Hi,


Yes their eyes are VERY easily damaged when you try and do things like pull off retained eyecaps with stickytape!!

Things you could try are damp pillowcases full of damp shredded paper or moss so that when he crawls around it might rub it off. What are you using to measure the humidity?

One of my royals is very lazy about shedding and I occasionally help if she shown no inclination of finishing the job herself. Again its a job you need to be very carefull about especially around the sensitive areas.

Now before the next section - some important notes;

If it has been a while in dry conditions since she shed - don't
If she will probably shed in a month or less and you can raise humidity - don't
If you even suspect you will hurt your snake - please don't

Shed skin isn't normally a problem in a correct environment so you probably don't need to fix it - ask a vet for his opinion if you are in any doubt and if he thinks it should be ignored or left to him please beleive him over me.

If it's her head that is always left and not just the eye cap then start at the edge of the remaining shed (make sure she has been kept humid before trying this and occasionally mist with warm water - n.b. mine absolutely hate the spraying) and rub gently with the pad of your thumb.

If you can raise an edge then slowly and gently work it untill you are at the foremost part of the shed.

If the whole top of her head is left this will be just inside the edge of her mouth at her nose- sensitive so go slowly and never use too much pressure. If it isn't coming off easily then it probably isn't humid enough. The reason I said to start at a definate edge of unshed skin is that the last thing you want to find yourself doing is trying to rub the living skin off your snake.

Once you have the furthest forward bit of retained skin lifted begin slowly rubbing it backwards like removing a sock - remember and slow down for the pits and eyes and nostrils and be extra gentle. When you reach the eyes its best if you never touch them at all frankly. Use the peice of skin removed from the previous bit and pull very softly backwards in the direction of the tail watching the eyes carefully and misting as required. If at any time you even suspect the eyes are "bugging out" or pulling in the sockets -STOP.

As you may have gathered I don't really think you should be trying to remove it like this 99% of the time. But there is always the other 1% so I thought I'd write down how I do it in case you can't find the information elsewhere or get in contact with a vet.



dr del