I think he's about to shed!

[Slim]

I fed Bacchus on Sat night, and he ate like a champ then went into his cool side hide and I haven't seen him come out since. About 15 mins ago I went to take him out and handle him, something I've done 48 hrs after feeding since I got him. I opended his cool hide and rubbed his side to let him know I was going to pick him up and he jumped, not balled up, but jumped. That's when I noticed his eyes are a little bit blue. Ok, not his normal behavior, but I figure he's going into shed. I put the cover back on his hide and did my normal cage maintainance. I also re-misted the sorgum moss in his warm side hide. When I was just about to put the cover back on the cage, he came out of the cool side hide, and I noticed he looks dehydrated...mostly around his neck. Skin folds that I did not notice when I fed him Sat night. He cruised the cage for about 2 mins, and went right into the warm side hide that I'd just misted.

Cage is a 20 gallon long (RBI cage gets here next week)
Warm side ambient temp is 92
Warm side floor temp is 98 in some spots and 101 in others
Warm side hide is 96 on the inside
Warm side humidity is 51%

Cool side ambient temp is 83
Cool side floor temp is 81 in some spots and 84 in others
Cool side hide is 84 on the inside
Warm side humidity is 57%

Question: Do they look dehydrated before they start to shed? This will be his first shed for me, so I'm not totally sure what I'm looking for.

[dr del]

Hi,

They can look a little wrinkly around the neck certainly - the wrinkles most people take as a sign of dehydration run along the body from nose to tail whereas the shedding ones tend to go from top to bottom.


dr del

[Slim]

Thanks Derek, the winkles do run up and down, and only along his neck area.