feeding with a little shed on him

[Dr.Gonzo]

my ball got through most of his shed but he still has some on the top of his head and on his tail. will it be ok to feed him now or should i wait for him to finish. i heard if i feed him when he still has shed he could throw the mouse up. just curious.

[Byte]

Wait untill he has fully shed all his skin!

[hoo-t]

Based on your description, "still has some on the top of his head and on his tail", it sounds like he had a "bad shed". If thats the case, waiting for him to finish might mean waiting a very long time. He will survive leaving it on there, and shouldn't have any problems eating. One thing to look for though is whether he successfully shed his eyecaps. Do his eyes still look foggy and dull, or are they bright, shiny, and clear? If the head part of the shed is still around, you can look at it as well to see if he shed the caps. Even if he didn't, its not the end of the world.

To help him get rid of the retained shed, you can soak him in a SHALLOW bath (not more than an inch or so of water, making sure the water is about 80 to 85 degrees fahrenheit). This will loosen the shed. Then you can GENTLY rub it off. Be VERY careful around his eyes! There are ways to remove retained eyecaps, but if you aren't experienced with it, I'd leave them for the next shed. His vision will be affected until then. You may see suggestions to use tape to remove them. In my opinion, tape has no business any where near a snake's skin!!! Another method that I have used to loosen retained shed is to soak a towel in lukewarm water, and hold the snake in the towel. Allow him (or even help him) to hide his head in the towel. Then after a while, use the towel to gently rub off the retained skin.

Finally, retained sheds are caused by an environment with too low humidity. Take a look through this forum, and check the faqs and care sheets for information on how to elevate humidity, and he should have no problem shedding in the future.

Steve

[frankykeno]

Great post Steve! The only additional thing I'd say is check that none of the snake's shed is actually encircling any part of his body (check the tail tip carefully). A bit of shed here or there isn't a major problem or a reason to not offer food, as your snake will eat if it wants to and refuse if it's still feeling out of sorts with the shed cycle so go ahead and offer. If the caps are still on or you have any encircling shed then do as Steve said to get the shed off. Personally I wouldn't offer food the same night you get the shed off. I'd wait till at least the next night before doing so as soaking is stressful on your snake and may make them unwilling to eat soon afterward.

Check your enclosure's humidity. It should be about 50-60% normally, 60-70% during the entire shed cycle. There is a wonderful sticky here about the whole shed cycle that you might want to view to familiarize yourself with the first signs of it so you can bump that humidity up right away.

[Dr.Gonzo]

thanks for the post. the rest of the shed came off accept a bit on the top of his head. his eye caps are off as is everything else. the shed came off in two pieces. the main body and then the tail earlier today. the only problem area is the top of his head. he saw the mice sitting on the table a few feet from his tank so i decided to give him one and wait a while to see how it went. he ate the first one in about 5 minutes so i decided to observe him and wait a while to make sure he was ok for the second. the secone one was just as smooth. i did check the humidity and it was a little low so i misted the tank and all seems good now. thanks everyone.

[hoo-t]

Just a little addendum about humidity - I make hides out of clay pots by chipping away an entrance in the lip of the pot with a pair of pliers (very slowly and very small pieces to avoid breaking the pot). When I see a snake "go blue", I soak the pot in water, giving him a humid hide. This nearly always results in a clean shed!

Steve