Young female BP not shedding

Hi everybody my ball python hasn't shed for over two months and I am very worried. She was born in April of this year and I have had her since the first week in July. She has eaten weekly since that time. She has shed twice since then.

She last shed on the 3^rd of September and since that time we have moved her twice which has involved taking her as carefully as possible in the car for 40 minutes before putting her back in her Vivarium. I have a good heat lamp and the two sides seem to be still at the right temperatures. I have tried increasing the humidity as I understand that can help with shedding.

I have noticed over the past two weeks that her scales are becoming flaky but it is not detectable using a normal camera so I have not included a picture - I am worried that this might be dysecdysis - I dont think its skin rot. I asked my dad if I can take her to the vets (I have not used them yet but understand that Battle Flatts vets in Strensall near York, England may be able to help) but he said to find some online help as they would probably know more so I am hoping someone can help.

Also, although she is eating weekly (small frozen/thawed mice from pets at home) she misses before she gets the mouse once twice or three times she drinks a huge amount of water and never really leaves the spot she’s in.

I am 13 and really love my snake (Vivienne) so really hope someone can advise the best thing to do.


Many thanks - Bertie

As they grow older, the frequency of sheds decreases (This applies to most snakes and lizards). If you feed less or it is underfed for babies, the shedding happens less frequently. So I would weigh her in grams. There us a feeding chart in the husbandry section. Your snake may be needing a large mouse at thus point but it is hard to tell without a weight in or pictures for comparison.

One thing you don't want to do is panic and do more than you have to, thus stressing out your snake. A maintained 50-60% humidity is good. When she goes into shed, bump it up to 70-80% humidity. Signs of a shed are covered eyes ("going into blue"), dull looking scales or have a light shade of coloring than normal, pink bellies, reluctant to feed, may soak a lot or stay on a hot or cool side more than usual (Not as active at night).

Don't worry though. I have herp babies that shed every 2-3 weeks to adults that shed like 3x a year. They know when they are. Stuck shed happens AFTER a shed had started, not before.

If she has only shed twice in all this time, & she really is young, I have a hunch you just aren't feeding her enough (big enough prey). Please check her weight versus
the feeding chart on here- make sure the size rodent she's eating is enough food for a snake her size.

Snakes shed when they outgrow their "old" skin, so her lack of growth suggests to me that her diet is inadequate. If she were refusing food, I might suspect she's not
warm enough to digest well, but you say she's eating regularly...so feed larger size or double up. That should help. Note you may need to allow a longer time to digest
between her meals, but that's OK. (that's what calendars are for, eh?) ;) Be sure her cage temperatures are correct also. Snakes cannot digest without proper warmth,
nor can they grow if they can't digest. :snake:

Can you tell us the humidity in her enclosure and how you measure it?

If she was born in April the pictures might show us more than you think. ;)

Hi everyone

Thank you so much for the tips.

I have weighed yesterday and she is 237grams which I think means that I need to start feeding her more so I have doubled her last feed when I fed her yesterday.

The only problem is that I don’t know how to change the humidity apart from closing the doors a lot and that only changes it slowly like yesterday it was 45 and today its 47 but I am unsure how I would be able to increase or decrease humidity without altering temperature. How would you suggest I best achieve humidity control?

I was going to attach pictures but can only see a link to a URL to insert an image but my photos are on my local hard drive so was expecting to use a local drive address – how do I do that?

Many thanks again

Bertie

Tapa talk is really good for that but we do have a sticky on picture sharing that can help you get things stored on line.

Click here to see it. :gj:


Del

Quote:

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Originally Posted by bozzy611

Hi everyone

Thank you so much for the tips.

I have weighed yesterday and she is 237grams which I think means that I need to start feeding her more so I have doubled her last feed when I fed her yesterday.

The only problem is that I don’t know how to change the humidity apart from closing the doors a lot and that only changes it slowly like yesterday it was 45 and today its 47 but I am unsure how I would be able to increase or decrease humidity without altering temperature. How would you suggest I best achieve humidity control?

I was going to attach pictures but can only see a link to a URL to insert an image but my photos are on my local hard drive so was expecting to use a local drive address – how do I do that?

Many thanks again

Bertie

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So just to clear things up, u don’t mist your tank? That’s how 99% of us keep the humidity up.