Question on sheding

[Destanie]

I was told when your snake is about to shed rubing its head on things to rub vitamin E oil on the snake to soften the skin and make the shed more easy I haven ever tryed this, I was just wondring if this was true.

[SDA]

Rubbing oil on a snake is completely unnecessary. Yet another human intended folk remedy applied to reptiles that is useless or even harmful to reptiles.

The sole best thing you can do for shedding is increase humidity. You can also add rough items (not sharp) to an enclosure to aid in letting them rub against. Things like cork bark for example.

[Crowfingers]

(SDA you beat me to it!)
As long as your humidity is high enough when the snake begins to shed, you should not need to help in any other way. If they are shedding in pieces or it's sticking to their body then their humidity is too low. You can bump it up by misting multiple times a day, or adding damp sphagnum moss to the corners of the tank and in a moist hide. (make sure the moss is on something to keep it from sitting in the substrate directly)

Sometimes they also rub their heads for other reasons - after eating or drinking to wipe their face fir instance, so vitamin oil wouldn't really do anything. Their scales are fairly impervious as well, so adding topical substances won't really do too much.

[BR8080]

As the others have said - no rubbing oil on your snake - just bump the humidity and things should go well. Usually you keep it between 50-60%, just bump it between 65-80% (at least that's what I do and it works).

Happy shedding!!!