My male been in water for two days

[mckaax]

After about the 8th day of the first shed I have gone threw. My one year old male has been in the water bowl most of the day yesterday, all night and most of the day today. I removed him earlier today but within a hour he was back in the water. What should I do?

[neur0tix]

What does this mean:

"After about the 8th day of the first shed I have gone threw. "


Try putting him in a tupperware or swomething with a very moist towel and let him move around in it for atleast an hour... when my snake won't shed right i do this, when he comes out i make a "o" with my thumb and index finger, and put head up to it and tickle his tail so he moves thru... skiin comes right off and you just gotta sorta gently guide it off.

[EmJ]

Snakes do occasionally soak themselves, so he will be fine. It's normal.

You might want to look at your husbandry and check humidity levels in the enclosure, b/c he's probably looking for a moister environment. During a shed, humidity should be around 70%. Do you use a tub or a tank? How are you heating the enclosure?

[MitsuMike]

After about the 8th day of the first shed I have gone threw. My one year old male has been in the water bowl most of the day yesterday, all night and most of the day today. I removed him earlier today but within a hour he was back in the water. What should I do?

I am not quite sure what your asking, or what the problem is......

[mckaax]

it means it was the about the 8th day of the shed process. I have a glass tank and the temps are 92 - 77. The humidity is very low around 40's I have a fogger running non stop. and a 60 w heal lamp on during the day and a undertank heater on duing the night. I have tried everything to raise the humidity. I am going to walmart to get a humidifier for the house in a few hours.

[Inknsteel]

My first suspicions were humidity or mites. You said this is your first shed with him. What kind of substrate do you have him on? I'd recommend switching out to paper towels until you're sure you don't have a mite problem. Check the water bowl when you take him out and look for any little black specks in the water, also check the enclosure after a day or two of paper towel substrate. If you find any little black specks in the water bowl or on the paper towels, you've got mites.

The other suspicion is humidity. I would be curious to know the answers to the previous questions. Are you enclosing in a plastic tub or a glass tank? Screen top? Heat lamps? Current substrate? Any answers you can provide about the enclosure would be helpful in giving you a good answer.

**EDIT** I see your last post answered some of the questions. It could be low humidity based on the fact that you're housing in a glass tank and running a heat lamp. Those things can dry out the air like nothing else. Try covering 2/3 of the screen top with a damp towel. Moisten the towel a couple times a day and replace once a week to avoid mildew and bacteria growth. I'd still be concerned about mites though as I've seen a lot more bps soaking because of mites than low humidity.

[mckaax]

I would just guess its just the humidity being he never soaked before this first shed process. Do you think I should turn the heat lamp off and run the Under tank heater the whole time. I have aspen bedding from petsmart.

[MitsuMike]

Toss the heat lamp and keep the UTH on 24/7. He is in the water b/c of the low humidity.
Shed stages:

Pink belly
Darken body
Ghost color/blue eyes
Clear
Shed

Can take up to 10 or so days no worries.

[EmJ]

You really, really ought to check for mites, just in case. There's no reason not to, and your snake will thank you.



As for your humidity, just run the UTH all the time unless you need the lamp to bump up your ambient temps, the heat lamp will kill your humidity. Spritzing the tank with water and covering the screen top (w/foil or a damp towel) both work, and you might consider changing from aspen to cypress or another substrate that holds humidity a little better. You can also add damp sphagnum moss to the enclosure. Humidifying the room will also help.

If you still can't get the humidity up to 70%, offer a humid hide. This is basically a tupperware w/damp sphagnum moss in it where the snake can go during sheds.


P.S. If you end up with a bad shed after this (probably will) check out the sticky on bad sheds, it's really good.

[mckaax]

i guess I will get another UTH being the one I have isn't big enough to get the tank up to 90degrees on the hot side I guess it will be ok to run two.