Do ball pythons eat their shed skin?

[Eversolulu]

I was moving and my girls is ALWAYS hungry, so I didn't feed her for about 2 weeks after she shed and I remember seeing her shed skin right after she did it while giving her more water, but did not have time to feed her because I was moving, and the next time I was feeding her, her shed skin was gone! Could she have eaten it because she was THAT hungry?? I didn't realize that she was going to be that desperate for food

She's almost a year old and sheds regularly, is this normal? Or did I just wait too long to feed her? I fed her right before her eyes turned cloudy.

Also, does anyone know how much a female BP is supposed to weigh at a year?

[xdeus]

I've never heard of a snake eating its own shed, but that doesn't mean it can't happen. BTW, why would you not feed her for two weeks after she shed? How much does your snake currently weigh and what are you feeding her?

[R_lopez]

Wow feed the poor thing I feed mine right after shed 2 WEEKS thats wayyyy too long

[Eversolulu]

I was moving, and due to a short notice I had a lot of things to do. But no worries! She's fed every week and that was the first and last time I didn't feed her for two weeks. I felt terrible when I didn't I had dreams about her. Anyway, I'm not sure how much she weighs, I've never weighed her actually. I'm planning on getting a scale and I will start to weigh her then to make sure she's healthy.

[AliCat37]

my girls is ALWAYS hungry

When my ball was ALWAYS hungry I knew it was time to up his prey size. You might be feeding her too small of a prey item. What are you giving her if I may ask? When my ball was a year old he was eating jumbo mice (the jumbo mice my provider sold me were retired breeders, so they equaled the size of a two week old rat). But, he was small for his size at the time because he was one of those "no I don't want your mice!" kinda balls as a hatchling. He obviously came around haha. I wish I had weights but I don't right now. Currently at 2 years he is 700 grams.

[Eversolulu]

You might be feeding her too small of a prey item.

I think you're right actually I didn't even think about that. I'm feeding her small rats, she was eating pups before but I moved her up a few months back, but I think she's ready for mediums.

[seang89]

2 weeks is nothing for an established ball python. Ive had males and females go off feed for over 6 months, with no problems at all. Nothing to worry about if you missed a week or two or four. Just dont make that your habit or its an unhealthy snake your asking for.

Some people just wanna jump all over you for husbandry and this and that.
"feed the thing! two whole weeks?!!!!!???!"

Lets talk about sheds though. I have never seen or heard of a ball python eating its shed.
two weeks + of a shed in a cage. I could see it deteriorating enough to turn into nothing( turn crispy and go into the bedding/substrate. Unless of course your using paper towels. Maybe it go dragged into the waterbowl and broke down that way? I can't say for certain any of that happened, I always grab sheds out of tanks as soon as I see them.

I think its very unlikely your snake ate its shed. But hey, anything is possible.

[Eversolulu]

I do use paper towel, but I do have some sphagnum moss in there too to keep the humidity up since I have a large tank and a mesh top (that I cover with a towel also to keep the humidity up). So I have no idea where it went, since that one time I've always seen her shed skin and it's always around the same spot (where the sphagnum moss is), so I don't know where that one time the shed skin went lol

[weird_science04]

Did someone else remove it? If you are moving, chances are other people are in the house whether they live with you or are just helping you move. Someone else might have seen it and thought it would be cool to keep.

Star

[Eversolulu]

Nooo everyone else is too scared of her, they wouldn't even go near her cage it's crazy. They think that she's gonna get out in the middle of the night and eat the dog or something lol. BP's are so misunderstood.

While I was moving her cage with my bf, we had to remove the mesh top, he FLIPPED OUT because she stuck her head out LOL!