Humidity and shed cycle

[Midwest]

I am curious how humidity affects the snake early on in the shed cycle or them going into shed cycle. With my CHE I mist daily and my humidity stays around 50 %. Reason I am asking is that we got our BP in November of 2019 and he was hatched July of 2019. When we got him he was 214 grams and he didn't shed for us the first time until mid January. He has not shed since then. I weighed him several weeks ago and he was at 300 grams. About 3 weeks ago he started staying in the cool hide all the time so I thought he was going into shed so I didn't feed him. After two weeks no sign of shed so I fed him again last week and he ate fine. The last shed, once I saw his eyes cloud over I turned off the CHE and the humidity was around 70% and his shed was perfect. I am curious if the humidity being a little low has any impact at all on them going into shed or only impacts how well they shed? It's been over 10 weeks since his last shed and I am wandering if there is anything I should do or just wait and bump up the humidity once I know he is about to shed. His skin looks fine but I haven't handled him in a couple weeks since I didn't want to bother him thinking he was going into shed.

[Lord Sorril]

Snakes shed as they grow. Infrequent sheds means slow/no growth. Humidity controls how easily the shed peels off their skin-not how often they shed.

There could be an underlying health issue, but, I suspect this snake is not getting enough food. It should have rocketed past 300 grams (from 214g) in 8 months.

I will feed my young ball pythons as much as they will eat (undersized prey) in one session/week until they reach aprox. 600 grams before I *consider* regulating their food intake.

[Midwest]

Thanks, that is what I was assuming concerning the humidity but wanted confirmation. When I got him in November we waited a week and started feeding him live rat pups since that is what he was on. I then tried to switch him to F/T and had trouble. He ate a couple times but went several weeks between feedings. I was having trouble with F/T so I switched to buying live and feeding him those freshly killed. The last two times he has eaten fine but before that I was only getting him to eat every couple weeks (sometimes 3 weeks). Between the shed and the refusals of the F/T tries he might not be growing as quickly as he should but has never gone more than 3 weeks without eating. I'll just keep feeding him every 7-10 days until I see that he is ready to shed again.

Also as far as his weight goes, you might have mis understood me or I might be misunderstanding you, he was 214 in November and was 300 sometime in February (I don't have my notes in front of me when I weighed him last.) Unless you were saying at 8 months old he should be way over 300 grams (which he very well could be now)

[Lord Sorril]

Yep yep I misread that. Sounds like he is doing fine!

[cletus]

I think moisture is a big factor early in the shed cycle. It keeps the skin lubricated so it can prepare itself to shed.

[Midwest]

Just got him another rat tonight. It was a little larger then the ones that he has been eating but he still ate if OK and then moved over to his hot side. I am going to try to get my hands on some F/T now and try those again instead of the fresh kills. The first few fresh kills he ate I could not get him to strike, usually I would end up leaving them in the enclosure after he 10 minutes or so of trying. The last two of them he has struck as soon as I put them in the enclosure. Hopefully he does the same with F/T. Im also hoping that in another month or so I won't be running the CHE so the humidity will stay high enough I won't have to mist.

[Midwest]

So I guess I was wrong with my assessment that he was going into shed. Prior to the last feeding he had been staying in his cool hide all the time which is what he did prior to his previous shed. So I didn't try to feed him for a couple weeks and after no signs of shed I fed him on March 31. As of yesterday still no signs of shed so I fed him again yesterday which he took a F/T fine. First time offering F/T since I had been giving him fresh kills. I'm going to wait 48 hours and then weigh him to see where he is at weight wise. He still has only shed once since I got him back in November.

[Midwest]

I went back and looked at my previous entries. His last she’d was the first week of January and his weight was under 300 grams, 290. I weighed him today and he was at 350. Is it uncommon for a young BP to over 3 months and gain 60 grams without shedding?