Bp Shedding and Hissing

[kayrussell]

Hello Everyone,

This is my first time posting teehee. I have been reading other posts but I'm worried about my BP. I got him as a gift in early April and he has been shedding for about 3 weeks now. His shed is incomplete near his head and a little below. I have tried to give him baths but he hates them and just wants out. His shed seems to be moving along extremely slow and I just want to pick him up and handle him. I fed him 2 days ago because he hadn't eaten in so long so I started to worry. His temperature and humidity in his tank has been appropriate. I went to pick him up yesterday and he freaked out and started hissing so I left him be. Does anyone have any suggestions to help his shed? If so, please share asap. Will he try to bite me if I pick him up and he is still hissing?

Thanks guys,
Kayla

[Skittles1101]

Define "appropriate"? Bad shed = incorrect husbandry...

Read over this care sheet, welcome to the site.
http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showt...ius)-Caresheet

[kayrussell]

Daytime temperature is 85-90 and night time is 80-85. I hiked up the humidity up to 75 % ish, around that temperature.

[BLM94]

Can you post his readings? In this situation it seems most likely that his humidity is too low. Bump him up 10% and maybe a couple degrees. Have you thought of introducing a humid hide in his enclosure?
Also, in terms of the hissing, shed period is a stressful time for snakes and this may be amplified by the fact that your snake has not shed properly. Once you get your environment specs together just give him a couple days to chill out and lose the rest of his skin.
If the skin doesn't come off on its own, you can soak them in warm water and then use a warm wet washcloth to gently rub the skin off.

Also pics might be helpful

[Skittles1101]

Are you reading temps with those cheap analog guages from Petco? I guess a detailed description of the set up would help highly. Be sure to read over that care sheet, because the ones from Petco and the sorts are incorrect in almost every way.

[BLM94]

Daytime temperature is 85-90 and night time is 80-85. I hiked up the humidity up to 75 % ish, around that temperature.

By this do you mean that the entire enclosure is one uniform temperature? This is unhealthy for pythons in that they require a hot side and a cool side, to allow them to thermo-regulate themselves. The ball python caresheet on this website has more detailed information regarding this, and you may do well to look it over.

[kayrussell]

LGray23: No i have a ZooMed temperature reader with a prong on the end. His hot hide is around 90 and his cool hide is about 80 to 85 i try to make sure it stays the same for the most part.

Ok, he has a 15 gallon tank i believe, it is quite small. He has one of those hides that are brown and sit on the aspen i have for the bottom of his tank. His warm hide is under his heat lamp alons with some fake vegetation he has throughout his tank. He has 2 rocks that a piece of slate lays on for his cold hide. I also have moss sitting under the slate and i moisten it regularly for him because I was told moss is good to help the shedding process. There is a fake tree looking vegetation piece on top of the slate so no light comes into his cold hide. He has a small sized water bowl that I got when he was sold to me for my birthday.

I will look the care sheet over thank you all!!!!!

[kayrussell]

BLM94: a humid hide? I'm not too sure what that is but yes his temperatures are different on each side of his tank, where his lamp is can be around 90 maybe a little higher by a few degrees. His cold hide is only around 80 to 85. I am thinking to bump up the humidity it will probably help him out a lot!! I will post pictures asap!!