut feeling now is that she’s doing well and I should stop fussing with this shed lest I stress her out and create a more serious problem. I’m keeping the humidity up around 70 and put some damp moss in her hides. Obviously I’m not going to mess with it at all for the next two days since she just ate. But I’m wondering what to do after that. I’m inclined to just let it go. It seems like a lot of threads on this site talk about new snakes getting stressed and refusing food if they’re overhandled. There’s no doubt in my mind that she HATED the bath! And I feel like the washcloths were better but still a bit stressful.

What are people’s thoughts on this? I get the impression that there’s a bit of a range in how much people do about bad sheds. And in this case since she’s so young and so new I’m leery of over-handling her. Is there any risk from letting the shed stay as is for now and just focusing on keeping humidity up and keeping her happy and eating well?

PS - some of you may have noticed that our snake’s gender has changed since my first post. Actually Silmaril is almost certainly a “he” but we were initially told he was a “she” by a pet store staff person who didn’t realize that her “booty” was so curvaceous because she had just eaten a large meal. At this point however the kids are so committed to calling her she that I’ve decided not to fight it ...

Well, call me a meddler, but I generally help get the shed off before feeding again. I agree that since you just fed her, you ought to let her be for now & hope
she takes the "hint" with the moss & all. And I'm speaking not about BPs but snakes in general, I guess I should make that clear, but I've kept BPs in the past
& would have done the same thing.

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Originally Posted by silmaril

Hey guys. Checking in with a question on bad sheds. Silmaril was already in mid-shed when we got her and I think between the move and my initial inability to keep humidity consistently high enough we messed up the shed.

I have been reading the advice here and we gave her a bath two days ago which greatly improved things but didn’t completely get it off. Earlier today I held some warm wet washcloths in my hands and let her slither through them, which seemed like it worked almost as well without stressing her so much.

At this point her eyes, head and vent and tail tip are all clear but she still has some crunchy parts on the top of her neck and back where the bath water didn’t reach. She seems totally fine other than the bad shed. She’s her usual calm sociable self (she is an extremely friendly bp with a very laid back personality). She also is eating like a champ - just put down two fuzzy mice this evening and is lying on her basking tree looking very pleased with herself.

My gut feeling now is that she’s doing well and I should stop fussing with this shed lest I stress her out and create a more serious problem. I’m keeping the humidity up around 70 and put some damp moss in her hides. Obviously I’m not going to mess with it at all for the next two days since she just ate. But I’m wondering what to do after that. I’m inclined to just let it go. It seems like a lot of threads on this site talk about new snakes getting stressed and refusing food if they’re overhandled. There’s no doubt in my mind that she HATED the bath! And I feel like the washcloths were better but still a bit stressful.

What are people’s thoughts on this? I get the impression that there’s a bit of a range in how much people do about bad sheds. And in this case since she’s so young and so new I’m leery of over-handling her. Is there any risk from letting the shed stay as is for now and just focusing on keeping humidity up and keeping her happy and eating well?

PS - some of you may have noticed that our snake’s gender has changed since my first post. Actually Silmaril is almost certainly a “he” but we were initially told he was a “she” by a pet store staff person who didn’t realize that her “booty” was so curvaceous because she had just eaten a large meal. At this point however the kids are so committed to calling her she that I’ve decided not to fight it ...

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Are you using a ceramic to heat up the Viv / rub ??

They're great from a heating standpoint buy in my experience they're a nightmare from a humidity angle .

I cope by simply spraying the Viv well , a few times daily when the snake is in shed and this seems to guarantee good sheds.


For this retained stubborn skin maybe just keep spraying daily and it will come off naturally especially if there's some branches in there .



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It mostly depends on how large the leftover patches are. The back isn't as worrisome as the neck area. But with the added moss if you keep it damp over the next few days he may just manage to take that last little bit off on his own.

If it's still a large patch, I would keep the humidity up for sure the next couple of days and try another soak after. Or letting him slither around in a wet pillowcase for a while before trying the washcloths again if you want to avoid the soak.

A few scales isn't too much of a worry, but a larger patch can lead to problems with the next shed or infections if the skin underneath gets irritated and the leftover shed packs the bacteria in.
It's mostly the neck area I would worry most on because the skin there isn't as tough and protected as the back.

I should add on... don't leave the baby alone in the pillowcase. And I wouldn't tie it off. You wanna leave it open and just let him slither around and peek out from time to time.

And for some reason, it's often the neck area (along with the underside of the jaw & throat) that gets stuck the most often, at least in my experience.

That's been my luck as well. It's like they want to keep us on our toes. :rolleyes:

For real stubborn shed skin the best way I found over the years is a 20 minute soak , then have a wet or very damp rough textured towel ready and gently wrap the snake in the towel .. then whilst it wriggles continually inside the towel you apply very gentle pressure to the stubborn areas on the snake ...
You may get a little wet yourself but this method ( done properly) rarely fails to be honest


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For a couple bad sheds, I intervened and got it off within 5 minutes. I only intervene if it's a significant amount of stuck shed, not for just a couple tiny pieces.

Put the snake in a closed tub with a slightly warm, wet towel for 20 minutes. Just leave them in there to soak up the humidity.

Take them out, and use your hand to firmly rub their bodies from top to bottom (head to tail). Their sheds naturally come off in that direction, and it'll just slide off.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by redshepherd

For a couple bad sheds, I intervened and got it off within 5 minutes. I only intervene if it's a significant amount of stuck shed, not for just a couple tiny pieces.

Put the snake in a closed tub with a slightly warm, wet towel for 20 minutes. Just leave them in there to soak up the humidity.

Take them out, and use your hand to firmly rub their bodies from top to bottom (head to tail). Their sheds naturally come off in that direction, and it'll just slide off.

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That's more or less what I do but I found the wet towel was preferable than my hands to get the skin off gently .. I've seen reports of people using their fingers but it's so tempting to 'pull' any little bits off which isn't ideal and can trigger a bite as it can hurt them ...


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Quote:

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Originally Posted by Bogertophis

And for some reason, it's often the neck area (along with the underside of the jaw & throat) that gets stuck the most often, at least in my experience.

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I've noticed this also. Feeding actually helps pop stuck shed in this area, as it stretches the skin in the neck underneath the shed and loosens it up.

As long as there's no ring of shed left on the snake I wouldn't worry about any left on the neck or back.

Thanks for all the very helpful responses. In no particular order....

1. I am heating the cage from below with a mat and from above with an infrared basking light. Both are now on a herpstat 2 set on the heat/dimmer mode. And I have the daytime temps set up so that the main heating source is the pad and the light is now just creating a basking spot and providing a little extra heat to the air on the warm side. The humidity and temperature have been very consistent since I got that figured out. However, I originally had way too much of the heat coming from the light -- and as someone guessed that caused the tank to dry out too much in between mistings.

2. The people who mentioned NECK skin are spot on. That is exactly where it is worst. She has been very effectively rubbing the shed off her belly and sides without any help. And I had pretty good success getting the back skin off with the soak and washcloths. But she really doesn't like having the top and sides of her neck touched so it's hard to clean those without stressing her. This is my first snake keeping foray, but I trained horses for 30 years and did grad work in wildlife management. Keeping interactions calm and no-stress and putting the animal back while they're still having fun is a cardinal rule for me --especially with a solitary predator that is still settling in and more vulnerable to stress in general. It's pretty hard to keep to that rule AND mess about with her neck and head though! That's a large part of my impulse to be more laissez faire about the shed at least for now.

3. I really like the wet pillowcase/towel idea. One of her favorite activities is crawling into the sleeve of an empty T-shirt and wriggling around inside it exploring "tunnels" and finding good napping spots. So if I pick something similar weight to a T-shirt but rougher texture then she's likely to explore it quite happily. She has also been very happy to rub her neck on my fingers as long as I hold them still and make like a tree. So I'll just try gently making tunnels in the towel for her and letting her wriggle through them....


Looking at everyone's replies so far I think my take away is to (1) leave her alone for a few days to digest but (2) keep misting and putting the damp moss in her hides. Then (3) if she still hasn't shed off the rest of the skin by Saturday I should try the wet towels/pillowcases trick.

Sound like a plan? Any other suggestions?