Hi all!

My BP had her first bad shed last week. Pieces EVERYWHERE and I could tell she had an awful time getting the little that she could off. Her tank looked trashed- hides were moved wherever, her paper towels were all rumpled, shed pieces plastered on every surface in sight... it was just an overall mess. She has never done this before. Her past sheds were always in one perfect piece and very neatly tucked under her hot hide.

Nothing about her husbandry has changed at all since her last shed. The humidity is kept consistent 60-70%, and I purposefully spike it to 80-90% for her shed cycle. Her temps are consistent. The only thing that changed was downgrading her water bowl because I got her a bigger hide (she has grown quite a bit) and her old water bowl didn't fit anymore. I know the water bowl should be big enough for her to soak in, but she had a really hard time eating her rats with how cramped her old bowl made the tank. She isn't much of a soaker, or at least that's what I've noticed. I'm still working on a better solution (bigger tank? smaller hides?), but a smaller water bowl seemed like the best compromise.

Looking at her now, I don't think the shed itself was as bad it looked when I found it. She shed her eye caps, nostril scales, vent scales, belly scales, nothing was in a "shed-ring" around her body, just really bad patches left on the top and sides. I planned on soaking her, but over the past few days she has slowly shed the last of her pieces. Perfectly clean now, it's like nothing happened!

I guess the point I'm trying to get to is I don't know what could have caused the bad shed. I want to fix whatever I did wrong, but I kind of don't know where I went wrong?? Should I switch back to her old water bowl? Is the water bowl the problem at all?

Thanks in advance for your advice!