Eye dent

[towelie4365]

I've had my new girl for about 1.5 weeks now, and she seems to be doing fine. She ate for me last Friday, and I plan to feed her tomorrow. One of her eyes is slightly dented, but the humidity in the cage is around 59% (basking at 89-91, cool at 77-78). Should I soak her? I thought the eyes only dented with low humidity.

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I meant humidity is 59%, sorry.

[The Serpent Merchant]

Eyes can dent for 3 reasons (2 are closely related)

1. Low Humidity

2. Dehydration (related to low humidity at times)

3. The snake knocked it in

Soaking your snake in warm water (80 degrees... remember that what feels warm to you will feel hot to a cold blooded snake) for about 20 minutes should fix it.

[Trackstrong83]

I've seen sometimes with my snake, literally right before she sheds that the skin on her eye starts peeling off (very beginning of the actual shedding process) and it looks like its dented.

[FoxReptiles]

One of my guys had a stuck eye cap that was dented like you describe. The eye cap was left over from a shed and had a slightly creased/dented appearance. You can soak him like mentioned above to see if it will resolve itself. If soaking him doesn't work, his next shed will probably take care of the issue. Some people avoid soaking their snakes because it can dry out natural oils in their skin.

I was worried about the dented cap bothering my guy so I actually helped him get rid of it by gently rubbing applying warm water to the stuck cap with a Q-tip. After a few of minutes applying warm water, he actually got into it and started rubbing his head like he would to remove a piece of stuck shed and the cap came off without much effort.

I would only recommend attempting something like this if you're SURE it's a stuck cap and feel that it's worth the risk trying to remove it. If your snake is overly head shy or you're the least bit nervous, definitely refrain. Again, there shouldn't be much harm waiting for the next shed cycle for him to get rid of it himself.

Definitely check for other signs of dehydration like was mentioned above (i.e. looking wrinkled, not feeling as smooth as normal, dented eyes...) and make sure to keep his enclosure humid enough.