Eye caps while shedding...

[TheCourtneys]

Do we have to pull the eye caps off after the snakes shed? The reason I ask is.. We had a snake that went 3 weeks without eating so we took him to the pet shop we got him at. The guy told us that the snake wouldnt eat cause the eyecaps (the snake just finished shedding). We asked him when they would fall off and he told us that they DO NOT fall off that we have to PULL them off... Is that true?
BTW: The snake died 2 days later after we made the visit...

[SDballp]

:'( im sorry to hear that..

sometimes you might need to assist with the eyecap shed and there are a couple ways ive read about doing it

read this post there are a few of the ways it can be done
http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showt...ghlight=eyecap

[p3titexburial]

No--the only time you have to assist them with their eyecaps are if they don't come off with the shed (which you have to check after each shed to make sure) and even then there are better ways than to pull them off--it can really harm them if you make a mistake or do it improperly.

Edit: I just realized you meant if it didn't come off with the shed--not each and every time--so to eat my earlier statement, yes, if they don't come off you'd have to take them off.

[CoolioTiffany]

Yes, you would have to pull off the eye caps. If the eye caps doesn't come off with the shed, then you would have to pull them off. I haven't had this problem yet, but I have assisted a shed and pulled off eye caps before. After each time a snake sheds, the eye caps should come off with the rest of the shedding. If the shedding was incomplete, the humidity was most likely not at the correct level, resulting in an incomplete sheds and possibly the eye caps did not come off.

[Kaorte]

Well If the snake had been having bad sheds, fixing the humidity is the first thing you should have done to prevent stuck eye caps.

One stuck layer is not that bad. Once they get layered up is when they start to pose a risk to the snake. Their eyes can get infected if there are too many stuck eye caps.

One of my snakes had a stuck eyecap for a while and ate just fine....just missed a few times...lol