Stuck shed

[Artemisace]

So after a couple of refused of refused meals I decided to take a closer look at my new boy. To my dismay I discovered that he has a stuck shed on him, I had a ball python with this problem and was able to help him out. But with 8 feet of retic I'm not sure how to approach this and would really like some advice before potentially going to a vet. Any tips and tricks will be greatly appreciated.

Sent from my snake room

[Tsanford]

The way I help any balls with a shed is by raising the humidity in the enclosure or by a good 30 minute soak. Since its that big, you could try the bathtub or a giant tote filled up 1/2 of body height.

[Artemisace]

Thanks for the reply, I checked on him today when I got home from work and it looks like he's actually going into a new shed cycle. So I'll just keep his humidity up as high as I can until he sheds out. He's a little feisty at the moment because of it so soaking him may be difficult.

[reptileexperts]

Soak him in warm water in a large enough tub with a lid on it for a solid 20-30 minutes. Make sure the water temperature is not above 90 or below 80 when you start the soak to ensure it doesn't cool him down too much. Do this for a couple days to rehydrate him best you can. Increase the humidity in the cage a bit, make sure your water bowl is large enough as well. You can get the shed ease spray from Zoomed if you desire, but soaking usually does it.

[Sauzo]

Throw on some swimming trunks, turn on the heat lamp, fill the bathtub with lukewarm water, get the snake, tell the wife if she hears muffled screams of "OMG HELP ME!!" to come in quick, and then grab a scrub brush and the rubber ducky for bath time with the snake!!!

[kitedemon]

I would just increase the humidity to correct levels 65% @ 80ºF roughly. (that is the same as @76ºF around 74%RH and @84ºF around 58% RH.) A large retic can be quite a handful, soaking one is quite an operation. If you choose to do so a spotter is not a bad idea, they can jump in and help if things go wrong. Soaking before a shed is a terrible idea, it usually leads to a bad shed generally so I would not. I would concentrate on getting the humidity correct. Remember RH is relative humidity, it is relative to the saturation point (which changes with temperature) And is expressed as a % of a variable number, it has to change as air temps change.