Shedding Question

[Bogertophis]

I hate to bump my own thread, but I wanted to touch back on this with some of you folks that have been helping me with essentially everything lol.

So last Wednesday when I posted this, my BP was visibly in shed and had gotten all his head shed, eye caps and all, off but not the rest of his body. As of yesterday, he's gotten bits and pieces off, but the bulk of his body is still covered in shed. We're now on Monday, and I guess I'm just wondering how long I should let it go before I intervene and start soaking/doing the pillow case trick? Again, I apologize for semi-freaking out about these stuff, this is just his first shed with me and it does not appear to be going well. The humidity right now is sitting at 92 on the cool end, 57 on the warm end, but I just misted this morning so, those numbers aren't the typical.

I really thought I had done a good job keeping the humidity in at least the 60% range but apparently I hadn't. Any advice? Should I leave him alone for the week and just see how he does? The good news is even in shed Friday, he ate like a champ, that's 4 feedings in a row (knock on wood.)

For future reference, if you want to avoid messing up a snake's shed, do NOT feed them when they're in blue. Sometimes it's hard to tell, but not if you use a flashlight across their eyes in a darkened room...you'll see them beginning to fog (go "blue"). Not all snakes have trouble eating & shedding at the same time but many do...especially when the meal comes early in their shed cycle, when it's hardest for you to tell. So pay attention, unless you enjoy helping your snake shed a zillion little pieces (& yes, you need to help yours, it won't get any easier, he won't get it done by himself now).

Here's what happens: both shedding and digestion require good hydration from the snake's body. It's not merely just one drink of water... So basically your snake is having trouble with "multi-tasking"...his body did not have enough water (internally, not the misting & humidity) to shed properly AND digest at the same time. Best to avoid this in the future, now you know...do help him shed. The longer you leave old shed skin, the dryer & harder to get off it becomes. Get it done...a shallow soak or wet pillow case, & some manual labor from you, lol.