Bad Shed/Not Eating

[Meerna]

I've read tons of threads about bad sheds and a BP not eating and what to do, but here I am posting my own anyway. I got Calypso November 15th and got her set up with humidity at 60-70 (she came to me with a bit of stuck shed) and temps at 88-90 hot spot and 78-80 cold side. I only handled her the first day for a few minutes to check her over and make sure she was in decent condition after being shipped, then put her in her tank. I've offered her a small live rat every Friday since, and she doesn't seem to be interested at all. I'm offering live at the moment because her breeder fed live. According to her feeding records she doesn't usually refuse food and has been eating small rats for a few months, though sometimes she's been fed a hopper instead. Now here's where my problem starts. I live in a big-ish town (almost 90k population, to some that's big and to some it's not) but all we seem to have is a Petsmart and a Petco. I get my live rats from Petco, but my adults eat F/T now so I rarely have to stop by. There's another pet shop in town, but they don't have rats. I don't know where I could go to find a Live Hopper to try to feed Calypso. I could order some frozen ones, but I don't know if she'd take them since she's been fed Live all her life so far. I plan on switching her to frozen eventually, but I wanted to stick with what the breeder had her on for a bit before I attempted that. As far as the bad shed portion of this post, I already mentioned that she came to me with some stuck shed and that I'm keeping a good humidity because of it, but last night I checked on her and she shed again. It looks like a whole shed, though it was rolled up and I didn't check the shed itself, but she still has some stuck shed from that one too. The spot on her neck from last time is gone, but she has a small patch of severely dry looking scales about the size of a quarter on one of her sides, and about an inch or two of stuck shed surrounding it. I'll have to upload a picture late tonight or tomorrow since I'm working a long shift today, but what should I do about the shed? The rest of the shed came off pretty well, in mostly 2 pieces.

Sorry about my long post. I try to be descriptive.

[Albert Clark]

What you could start out doing is extending the time frame between offerings. Instead of every friday make it a 10 day offering. As far as the shed, i would consider a humid hide with cypress mulch inside of it and mist it twice a day. Also consider adding cypress mulch as your main substrate. Some animals will refuse to feed while in shed..And there is thinking that animals feed routinely better on a cypress mulch substrate.

[Sandi1961]

I have a plastic tub with a cover, I put warm water in it, about to the depth of half my snakes back and add a bit of Shed Ease...then give her a soak for about 30 minutes. When I take her out I use a wet washcloth and let her move through it in my hands...it rarely takes more than one soak to clean her up. My first ball python set up was/is a reptarium and I had lots of trouble with humidity her first year until I got a routine down to keep her humid enough. Now a bad shed is rare but I still keep those supplies on hand.

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[Stewart_Reptiles]

eating small rats for a few months, though sometimes she's been fed a hopper instead

That make little sense to me a small rat is what I feed to a snake 500 grams and over, a hopper is what I feed to a snake out of the egg (obviously that snake would be incapable to eat a small rat) so can you tell us the size of the snake is, what is the size of your enclosure, what type of hides are you providing are they tight? What type of substrate do you provide etc The more details the better.

[Meerna]

She's a yearling, last weighed at 860 grams by the breeder on 10/17. I thought it was odd too, but he had it down in her feeding records that she ate a small rat some times and a hopper others. I'll post a snippet of the breeders records.

Aug 22: 645 grams
Aug 24: 1 LSR
Aug 31: 1 LSR
Sep 05: 1 LSR
Sep 15: 680 grams
Sep 17: 1 LSR
Sep 19: SHED
Sep 25: 1 LLM
Oct 05: 1 LSR
Oct 12: 2 LHR
Oct 17: 860 grams
Oct 20: 1 LSR
Oct 27: 1 LHR
Nov 07: 1 LHR

LSR is Live Small Rat, LLM would be Live Large Mouse (no idea why only a mouse) and LHR is Live Hopper Rat according to his key. She had her first small rat 6/30, a couple weeks before she weighed at 540 grams. I use paper towel as substrate to make checking for mites easier, and her hide is a spare rock hide I got when I adopted my first snake (thoroughly cleaned of course) and it's snug. She's in a 26.5 quart tub with the one hide, water bowl, and plastic plants to make up for the lack of a second hide. The tub is on a bookshelf so it's surrounded by three sides and top and bottom and should feel almost like being in a rack.

[Stewart_Reptiles]

Try switching substrate you would be surprise how this can affect feeding, go for something like aspen or coconut chips, this allow snakes to burrow increasing their sense of security.

Most importantly don't worry about it too much BP often hit what we call a wall when they reach 800/1000 grams and will go off feed which can last from weeks to months, older individuals when shipped can take longer to adjust.

[Meerna]

I'll get a bag of bedding and try that out. I normally wouldn't worry if a snake didn't eat for a couple weeks, my older girl Circe went off food for a few weeks not long ago but she weighs 1800 grams so I don't worry at all about her. I guess part of it is that I don't know Calypso's feeding habits quite yet, so I'm not sure what to expect out of her. I do know I can always give Emrys anything the others refuse, he's my little garbage disposal at a whopping 2200 grams now.