Does he look ok? Still hasn't shed ??

[Smith123]

Ok my bp still hasn't shed , it's been 11 days since since he cleared up from blue! I thought it happened quicker than that, it's been three weeks since he was in blue. Although it has come off his nose last week but stopped there for some reason? I took some pics of him this morning, he feels quite dry/rough to the touch.....







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[influence]

Hi, i'm a first time ball python keeper. but has kept a retic python some 7 years ago.
Maybe a few things to check.. humidity? A large water bowl for the snake to soak itself? and maybe something coarse like a rock or wooden branch/log for it to kinda slither and srape its old skin away? (i put a wooden log in my retic's enclosure previously when i know she's about to shed).

Hope this helps!

[Smith123]

Hi there.... This will be his first shed and my first bp, I hope his humidity is ok, at the warmer end of cage it's around 40 but goes up to around 60 towards the cooler end, I've been misting lately ( I didn't know what else to do) so the cool end has been reading 70-80%. He has a large water bowl also. I don't know if he's struggling or just taking his time and he's fine! Just not sure really as it's taking a while.




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[Kaorte]

Looks like stuck shed at this point. Soak him in a vented Tupperware with about an inch of room temp water. Keep him in your sight and leave him there for 30 min to an hour until the skin is soft enough to gently rub off.

I don't think he will be getting it off on his own. Lol

[Smith123]

Stuck shed? I thought was that when bits were left over? Not like his full body, does this happen with nearly all his skin remaining? Why has this happened? He has a bowl big enough to soak in, do they not have the sense to do it themselves ? Thanks

[DVirginiana]

Stuck shed? I thought was that when bits were left over? Not like his full body, does this happen with nearly all his skin remaining? Why has this happened? He has a bowl big enough to soak in, do they not have the sense to do it themselves ? Thanks

I've had fully retained sheds before with my colubrids and a mostly stuck shed when I first adopted my BP. Sometimes it seems to be a result of stress (such as occurring right after extensive vet procedures) or poor husbandry, but sometimes it just happens and you can't figure out why. I'm sure there are quite a few other possibilities that can cause it.
When I soak mine with retained sheds, I'll usually put something like the center of a paper towel roll in there; gives them somewhere to rest their head if they want, and also something to rub against if they decide they want to get the shed unstuck on their own.

[Smith123]

Sounds like I may have to intervene then, I will grab a plastic tub tomoro for a bath. Do they not soak in the bowl provided when necessary ?

[Kaorte]

It happens if the humidity is really low. Ive had it happen but fortunately a soak gets rid of it quickly.

Soaking before a shed really does nothing to improve a shed so i don't know why your snake would soak lol. They usually only soak if something is wrong.

Next time just spray the cage down with room temp water daily once you notice he is going into shed.

[Smith123]

So are you advising a soak? If they do nothing to help? So if something is wrong wouldn't he be soaking in his bowl now? I have been misting his enclosure every couple of days for around two weeks!
Raising humidity up to 80%....

[Borgpython]

Definitely stuck shed if its been that long. This is most likely due to stress or humidity issues, though I'm leaning towards humidity issues more because you have stated that your humidity is a bit unstable.
My bp shed right away ( a day after) after clearing up from the blue.

What you need to do is soak your bp in shallow room temperature water for an hour then run him/her through a damp towel and just help the shed come off basically. You need to get this fixed right away as stuck shed can lead to some blood flow issues , etc.

In the future to keep your humidity stable. Avoid heat lamps for heat as they dry out the air and put some sphagnum moss around the enclosure and mist those a bit. This should keep humidity up.