bad shed

[kontron]

it has been a week since we handled our snakes. too busy cleaning, painting, and fixing the house after 9 hours of work. i have checked on them every day . made sure temps and humidity were alright. roswell was hiding under his waterbowl rock, so i didnt see much of him, and roo would just pop her head out of her tiki god statue. it was time to change the substrate, and do a major tank clean. i noticed over the week both snakes went into a shed. roswell was actually just coming out of his skin when we pulled him out. he sat in my g/f's hand for a few minutes getting out of the old skin. it was pretty cute to see him use my girlfriends hand as a tool to remove his hold skin. she wrapped her hand around his body holding the old skin, and he wiggled out of it. he seemed to like the help she offered. roo however had a very bad shed. about 60% of it still remained, and what did come off were just flakes. after cleaning the tanks and adding new substrate, i decided to soak the snakes. roswell didnt want any part of the water, but roo seemed to enjoy it very much. she made no attempt to get out of the water. roswell was sausuge butting, so i wanted to loosen him up a bit. we let roo soak for about 20 minutes, and then put her back into her very moist fresh substrate. i checked on her again last night after returning from work, and she still has most of her old sin still attached. tonight i am going to soak her again a little longer, before feeding, and let her run through a wet towel. if this does not work to remove the old skin what else can i do?
roo has only had one good shed i can recall. most of her shed leave flakes here and there on her, but not nearly as much as is on her now. she has been in nice humidity level, averaging around 60%.fior a few weeks now. how many sheds will it take before she starts shedding the whole skin? she was in a larger tank, and i know the humidity was down around 50%. like i said she has been kept in a nice humid tank for a few weeks. any advice?
her eye-caps have all come off so far.. just the skin on her body is the trouble.

[Marla]

You don't really have to worry about retained shed except 1) eyecaps, 2) tail, and 3) any part completely encircling the body, which can constrict blood flow. The towel trick should work for you, though -- its worked well for me when needed. If Roo is having extra trouble shedding, I'd try to give her extra help next time by soaking her daily once her eyecaps turn blue, for 20 minutes or so each day.

[kontron]

cool i will soak her next time she starts to shed. thing is we were so busy with everything else we didnt even kno wthey were sheding until we cleaned out the cage. it was a fast shed too.. both snakes went at the same time in under a week. like 6 days.

[BigKenjDogg]

How warm should the water be that you soak the snake in? Also, do you do it in the bathtub?

[Tigergenesis]

Might try my snake sauna:
http://ballpython.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=588

[BigKenjDogg]

That sauna sounds like a great idea. I have a question. Is sphagnum moss messy?

[Tigergenesis]

I don't think so - it generally sticks together. I soak it, squeeze it out and then fluff it before putting my bp in. If you try it, let me know how it works.

[Marla]

If you do soak your snake, the water should be tepid (neither warm nor cold to the touch). If you have a thermometer, try to have the water anywhere within 80F-90F.

[BigKenjDogg]

So Munch has had his/her worst shed ever. So right now, I'm putting together both a humid hide and a humid sauna. So, right now I'm using the pillow case method on him/her, but here's my question. How long is too long to be in the pillow case? I imagined that Munch would come out pretty soon after being put in the pillow case, but that isn't the situation at all. I think he's almost been in there for 40 minutes. Should I get him out? Thanks.

[BigKenjDogg]

Anyone out there? I gotta go to work!

Should I leave Munch in there??? Take him out????