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Worst shedder ever.........
My Brazilian rainbow boa wouldn't shed if God came down from Heaven and commanded her to do so. Tonight was the 3rd time I have had to help her out of her skin out of the last 4 times she has shed. I have tried everything I know. I've had to soak her, I've had her in tanks with high humidity(80%) and lower humidity (40-50%). I spray her tank during shed, I've given her huge soaking bowls(which she didn't use), I've tried shed away, I've tried leaving her in a wet pillow case overnight, giving her baths, rubbing her down with wet hands and shed away. Nothing has worked. She mostly tolerates me with some hissing, but I am nearly at the end here. I've even tried putting damp towels over the top of her cage to keep the humidity up. My house is normally 40-50% humid during the winter and about 60-65% during the summer thanks to all my fish tanks set up throughout the house. She's in a tank now, that stays at 74%, but used to be in a tank that stayed at 80%. It doesn't seem to matter, she never has a good shed.
Anyone have any ideas or tricks? None of my other snakes have problems like this and 4 of the others share the same room with her.
Other than her shedding problems, she has gotten a clean bill of health recently from the vet and has a perfect body/scales/mouth etc.. No signs of any other possible illnesses.
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Re: Worst shedder ever.........
Get a small rubbermaid container w/ water about half the thickness of the snake. Put the snake in, seal it up and set it in the enclosure for a few hours.
That has worked everytime for me if a shed issue arises. Bad sheds can be disasterous for rainbow boas (especially young ones), so I would definately make sure the proper conditions are being supplied.
What type of bedding are you using?
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Registered User
Re: Worst shedder ever.........
I was using forest bark, but cleaned her cage out last night as I found a couple of wet clumps(don't want mold to grow!) and replaced it with reptile carpeting. Within about 10-15 minutes, she was already scraping skin off on it and this morning, there was skin all over the cage. Will check her tonight to make sure she got it all.
I got her as an almost full grown adult about a year ago and I don't think she's ever had what I'd call a proper shed.
Would prior bad husbandry practices by her previous owner have set her up for failure in any way?
I do the soaking in a rubbermaid tub and keep her in for 30 minutes to an hour and then take her out and get her started. A couple of times, it has seemed like she's all ready to shed, but can't get it started which is weird because there's plenty of wood in there for her to rub against.
That's part of the reason I tried the carpeting this time around. I know carpeting helps prevent some infections and rot so I figured I'd try it for shedding.
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