eye cap after 2 sheds

[Foschi Exotic Serpents]

Its true that most do not like it when you mess with the head. Just hold the snake firmly behind the head with a dab of that stuff on your finger already (or like the other poster said, mineral oil works too) and quickly rub it on each eye. The snake will not like it but it only take a couple seconds to do. Once a day from the moment the eyes go cloudy until it sheds.

Take a tupper ware container or something similer and fill it with moist bedding. You can use something deep enough to put the lid back on and cut a big hole in one side if you want. Coconut bedding or any shredded moist reptile bedding other than aspen. Aspen will mold very fast. Put this in the enclosure on the warm side during shed. Most snakes love these humid hides and they work wonders too. You can put it in there during the shed cycle and then take it out so the snake is not in 100% humidity all the time. I just fluff the bedding in it when I take it out to let it dry. Check it for mold or snake poo every time you put it in there. Just change the bedding when its dirty.

[dembonez]

umm my ball just shed today!! yay full shed but how do you know if it has its eye caps? mine seems to look 100% normal

is there anything to look for?

[mpkeelee]

look at its eyes and they should be back to the normal color. if it looks grey or cloudy then the eye cap is still there. u can also look at the shed and if the head come off in one piece then u r good to go

[Foschi Exotic Serpents]

umm my ball just shed today!! yay full shed but how do you know if it has its eye caps? mine seems to look 100% normal

is there anything to look for?

A retained eyecap will usually not be completely clear. It may look a little thick. Have a dent or dents. Wrinkles or lines going through it. Anything other than a clear glass-like eye.

Just remember that even if the eye caps came off you may see one or more of these things on the eye if the humidity drops too low. Dont automatically assume that its always a retained eye cap. If thats the case the dents or wrinkles will go away within a day or 2 if you raise the humidity.

[dembonez]

A retained eyecap will usually not be completely clear. It may look a little thick. Have a dent or dents. Wrinkles or lines going through it. Anything other than a clear glass-like eye.

Just remember that even if the eye caps came off you may see one or more of these things on the eye if the humidity drops too low. Dont automatically assume that its always a retained eye cap. If thats the case the dents or wrinkles will go away within a day or 2 if you raise the humidity.

okay thanks both of you!

[muddoc]

Just remember that even if the eye caps came off you may see one or more of these things on the eye if the humidity drops too low. Dont automatically assume that its always a retained eye cap. If thats the case the dents or wrinkles will go away within a day or 2 if you raise the humidity.

The above advice is great. I couldn't have said it better myself. I would say that if you made a subtle attempt at removing it, and it didn't come off, then the snake is probably dehydrated, especially if you mist the snake, and the wrinkle goes away.

With all of that said, let me relay a story about a stuck eye cap that I had about 7 years ago. I had a female that was 2 years old, and had what I thought was a retained eye cap (it looked exactly like you described). I misted her really good, and let her sit for about 30 minutes. I then went back, and proceeded topick at her eye. What I did next was to peel off the lense of her eye. While this was bad, and her eye turned hazy and blue for about 4 months, after about 3 or 4 sheds, her eye looked normal again. She has since recovered full vision in her eye (I assume by her reactions to movement near her "bad" eye). So, be very careful when trying to remove eye caps.

Nowadays, I use my thumb nail to very gently look into the fold of the eye, and see if I can see the edge of the eye cap. If there is a retained cap on the eye, you will see the skin where it tore around the eye, and I will continue to remove the cap. If I cannot see a flap under the scale around the eye, I leave it alone, and make sure to check the next shed really good for the caps.

I hope that helps,