Help with first BP and shed

[Oscar25]

Been lurking for awhile. This is our first BP and Ive read through numerous threads in this forum before our purchase, but still have a ton of questions.

We brought our 4 month male home last week and have him in a wood cage with glass front door and fir chips. He spends most of his time in his hide. We have not handled him except for once and were planning on attempting a feeding tomorrow. But yesterday he started to shed. Only two small pieces came off. He looked very dry and wrinkled, particularly around the neck. I re-read the sticky on having a bad shed and waited until today to soak him. However today he looks like his head mostly shed, and has a good size piece still on his neck. The rest of his body is still dry and wrinkled. He did poop last night though. We still haven't attempted feeding as he seems real timid and scared.

The tempetures have been 90 on the hot side. And only about 84 on the cool side. Part of that may have been because I had the cool probe on the back wall until today when I buried it on the cool floor corner. Humidity has been about 55%.

So with all that how bad am I? Do I need to soak today or wait because he is still possibly shedding? thanks for all the help.

[The Serpent Merchant]

The humidity is pretty low for during shed. 55% is perfect for non shedding weeks, but from the time that your Bp's eyes turn blue the humidity should be between 60% & 80%.

84 is a little warm for the cool side, the ideal cage temperatures are between 88-92 on the hot side and between 78-82 on the cool side.

once a BP actually starts to shed and you see that they aren't going to have a good shed (especially if you know that the humidity was too low) soaking is fine. You just don't want to soak them before they actually start to remove the old scales.

[Oscar25]

Yeah I didn't pick up on the eyes being blue or gray. I will start the soak today and hope that works. I have a feeling it's gonna take at least 2 or 3. Thanks

[The Serpent Merchant]

No Problem, and remember that a bad shed isn't the end of the world, do your best to get as much of it off as possible and bump the humidity up next time round.

Best of luck.

[Vypyrz]

After you let him soak for a little while, hold a wet towel or washcloth in your hand and let him crawl through it. You won' t need to apply much pressure. If he doesn't want to crawl through it, then you can kind of lightly rub the skin off with the cloth. Always move the cloth from head to tail, and pay particular attention to the tip of the tail to make sure the the skin comes off from there. Good Luck...

Sent from my Motorola ATRIX using Tapatalk.

[DooLittle]

Yup, a soak will help now. Crawling through the towel works. Next time he starts a shed bump humidity to 70. You can put a bit of damp spaghum moss in his hide at this time to help with humidity also gives them something to rub against. Welcome to Bp.net too!

[Oscar25]

He's not a happy camper in the water. Lol. Looking for anywayntomget out. Hope he gets used to it since I'm likely gonna be repeating it tomorrow as well.

[The Serpent Merchant]

Make sure that the water is in the mid 80's. Any hotter or cooler will make things more difficult. (same temperature you would bathe a young child in or warm not hot to your wrist)

[satomi325]

Aside from increasing cage humidity, you can mist him with water 3 times within 10 minutes, then put him into a warm damp pillow case for about an hour.
The cloth of the case will help remove stuck shed.(misting is optional)

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[Oscar25]

Whoa hoo! it worked the first time like a charm. And I'm not talking a few little pieces. Damn near his whole body except the head needed to shed! He is back to vivid beautiful skin.

I would pass on if anyone pulls a shed this bad and needs to soak, when you do help peel with the wash clothe, do little bits at a time and then remove it so it doesn't roll the skin into a thick ring of wet shed which can make it difficult to take of if there's a spot that is stuck .

Now that I've fixed this road bump, any thoughts on how long to wait before his first feed since this may have stressed him? He was way cool when I helped peel after his soak. I believe tomorrow will be 13 days since he last ate, and he's been with us 7.

Thanks everyone. I couldn't have done it without y'all .