First shed.

[TasteofOhour]

I'm in need of a few tips for the first shed of my first Ball Python. I noticed her eyes were milky last night when I got her out to feed her. What can I do or what should I be doing to make sure it goes as smooth as possible? I raised her humidity levels to sit around 70% and with an ambient temp between 86°F - 90°F. She is young and is in a 20gal. Long tank with newspaper, a small dog water dish, and a "U" shape log enclosure. Any info or tips would be greatly appreciated!

[Albert Clark]

I'm in need of a few tips for the first shed of my first Ball Python. I noticed her eyes were milky last night when I got her out to feed her. What can I do or what should I be doing to make sure it goes as smooth as possible? I raised her humidity levels to sit around 70% and with an ambient temp between 86°F - 90°F. She is young and is in a 20gal. Long tank with newspaper, a small dog water dish, and a "U" shape log enclosure. Any info or tips would be greatly appreciated!

Sounds pretty good. The ambient temp can come down a bit. Maybe down to 82f is more of a effective ambient. The 86f - 90f strikes me more of heading towards a basking or hot spot range. Your humidity percentage is great. How are you heating this 20gal long enclosure? How young is the ball python? Can you post any photos? All that would be helpful. Thanks.

[pbyeerts]

Great job! I would add another hide so that you have one on the hot side, and one on the cool side. Are you using a UTH with a thermostat attached to make a hot spot? Btw: there is an excellent Sticky about how to correctly set up an aquarium tank.


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[TasteofOhour]

I guess I can be a lot more specific. Ha. The temp was for the hot side. I mis-spoke about the ambient temp. I have a UTH with out a thermostat, a CHE with a thermostat, and digital thermometer and hygrometer all on the hot side. The enclosure and bigger water dish are also on the hot side so as to keep the tank more humid right now. I have a kitchen towel underneath the newspaper over where the UTH is to shield the snake in case it gets too hot, since right now I cannot regulate it. I don't know exactly how old the snake is but measures somewhere between 18" and 24" (I'm at work right now.) Before I get home I will be purchasing another digital thermometer to measure the ambient temp and will post pics when I get to the house. Right now my only concern is making sure my baby sheds with no issue. I'm not really sure what to look for if things awry and am just trying to gain some knowledge so I can prevent any issues. I've had her about three weeks and she's been doing great. Eating 2 fuzzies every 7 days, and moved up to 1 small mouse yesterday (Frozen/Thawed). I may be being a little anal-retentive about it, I just don't want to screw anything up.

[Yodawagon]

I would put the thermostat on the heat pad instead of the ceramic heater. The reason being, is the snake can get in contact with the heat pad more directly than the ceramic heater. Also if you have the ceramic heater on save screen lid covering this tank, it's going to make it a lot harder to maintain humidity.

[TasteofOhour]

I wrapped plastic around most of the lid to maintain heat and humidity and it does pretty well... I will adjust the thermometer to under the towel and newspaper when I get home with a new thermometer so I can get accurate readings. As for the shedding, do I just wait for a problem to occur or are there things I can do to prevent a not so optimum shed? I feel confident in my tank being a good habitat, my concern is really with preventing any issues with the shedding process...

[EL-Ziggy]

Like the others have mentioned I'd tweak a few things with your setup but overall it sounds like the environment should be conducive to a good shed. You can relax and let the snake handle the rest.

[TasteofOhour]

Like the others have mentioned I'd tweak a few things with your setup but overall it sounds like the environment should be conducive to a good shed. You can relax and let the snake handle the rest.

Thank you!!! I will post pics of my setup when I get home this evening. I appreciate everyone's input and very useful information. This is my first reptile and trial run, so I'm trying to learn everything I can before I decide to get more and start raising Balls as an enjoyable and possibly profitable (in more ways than one) hobby in the future. Thanks guys!!