The Shedding Process

[JLC]

Alrighty....the pictures are fixed and I removed the broken link to other articles. I had to put up the full size images instead of thumbnails because our nifty new program that automatically resizes oversized images is overriding the old thumbnail/url reference.

[katieam]

awesome post. i have had my corn for almost a year now, and ive never actually seen him shed! sneaky thing does it while im sleeping every time! he must be shy.

[americangypsy]

Thank you for the pictures . Very informative.

["H"stands4Hooligan]

I'm nervous about my snakes shed. I am having a very difficult time keeping the humidity where its supposed to be at.. actually i'm having a very difficult time keeping it above 50%. I spray the cage ith warm water about 3-4 times a day and it may reach 65% if i'm lucky. He has been actually shedding for about a week now and im getting nervous. I read that you could use a rag and help with the process but he hisses when I do that. I dont really know what to do.

[daniel1983]

Do a search on "humid hides". If you setup a good humid hide, you won't have to keep misting. Best solution in my opinion.

[hlk47]

I have a ball python that was given to me 3 years ago and it is a classroom pet in my high school room. Monty is about 4.5 feet long and about 7 years old. During the summers (I live in Central Indiana) I have been keeping Monty in an outdoor 4ft x 8ft x 6ft outdoor habitat with plenty of water and sand on the bottom, shade and branches to climb and shelves to rest on. Monty is housed with my 3 box turtles and my green iguana during the summer in that habitat and loves it! Monty is housed by itself (I have no idea what its sex is) during the school year. During the school year Monty is in a 40 gal aquarium with wood bark for the substrate and a water bowl and a 1/2 log for privacy. Under the water bowl I have a heater and 2 heat lamps over the water. Monty eats well- 2 mice or Siberian rats/2 weeks. Monty was shedding every 5-6 weeks all last year. Last April Monty started to have bad sheds-- coming off in patches. I increased the humidity by adding another water bowl. The summer shed was fine. When I brought Monty in this fall (mid-September) it's skin was really crinkely (however you spell it). It started to get that way at the end of August. Monty's belly was pink and the skin was dull so I knew it was about to shed again. I was extrememly concerned about the condition of the skin so I put in damp Eco Earth for the substrate to really increase the humidity. Monty has logs to crawl up on to get away from the moisture-- which it did not do. Monty shed yesterday and it came off in 3 big bunches- much better than the spring, not as good as the summer, but apparently some of the shed stuck to the new skin and pulled off some of the new skin! Monty has about 8 raw, open patches about the size of peas on it's back. Monty still has one patch of shed stuck to his new skin and if I gently pull it it looks like I will cause another wound. I called the exotic vet and she said that since it is not infected to wash it with antibacterial soap and it woud be fine-- WHAT IS CAUSING THIS?? What am I doing wrong? I know that it has to hurt and I do NOT want it to happen again! As I said I have put Monty outside for 2 years during the summer and it as been really healthy at the end of the summer. HELP.

[dr del]

Hi,

I would have a quick read through the caresheet to get an idea of what we normally recommend.

What are you using to measure your humidity? We normally recommend the acurite digital weatherstation with probe from wallmart for about $12.

It is traditionally a right pain in the situpons to get the temps and humidity right in larger enclosures - and trying to do it in an enclosure also housing a green iguana and box turtles would probably drive me insane.

I would try and keep his enclosure simple and easy to keep spotless until he has recovered - I would recommend newspaper or paper towels as a substrate as they are easiest to see when it needs cleaned and by their very nature demand a total cleanout every time.

They are cheap enough that this is not a problem however.

Make sure anything you apply topically does not contain painkillers as they are known to be toxic to BP's.

Keep to the clean setup untill he has shed at least once and the open wounds are gone - it generally takes a few sheds as the sheddig process itself can sometimes re-open scabbed over wounds.

Look for the post on treating the screen top to see if that is something you can do and think about making a humid hide if there seems to be no other way to get the required levels of both temp and humidity.

I'm sure I have forgotten something but others will chime in to help.

In the meantime I will copy this into a thread of its own to better help you get the replies needed.


dr del

[shaunwithbite]

certainly answers all my questions... thank you..

[Aaron Speciale]

My ball python is going through his first shed cycle since I've had him, and this post has been extremely helpful! Thank You!

[Praetori]

This was the most helpful thing when my python went through her first shed with me. Ecdysis is an amazing process and your description and pictures make it so that anyone can understand what's going on and know what to expect. Thank you!

I have(hopefully had) a big problem with humidity and she started having a bad shed. I put her in 4" of slightly warm water. After soaking for a few minutes, I added an upside-down hiding log. She explored the log, then went underneath it and used the weight and rough bark of the log to start crawling out. After a while she decided that it was enough and found her way out. The rest shed off in one piece overnight.