New BP owner, eye cap issue

[ethansmom]

We have had our new BP for a month now. He eats f/t like a champ and seems to be doing pretty well. (S?)He went through a shed the first week we got him and it wasn't a great one but we kept his humidity high, 70-75% and it mostly came off, but in pieces.

But we have noticed he has retained an eye cap. It doesn't seem to bother him too much, he is still easy to handle. I can see his eye under it and it looks like it is drying up or something. I am WAY to nervous yet to bath him or rub his head or eye. I have however put him in several warm pillow cases and let him sit (with a warm towel to keep it warm) 2-3 times a day. I actually put him back in his tank with the pillow case and last night he slept in it and is still curled up in there. I just checked though and the eye cap is still there. So, what should I do? Do I just wait or should I worry and get someone to help me get it off? I don't want him to get freaked out by my poking around his head with a towel.

One more stupid question too. Sometimes when he is slithering around on me I get panicked thinking maybe he might just bite my arm or fingers, even if they are not moving. It is most likely just my nerves, but can this happen? Does it or does he have no interest in chomping me just to see...

[Kaorte]

If you can't get it off with the pillowcases or upping the humidity and you don't want to mess with it (understandable) then just leave it until the next shed.

What are you measuring humidity with? You should get a perfect shed with 70% humidity.

Well, generally in my experience if you give a snake a reason to bite you it will, if you don't, it won't. Unless you have a really mean snake you should have nothing to worry about. Bites don't hurt anyway (or so I have heard!).

[Elise.m]

Have you read the shedding stickies? If you haven't, I think they might have some information in there about retained eye caps. If it's a difficult one, I've seen people suggest taking the snake to a vet and have the vet take it off.

As far as him being interested in chomping on you, I highly doubt it unless he's extremely hungry, or you smell like a rodent. One of our friends tried telling us that if we were to handle our snake by our desk, it would attack the mics we have. I haven't proved it, but if it doesn't smell like food, I doubt they're going to think about eating it.

[llovelace]

Wear a latex glove & use your thumb to rub over the eye gently, it should come right off.