Shedding Question

[Bogertophis]

I hate to bump my own thread, but I wanted to touch back on this with some of you folks that have been helping me with essentially everything lol.

So last Wednesday when I posted this, my BP was visibly in shed and had gotten all his head shed, eye caps and all, off but not the rest of his body. As of yesterday, he's gotten bits and pieces off, but the bulk of his body is still covered in shed. We're now on Monday, and I guess I'm just wondering how long I should let it go before I intervene and start soaking/doing the pillow case trick? Again, I apologize for semi-freaking out about these stuff, this is just his first shed with me and it does not appear to be going well. The humidity right now is sitting at 92 on the cool end, 57 on the warm end, but I just misted this morning so, those numbers aren't the typical.

I really thought I had done a good job keeping the humidity in at least the 60% range but apparently I hadn't. Any advice? Should I leave him alone for the week and just see how he does? The good news is even in shed Friday, he ate like a champ, that's 4 feedings in a row (knock on wood.)

For future reference, if you want to avoid messing up a snake's shed, do NOT feed them when they're in blue. Sometimes it's hard to tell, but not if you use a flashlight across their eyes in a darkened room...you'll see them beginning to fog (go "blue"). Not all snakes have trouble eating & shedding at the same time but many do...especially when the meal comes early in their shed cycle, when it's hardest for you to tell. So pay attention, unless you enjoy helping your snake shed a zillion little pieces (& yes, you need to help yours, it won't get any easier, he won't get it done by himself now).

Here's what happens: both shedding and digestion require good hydration from the snake's body. It's not merely just one drink of water... So basically your snake is having trouble with "multi-tasking"...his body did not have enough water (internally, not the misting & humidity) to shed properly AND digest at the same time. Best to avoid this in the future, now you know...do help him shed. The longer you leave old shed skin, the dryer & harder to get off it becomes. Get it done...a shallow soak or wet pillow case, & some manual labor from you, lol.

[Bogertophis]

Oh I know it. I've been dreading the first shed because I was sure my humidity was not where it needed to be and was worried I'd have issues. I was relieved to see it had all come off. Also kinda relieved that he ate last Friday too, I see a lot of folks say they go off food when shed time comes around but he ate like a champ.

And now you know why snakes go 'off feed' when in shed, apart from the fact that in nature it's risky for them to try to hunt when they cannot see well. There are other signs* that a snake is going into shed...you'll get better at detecting them with practice. (*I can often tell even just from photos, just from the way their skin folds look...it's a texture difference, a thickening that's obvious once you know what to look for, that precedes the more obvious clouding. Also, you often can also see a "double edge" on their scutes- the wide tummy scales. So it's not just obvious from their eyes.)

Digestion + good hydration = good digestion
Shedding + good hydration = good shed
Digestion + shedding = iffy results

[Hugsplox]

For future reference, if you want to avoid messing up a snake's shed, do NOT feed them when they're in blue. Sometimes it's hard to tell, but not if you use a flashlight across their eyes in a darkened room...you'll see them beginning to fog (go "blue"). Not all snakes have trouble eating & shedding at the same time but many do...especially when the meal comes early in their shed cycle, when it's hardest for you to tell. So pay attention, unless you enjoy helping your snake shed a zillion little pieces (& yes, you need to help yours, it won't get any easier, he won't get it done by himself now).

Here's what happens: both shedding and digestion require good hydration from the snake's body. It's not merely just one drink of water... So basically your snake is having trouble with "multi-tasking"...his body did not have enough water (internally, not the misting & humidity) to shed properly AND digest at the same time. Best to avoid this in the future, now you know...do help him shed. The longer you leave old shed skin, the dryer & harder to get off it becomes. Get it done...a shallow soak or wet pillow case, & some manual labor from you, lol.

I'm working on him now, thanks Craiga. This comes down really to my ignorance and not reading the correct information. There, like everything else lol, seems to by a mix of opinions on feeding while in shed, and my thought process was, if he takes it he's good to go. I guess I know now that's not going to be the case with my guy. Anyway, good news, he did get the tip of his tail and his entire head himself, so at least I don't have to mess with that.

Thanks again. I'll know better next time.

[Bogertophis]

...Thanks again. I'll know better next time.

"To feed or not to feed, that is the question [when in shed]" and it gets asked here a lot. I've repeated my advice a lot too. Thing is, only a handful of members here have kept as many snakes as I have (100's, I stopped counting long ago), or for as many years (3.5 decades) as I have...so you can ask people with a few snakes that never had a problem & think it's fine. Me personally, I've seen this issue often enough to know I'd rather avoid it, especially since most captive snakes are a bit over-fed, and in the wild, they'd NEVER eat in shed because prey animals rarely volunteer to get eaten by a cranky snake that's minding it's own business. Most snakes refuse to eat while they're in shed anyway, so IMO we should take their word for it. Those with any underlying health issues or husbandry issues (ie. humidity too low) are the most likely to "get stuck" but sometimes you just never know until it happens.

[Hugsplox]

"To feed or not to feed, that is the question [when in shed]" and it gets asked here a lot. I've repeated my advice a lot too. Thing is, only a handful of members here have kept as many snakes as I have (100's, I stopped counting long ago), or for as many years (3.5 decades) as I have...so you can ask people with a few snakes that never had a problem & think it's fine. Me personally, I've seen this issue often enough to know I'd rather avoid it, especially since most captive snakes are a bit over-fed, and in the wild, they'd NEVER eat in shed because prey animals rarely volunteer to get eaten by a cranky snake that's minding it's own business. Most snakes refuse to eat while they're in shed anyway, so IMO we should take their word for it. Those with any underlying health issues or husbandry issues (ie. humidity too low) are the most likely to "get stuck" but sometimes you just never know until it happens.

Right. This is why I started leaving other sites alone in favor of getting advice here from people like you. Lesson learned, I was able to let him sit in a lukewarm wet towel for about 20 minutes, got a good bit of it off, then soaked again, took almost the rest off. He has some smaller pieces but I felt like I had stressed the poor guy out enough over something that was my fault. I'll check him again tomorrow and see if he was able to rub those last little belly pieces off before I put him through the stress of the towel again. The tail tip was what I was worried about but he was able to get that himself. The worst part was trying to get him going just behind the head, his neck area, it's so thin I was worred I'd hurt him if I squeezed too tight, but a few puffs from him and some choice words from me later lol and I think we're okay.

[Bogertophis]

You'll get there- (And yes, the neck area can be difficult for some reason.)

I enjoy this forum too, it often helps to get different ideas on things, & we all have different areas we know the most about. I wish there'd been a forum like this when I
got started keeping snakes.