Trying to achieve a better shed, some advice?

[CoolioTiffany]

It's that time to shed for my female BP, and I want her to have a better shed than last time.. without me having to assist her.

So, this time I will try not to assist her in the shed. Though, she does get very lazy.. she doesn't even try to shed. She never has tried to shed before, even when her eyes went clear after being in blue one time. I waited a few days (usually I read the snake sheds the day or the day after the eyes become clear) and she didn't even try to shed her skin. So, this time I'll be patient and let her do it on her own if she does happen to try.

Ok here are a few questions I have:

1- I do not have a dimmer yet, but I do have the UTH. The heat lamp zaps the humidity right out of the enclosure in just under an hour. I do mist and the humidity gets up to 70%, but drops to 50% and below so I have to keep on misting. What should I do about the heat lamp? When it's off, the temps go down to 81F. Should I keep the lamp off (which is something I wouldn't do since I know snakes need the body heat), or should I leave it on and mist the enclosure every hour? Though, I do have her on Aspen so I don't want it to mold.

2- Would bathing her be necessary or should I just not bother to bathe her? She never bathes in her water dish at all, so that's why I bathe her. If I should bathe her, how many days should I bathe her and when should I bathe her?

3- If you have any other advice to give me, please do. She did have a pretty good shed last time, but now I don't want to assist her and I need the humidity to be at the right level including the UTH. So, if you have any other tips/advice or anything you do when your ball python sheds please speak up. Sorry this message was so long lol.

[bamf64]

It's that time to shed for my female BP, and I want her to have a better shed than last time.. without me having to assist her.

So, this time I will try not to assist her in the shed. Though, she does get very lazy.. she doesn't even try to shed. She never has tried to shed before, even when her eyes went clear after being in blue one time. I waited a few days (usually I read the snake sheds the day or the day after the eyes become clear) and she didn't even try to shed her skin. So, this time I'll be patient and let her do it on her own if she does happen to try.

Ok here are a few questions I have:

1- I do not have a dimmer yet, but I do have the UTH. The heat lamp zaps the humidity right out of the enclosure in just under an hour. I do mist and the humidity gets up to 70%, but drops to 50% and below so I have to keep on misting. What should I do about the heat lamp? When it's off, the temps go down to 81F. Should I keep the lamp off (which is something I wouldn't do since I know snakes need the body heat), or should I leave it on and mist the enclosure every hour? Though, I do have her on Aspen so I don't want it to mold.

aspen sucks humidity as well, so id use newspaper or something like that. as for the lamp, you could remove it and get a dimmer or therm. other than that, id just mist ALOT until the humidity stays 75-80%.


2- Would bathing her be necessary or should I just not bother to bathe her? She never bathes in her water dish at all, so that's why I bathe her. If I should bathe her, how many days should I bathe her and when should I bathe her?


i always bathe my bp one time in luke warm water when she is in the late stages of shed(when her eyes get out of being blue).

3- If you have any other advice to give me, please do. She did have a pretty good shed last time, but now I don't want to assist her and I need the humidity to be at the right level including the UTH. So, if you have any other tips/advice or anything you do when your ball python sheds please speak up. Sorry this message was so long lol.

put a damp towel over her enclosure during shed, mist, thats prety much it.

[cinderbird]

maybe offer her a humid hide?

little plastic deli container with a hole cut in it BIG enough for her to get in and out of safely, packed with damp spagmun (sp?) moss?

[Lolo76]

Have you tried using moss? Toby's old tank had the same problems with maintaining humidity, so I would put a few clumps of wet moss around it - and then re-wet them a few times a day. This kept the humidity above 65-75, and it stayed there a lot longer than misting alone.

[SquamishSerpents]

i've never had trouble with humidity while using a heat lamp, so here's how mine was set-up before i moved over to UTH's.

make sure the heat lamp is on the OPPOSITE side of the water dish. also, what size water dish are you using? i have one that is about 10 inches wide for my pastel BP, and she always has nice sheds. so if your snakes water dish is on the small side, even just providing a larger one can do a lot for the humidity.

but as others have said, the humid hide is probably the best idea, however my BP wouldn't use hers.

[CoolioTiffany]

Ok so I made some rearrangements in her enclosure. This is what I did:

I created another hide out of a glad container, that she can fit in that is not too small and not too large. I put a few layers of warm damp paper towels in there and also misted it with warm water on the sides of the container just for a little extra humidity. I misted the enclosure with warm water once more as well. I also have had a plastic sheet that was hot glued onto the top of the enclosure so it covers some of the screen lid. There was still more than half of the lid not covered so I covered a little bit of that screen lid with a warm damp towel and just enough room for the heat lamp so the towel doesn't catch on fire. The humidity in the tank reads 65%-70% right now too. Did I do a good job or should I add anything/take something away?

[Lolo76]

make sure the heat lamp is on the OPPOSITE side of the water dish. also, what size water dish are you using? i have one that is about 10 inches wide for my pastel BP, and she always has nice sheds. so if your snakes water dish is on the small side, even just providing a larger one can do a lot for the humidity.

Oh yeah, that reminds me... I also added a second water bowl during Toby's sheds, which raised the humidity about 10% - and his sheds have always been perfect.

[Lolo76]

The humidity in the tank reads 65%-70% right now too. Did I do a good job or should I add anything/take something away?

Check on it in a few hours (or in the morning), and if it's still around 60-70%, then you did a good job! If it's back down to 50-ish, try adding the humid hide or second water dish.

[twistedtails]

Two things that work well....Mist the snake and her enclosure a couple times a day, and soak the snake a couple times during blue. I just aquired a snake who seemed to be stuck in blue(no progress over a couple days). I misted her, and over night she cleared up. Good luck let us know what works well for you.

[dr del]

Hi,

I wouldn't soak the snake before it gets to the stuck shed stage.

It can sometimes make the shed worse not better. Just get the humidity right (or use a humid hide ) and let the snake decide what it wants to do.

If it chooses to soak in its waterbowl fair enough but I wouldn't force it to soak.


dr del