Bad shed due to...??

[alyssa_lennon]

Hi everyone! After 1 month and a half, my baby ball python shed for the first time since I've had him. And it was a bad shed, though he got most of it off, there's still some of it which he has not been able to get rid of. I am planning on soaking him asap so as to help him get rif of it. My question is... what can cause a bad shed?? Humidity is ALWAYS above 80%-85% since I live in a very humid country. Also, he does not seems stressed at all... any ideas??

Thanks guys!

[spaceturtle]

I'm having the same problem right now. My new ball got the back end of his stuff off but the head and neck are still on. I think they are supposed to rub their noses against stuff in their enclosure and then shed completely starting from there. My snake hasnt done that yet his skin is almost falling off.

[Mochelem]

I live in a very humid location also, but just because its humid outside doesnt mean its humid inside your home.. You need to get a hygrometer and see how humid it is insode your enclosure. Bad sheds most of the time are caused by low humidity... i would check your settings and make sure.... When you heat an area like an enclosure it can make the humidity drop inside the enclosure....

[alyssa_lennon]

I live in a very humid location also, but just because its humid outside doesnt mean its humid inside your home.. You need to get a hygrometer and see how humid it is insode your enclosure. Bad sheds most of the time are caused by low humidity... i would check your settings and make sure.... When you heat an area like an enclosure it can make the humidity drop inside the enclosure....

I have a hygrometer, and it is very humid inside the enclosure, even more humid than outside

[Mike Schultz]

Maybe your snake is just... special?

Not sure though in all honesty. Seems like things are good (although 85% humidity seems a little too high to me, in general)

[alyssa_lennon]

Yes, I know, but there's nothing I can do about that. As long as I am careful with the hygene on the tub, the snake will be fine.

Any more thoughts.... please???

[littleindiangirl]

I found that my pastel BP when we first got him had several tough sheds. He was just a youngin, maybe 200 grams. Well, we had him in a rack with what seemed to be perfect humidity. He still always had really tough sheds.

The only thing we found to remotely work was to not soak while he was in blue, and to just mist his tub after he cleared the blue stage. We did it morning and night for that week leading up to a shed. He hasn't had the tough sheds since we started this with him, but he always managed to leave some on his head and neck. Nothing like it was though.

He was the only one who had such a hard time shedding! Everyone else in the tub was perfect! Lol, he just likes to cause trouble for me


On the bright side, he has gotten very good about me touching his head! I prefer the soak and rub method myself. I soak him in the warm water, then I use the terry cloth washcloth to get the rest of the stuck shed off. He doesn't mind it at all anymore.

[frankykeno]

That is pretty high humidity to have all the time. I'm assuming you've done all you can as far as good ventilation for this enclosure and are watching carefully for dripping condensation. I've been told that it's one thing to have seasonally high humidity and quite another to have dripping condensation so just watch for that.

As far as the bad shed, you've only had the snake about 6 weeks and this is his first shed with you. It can take a snake awhile to settle in to a new husbandry routine and get all set in it's routines. Also if it wasn't cared for really well before you got it, well that takes time to recover from too.

We have a couple of great threads here. This one is on the whole shedding process.....

http://www.ball-pythons.net/forums/s...ad.php?t=28794

This one is on what to do if the shed goes wrong.....

http://www.ball-pythons.net/forums/s...ad.php?t=43403

Personally we only soak a snake after it has a bad shed, not during the shedding process or as a normal part of our husbandry routines. Kept properly most healthy snakes will shed naturally and with little to no assistance from us. From what I understand of ecdysis (shedding) soaking a snake during shed can actually encourage a poor shed since it can leech out the needed liquid from between the layers of old and new skin by the process of osmosis. That layer of liquid helps the snake slip off it's shed easily so soaking can interrupt that process and actually create the situation you are trying to avoid in the first place.

[alyssa_lennon]

Thanks for your replies guys. Yes, I've done everything I can in order to keep humidity down, but as the ambient humidity is so high, there is not much I can do. I've drilled countless holes in the tub, and it's not helped much. I keep it very clean and I change the paper towels two times a week.

The snake was perfectly kept when I purchased it since I got it from the only breeder down here, and he's very responsible. No complaints there. I guess I was just wandering what can cause a bad shed other than low humidity.

I know better than to soak when the bp is in blue, I've done my research.

Thank you very much =)

[halfwaynowhere]

i just dealt with a bad shed yesterday... humidity was between 60%-70%. I woke up yesterday to find Eve had started to shed, the part around her mouth was up. She looked kind of gross and wrinkly, but being my first shed, I didn't think too much of it. 10 hours later, no progress. I soaked her for a few minutes, and increased the humidity in her tub for the night. Woke up to find that she had gotten about half the old skin off, in pieces... i helped her out of the rest this morning (I've done this a few times with my sister's snakes, not a big deal), and she seems fine...
I just thought it was weird, her temps and humidity were fine (humidity is a little high for my liking, i need to add more holes in the tub, but too high shouldn't cause a bad shed). Glad I'm not alone. I was hoping to save my first shed, what with her being my first snake and all.