Hello everyone,

This is my first post to these forums. I'm a new Ball Python keeper and I just recently jumped straight into the hobby. I purchased two juvenile ball pythons about 2 months ago. One is about 8-12 months old and the other is 6 months old. They both just started their shed this past month. Drogon, the oldest, went about 2 1/2 weeks and never finished. He got the old skin off his eyes, head, and part-way down his neck, but seemed to just refuse to finish. He ate through the entire time and even slithered around the case, but never took the effort to complete his shed. I knew I was struggling with humidity, so I decided to help him out. I soaked him in a tub with a washcloth and after about an hour he finished just fine.

Onyxia, the youngest, is now in the same boat. She has the skin off her eyes, head, neck, and even parts of her belly have shed, but she won't come out of her hide to finish. This time I've gotten the humidity nailed, its averaging 70-75%, and her skin looks very loose. She just doesn't seem to want to finish and she doesn't want to leave her hide at all. I can tell she doesn't want to be messed with. Is this normal for them to not bother? Perhaps too young to really know what to do?

They are open tanks with screen tops, but I rigged a humidifier on a timer so that the humidity is always 70-75% during shed and 60% when not. Both pythons are in their own tanks with warm and cool sides and plenty of hiding places to make them comfortable. Temperatures are 90 degrees on the warm side and 80-85 on the cool side.

Any advice would be appreciated. Onyxia is at least 10 days in and I'm about to take her out to soak her and help her finish.