HELP ! Do Borneo's always shed in pieces?

[YOSEF]

My little Borneo female had her first shed this morning. It wasn't so good. I have her in a sterilite tub with a ultra-therm heat pad ( with thermo ). The temps were 80-82 ambient. 85 hot spot.

I bought a Taylor thermo / hygro combo unit and ever since I got that thing it always registered that my humidity was too high. I originally had her on newspaper. I put more holes in the lid. It still was too high. So, I put MORE holes in the lid. It did nothing. At the suggestion of another Borneo keeper I switched to DRY cypress mulch. I was told this would absorb the humidity.

Well last night she looked like a piece of beef jerky. I have NEVER seen a snake look like this. I knew that something was wrong.

This morning I checked on her and she was in the process of shedding. I noticed that she was having difficulty so I sprayed the cypress down but it wasn't helping very much. So I watched for a bit and then I got a damp washclothe and let her crawl through my hand. This worked, but it took a long time to get it off. I feel so bad that this happened to her. She was very dry.

Just so you guys don't get the wrong idea, I have NEVER had this happen before. All of my Jungle carpet and coastal carpets and all my Boas never had bad sheds. They came off all in one piece.

I wracked my brain trying to get the humidity down because the humidity read too high...94% . It read too high even when she was on newspaper. I feared that she would get a repiratory infection. I checked on her all the time.

I feel really bad.

Thankfully, I was able to help her get her old skin off. I just don't want to ever go through this again.

I have her on slightly damp cypress mulch now. I plan to keep it that way.

My question is this: Do Borneo's usually shed in pieces or have bad sheds?
I only want to do the best I can for her. ANY HELP / TIPS WOULD BE GREAT.

I know that there are Blood / Short-tail keepers on here, Would someone give me some tips on how they keep their Borneo?

THANK YOU IN ADVANCE,
Yosef

[Kara]

Bloods & STP's (Borneos included) with optimal humidity will typically shed in once piece. Does that mean it happens every single time? No, but the vast majority of the time you shouldn't have retained sheds, and it doesn't need to be a stressful process for either you or your snake.

It sounds like you have your temps dialed in well. Keeping your snake on slightly damp cypress mulch for the majority of the time should be OK, provided that you don't have too much ventilation going (sounds like there are a lot of holes in that lid?). Check on your python routinely, and when you see her going opaque, mist her with a spray bottle in the morning & in the evening to bump the humidity up in her enclosure. No need to drastically soak her down as cypress does hold moisture very well, but you do want to see the bedding change color - a shade or two darker is fine. Keep this up until she sheds & you should see a significant improvement in her sheds. It's OK to let the bedding dry out quite a bit in between sheds, as you don't want her sitting in a swampy enclosure with too much moisture. Slightly damp cypress works well, and make sure you mix it up well if you do need to spray it so that the moisture is distributed throughout the bedding.

In the future if she's having a tough time shedding, try putting her in a shallow soak for several hours. Place her in a plastic tote with water that is only deep enough to come 1/3 of the way up her sides. She doesn't need to swim. Make sure she's in a warm spot (but that there's no risk of her overheating), and leave her for several hours or even overnight. You should have a nicely-shed snake in no time, and it's a low-stress experience for you both. I've used this method time and again with a variety of species over the years, and it works like a charm every single time, even on annoying stuck skin on the snake's head.

Hang in there & good luck!!

K~

[YOSEF]

Thank you sooo very much. I really love my snake. I will follow your advice.

Shalom to you and yours,
Yosef Avraham