Shedding Woes

[The_Hanged_Man]

I'm having a lot of trouble with shedding and wanted to see if I could get some feedback.

My new BP has had two bad sheds in a row. The first happened when I was not too careful with humidity. After that I got an Accurite and made sure it was 50-60% and upped it to 60-75% when the second shed cycle started to happen. She is in a an aquarium tank with a screen top with aspen bedding. I laid damp towels on top and misted to keep the humidity up. I also use a rheostat with a heat pad to keep the hot side at around 90-92 with the cool side at 80ish. Outside of the shedding issues she has been eating well, gaining weight, and seems healthy. However, the bad shed happened all over again and I don't know what to do.

I've gotten most of it off with the wet pillow case method (the wet tuperware container didn't work too good when I tried), but after two attempts she still has some left on her head with both eyecaps on.

I tried to help her remove them with the Q-tip method, but she just went ballistic when I tried to hold her near her head. Even without using much pressure she started wildly flailing about and I gave up as I was worried about hurting her.

Now my BP is stressed, still has a bad shed, and I am really frustrated. I've had other snakes in the past including BPs but never had this much trouble getting a decent shed. Anyone have any advice?

[Skittles1101]

She's had two stuck sheds with eye caps? Of course she's going to flail when you hold her head. I had the same problem and felt it necessary to remove them myself to avoid eye issues and aggression with not being able to see. Someone will need to help you hold her. What I did was soak her in luke warm water for 15 minutes. Then, I held down her head (have the other person hold her body so she doesn't freak out, she should calm down after a minute when she realizes you aren't hurting her) and I dipped a Q-tip in bottled water. I very gently rubbed the eye caps away. It took a good 5-10 minutes to get them completely off since I was rubbing so gently, and you may have to redip the Q-tip a few times to make sure it's nice and wet. Good luck.

Do you use a heat lamp?

[youbeyouibei]

Sorry for your troubles, first and foremost. Iowa City, UNI? I have family in the Waverly/Shell Rock area and get out that way some. On to the topic at hand, after my attempted hijack, lol!

I had issues with stuck sheds when I had mine in tanks/terrariums and this helped a TON, as I didn't have any luck using a humid hide either:

http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showt...k+shed+problem

I use aspen with mine as well and even in tubs, I still have to mist them twice a day or so to keep the humidity in the 50-60% range. I used cypress substrate for a while but in tubs it shot the humidity up to 100%+ but in a terrarium, with an open screen top, it might help to keep it just where it should be. I dunno...hope some of my random ramblings help, lol! Good luck!

[The_Hanged_Man]

Do you use a heat lamp?

Thanks for the reply. I think I got everything off of the first bad shed including the eyecaps, but this one is proving to be difficult.

No, I don't use a heat lamp. I'll give the Q-tip method another shot after I leave her be for a day or two to de-stress. Sadly, I don't really have any friends who are into snakes that I can ask to hold a panicking python.

[youbeyouibei]

If you can't find anyone to help you or no one that you'd trust to hold a flailing critter, you can get some large diameter aquarium tubing. Make sure it's large enough to fit her inside the inner diameter but still hold her snugly. Buy a piece just long enough to fit the majority of her length inside but not so long you can't get her out, lol! Let her get her head out and expose it and then the tubing will hold her body still while you get her eye caps off and keep the length of her fairly rigid so she can't flail and hurt herself. Similar to what some "hot" owners use when displaying or collecting venom from their animals. Depending on how large she is, that might be an option. If she's too big, well...you might have to find a willing accomplice to help hold her.

Here's a link for what I was talking about:

http://www.snakegetters.com/demo/tube/index.html

[kitedemon]

I'm having a lot of trouble with shedding and wanted to see if I could get some feedback.

After that I got an Accurite and made sure it was 50-60% and upped it to 60-75% when the second shed cycle started to happen.

The advise given is good advise so there is no point in repeating it. Gently... that bears repeating.

The thing I see is why are you getting bad sheds. 60% should give perfect sheds with few problems. There can be a number of other reasons but lets start with the simplest and most common.

You might want to check the accuracy of your hygrometer. They are notoriously unreliable and will loose the calibration easily. A simple salt test will indicate the accuracy of it easily. I have gone through 3 accurtes due to poor accuracy of both temps and humidity.

Salt test...

http://www.cigarswag.com/index.php?r...formation_id=8


A little more information on it although the accuracy isn't critical it be spot on 3-5% up or down is likely good enough.
http://www.omega.com/temperature/z/pdf/z103.pdf

[The_Hanged_Man]

Thanks again for the replies. I'll be sure to test my hygrometer using the salt test. Also, I will give the wet tupperware method another shot before breaking out the plastic tubing and trying to do that way.

[RetiredJedi]

Yea the plastic tub works great.

[The_Hanged_Man]

Well...I came home today and it appears my previous efforts loosened it enough for my BP to finish the job while I was away. Phew. I'll have to keep a close eye on the humidity though.