First shed for newbs - DUW

SO I figured there are so many of us snake newbies out there going through our first shed, it seemed good to have a support group going hehe.

I noticed several days ago (a week or so) that Uli's belly was pink, and was hoping that it was pre-shed discoloration. Then a few days ago I noticed she'd been staying in her hide pretty much all the time (not normal for her- she always comes out at night), and I hadn't taken her out since 2 nights ago, so I lifted up the hide and saw her eyes were cloudy- she was in blue!
So I bumped her humidity up some. I know people say it's not necessary, but it's my first shed, and I'd rather it go as smoothly as possible. I've had her on newspaper for the last few weeks anyway so I wasn't worried about wet substrate. I just have a bowl of sphagnum moss (in addition to her water bowl) that I was keeping wetter than normal in order to keep the humidity up above 60% (so 60-70%)
Now it's just the waiting game

OK so after talking about that, I figured I would go and look at her setup and see how it was going
and out saw she had started shedding!

she has a couple of (largish) pieces left on though, so I guess I'll have to read through the shed thread

woohoo!! :gj:

Congrats on your first shed! It is very common for the first shed to not be full due to stress and prior husbandry, so next time should go well for you. There is nothing wrong with bumping up the humidity prior to shedding, personally I only bump it up to about 65%, but to each their own. Fixing this shed will be a learning experience, and those are always fun right:)

it was actually far better than I was expecting
it was mostly one piece- she just had one piece still around her tail which came off easy, one on her belly towards her face which also came off easy, and one on her neck
the one dangling from the bottom of her neck I think is still connected to the underside of her face, and won't come off even after a soak
should I leave it or what?
I guess I could cut it off but then the whole bottom of the head I think is still stuck on good, although I can't really tell....I don't see a line anywhere

upon further examination, it is the whole bottom of her mouth it seems, and it doesn't look to me like it was anywhere near ready to shed
however, she looks GREAT everywhere else

Just repeat the soaking stickie a few times and it should come off. Make sure you run him through a damp towel after soaking for about 10 mintues to maximize the amount of shed he will remove.

yeah it said if it didn't work the first time then to try again in 24 hours
it's only the one part though, and like I said, it's a sheet that's pretty much stuck on 3 of 4 sides
I'll look at her again tomorrow and give her a soak

I love the first shed!!
Sadly I wasn't home to see her shed but when i left her belly was pink. Thanks to webcams my husband showed me that she finally she today. One whole big piece too I was so proud!! Hes keeping her first shed for me too see when i get home. It feels so good that you know you are doing things right when everything works out well for them :D

Here she is after her shed (as you can tell, I'm not much of a photographer, and I don't have much of a camera!)
https://ball-pythons.net/gallery/fil...1/postshed.jpg


here's the head: eyecaps and all
https://ball-pythons.net/gallery/fil...1/shedhead.jpg


big piece! the couple of smaller pieces are over on the right
https://ball-pythons.net/gallery/fil...1/shedlong.jpg


here's a pic with the leftover piece. (sorry about the quality, sometimes my camera gets screwed up because I dropped it a couple months ago)
https://ball-pythons.net/gallery/fil.../stuckshed.jpg


and a belly pic
https://ball-pythons.net/gallery/fil.../shedbelly.jpg


Also maybe if a mod could add a "DUW" to the title that would be good

congrats on the shed!!!

my guys eyes are blue today, i never noticed the pink belly but i dont handle much as i want to get a few consecutive feeds first!
im going to be bumping up the humidity too as this works with both my other snakes!

im kinda nervous itll be awful, but hopefully that wont be the case!

anyway congrats again and gorgeous snake!!!

yeah I've had her almost a month and a half, and she's only 10ish months, so I wasn't expecting her to take so long!
But then, maybe she was fresh shed when we went to pick her out and that's why she was so much prettier than the others hehe

congrats on the shed! They are beautiful once they shed, aren't they?!

When I see ours go into the shed phase I always worry that something will go wrong and we won't get a good, clean shed. However, all three sheds (since we got her) in a row have been perfect with an exception of the last 1/2 - 1" of tail.