New blood possible problems

[NateDogg13]

I just got a male sumatran blood at the NWCB Expo in Portland and some things I didnt notice that well when I got him. Hes about 1.5 ft and it looks like some retained skin on his nose. Hes just about to shed so should I leave it on or should I try to take it off? Ive heard that retained skin can be deadly for juvenile bloods.

Also one of his eye caps are dimpling. I didnt notice it til yesterday because I left him in his tub to settle for a few days and Im just now giving him the thorough inspection. His humidity stays pretty constant at 60 right now. I was thinking about upping it another 5 for his shed. The guy I got him from told me to keep the humidity around 70 but I read that was a little high and can cause dimpling. Should I raise his humidity, keep it the same or lower it a little bit? Temps are also 79-82 on the cool side and 86-89. Basking at 92. Are the temps ok as well?

[littleindiangirl]

Something I've seen alot of blood owners do is flip a hide upside down, and fill it with damp sphagnum moss for the blood to hang out in. I believe both VPI and nerd keep their bloods at 60% ambient, but if he's due to shed, you can up it to 65-70%.
As for the retained shed, is it only on the nose? You can soak him in a tub just like you do with BP's for a half an hour to an hour, and run him through a warm wet terry cloth wash cloth to get it off.
It's true that too much humidity can cause dimpling. Here's what VPI has to say on temperature and humidity:

As a general starting point, blood pythons seem to do best if kept in the low-to-mid 80s degrees F. We keep most of our blood pythons at 80-82 degrees F in the day and 78-80 degrees F at night. Most of the time our blood pythons do not have a basking spot available to them. When we do provide a heated basking spot, it is 86-88 degrees F.

If recently fed, blood pythons should not be subjected to temperatures more than 90 degrees F or below 78 degrees F. When empty of food, blood pythons are tolerant of a wider range of temperatures. It does appear that this species is less tolerant of cool temperatures than most pythons; they do fine in the 70s, but we rarely expose them to temperatures below 75 degrees F.
We have found that the best course of action is to strive to create 60%-70% ambient humidity inside the cages of blood pythons, with any variation toward lower humidity. In fact, this is about the "normal" amount of humidity present in most snake cages with open water bowls. We ignore some dimpling of the dorsal scales and spectacles. It is a good practice to soak blood pythons for several hours in 80 degree every once in a while; many blood pythons do like a good soak. We closely monitor the shedding schedules of the snakes, so that we can increase the humidity in the cage several days before a shed.

[Laooda]

Hi! If it were me, because you said he's about to shed, I'd just keep a close eye on him. I wouldn't try removing the shed... and defiantly not the eye cap...

It sounds like your doing all the right stuff! There is a great care sheet for Bloods here... More times than not a bit of retained shed will come off with the next shed... if not, search the threads... there are great reads on soaking... Might not hurt to mist him a tad every other day.
Hopefully someone else will chime in

Best of luck! Congrats on the new baby!

edit: HAHA!!! Connie beat me to it! Great tips!

[littleindiangirl]

Haha! I can stop time with my mind and post before anyone!!

[littleindiangirl]

Oh yea, and where are the pics of this sumatran eh? Holding out on us??

[NateDogg13]

Im goin to post the pics after he sheds. I havent even had him a full week and hes already shedding so I dont even know how bright hes going to be. Ill post pics after he does. thanks for the tips. Im going to keep an eye on him for the next few days and see how everything goes.