Bad shed - how much to intervene?

[Zincubus]

Hey guys. Checking in with a question on bad sheds. Silmaril was already in mid-shed when we got her and I think between the move and my initial inability to keep humidity consistently high enough we messed up the shed.

I have been reading the advice here and we gave her a bath two days ago which greatly improved things but didn’t completely get it off. Earlier today I held some warm wet washcloths in my hands and let her slither through them, which seemed like it worked almost as well without stressing her so much.

At this point her eyes, head and vent and tail tip are all clear but she still has some crunchy parts on the top of her neck and back where the bath water didn’t reach. She seems totally fine other than the bad shed. She’s her usual calm sociable self (she is an extremely friendly bp with a very laid back personality). She also is eating like a champ - just put down two fuzzy mice this evening and is lying on her basking tree looking very pleased with herself.

My gut feeling now is that she’s doing well and I should stop fussing with this shed lest I stress her out and create a more serious problem. I’m keeping the humidity up around 70 and put some damp moss in her hides. Obviously I’m not going to mess with it at all for the next two days since she just ate. But I’m wondering what to do after that. I’m inclined to just let it go. It seems like a lot of threads on this site talk about new snakes getting stressed and refusing food if they’re overhandled. There’s no doubt in my mind that she HATED the bath! And I feel like the washcloths were better but still a bit stressful.

What are people’s thoughts on this? I get the impression that there’s a bit of a range in how much people do about bad sheds. And in this case since she’s so young and so new I’m leery of over-handling her. Is there any risk from letting the shed stay as is for now and just focusing on keeping humidity up and keeping her happy and eating well?

PS - some of you may have noticed that our snake’s gender has changed since my first post. Actually Silmaril is almost certainly a “he” but we were initially told he was a “she” by a pet store staff person who didn’t realize that her “booty” was so curvaceous because she had just eaten a large meal. At this point however the kids are so committed to calling her she that I’ve decided not to fight it ...

Are you using a ceramic to heat up the Viv / rub ??

They're great from a heating standpoint buy in my experience they're a nightmare from a humidity angle .

I cope by simply spraying the Viv well , a few times daily when the snake is in shed and this seems to guarantee good sheds.


For this retained stubborn skin maybe just keep spraying daily and it will come off naturally especially if there's some branches in there .



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