shed taking forever

[psiam]

Our boy started showing signs that he'd be shedding over a week ago. For the first time, his eye caps are completely clouded and have been for 3 days now. He refused food last week so now I have a pet rat. I'm keeping the humidity in his enclosure at around 70%. All he does is go from one hide to another and isn't even hanging out in his water dish as he usually does.

He's about a week and a half past his usual feeding schedule. I know he can go a while without feeding, so I'm just saving the rat until he's ready to eat again. My question is this: How do I help him shed? He's never had a problem with it before, but this time it just seems to be taking forever for him to get it going. He's got one hide with a rough surface to help him slough off the shed, and he's on cypress mulch as a substrate.

Oddly, although he's completely blind at this point due to the eye caps, he's okay with my picking him up.

Any suggestions would be welcome.

[Eric Alan]

Just be patient and let him do his thing. It sounds like you've done everything on your end that's within your control. Just because it's taking longer than normal doesn't mean that there's a problem.

[psiam]

Just be patient and let him do his thing. It sounds like you've done everything on your end that's within your control. Just because it's taking longer than normal doesn't mean that there's a problem.

Normally, I'd be utterly cool with him doing whatever he needs to do. Unfortunately, hubby and I are leaving the country for 2 weeks next Wednesday and my adult son will be caring for Haku. I'm not so sure that my son will be comfortable with feeding him and by the time we get home, it will have been 6 weeks since the snake's last meal.

Oh well. It is what it is. I'll just keep looking for the tell-tale condom . . . errrr . . . shed.