Whole head skin stuck after shed *2 days of frustration*

[HaleBug]

Hey guys,
My snake had a couple tough sheds recently because they happened both times while I was out of town and I couldn't monitor his humidity. poor guy

Anyway I was determined to make this most recent shed as easy on him as possible. I kept my humidity at 70% and was very diligent.

He shed perfectly except for some of the skin on the top of his head. It starts at his nose and goes back about 1.5 inches. His eyes haven't shed and his eyeball is dented badly and he just seems bummed. As do I.

I soaked him yesterday and today. He just doesn't seem like he wants to bother with the piece he missed. After his soak today I tried to see if I could peel it off gently but
a) it's on his head, and although he's really tame, he doesn't like having his head manhandled
b) I don't want to hurt him by pulling roughly in his skin. If it were very loose thats one thing, but its really stuck on there with no loose edges or anything.

Should I just keep soaking and hope it comes off by itself? I feel bad for his denty eyeball.

Thanks guys!

[blackcrystal22]

Soak him in luke warm/room temp water, and leave him in the tub in his enclosure for an hour. Do this until it comes off, and to get it off, rub gently with a damp towel on his head. You will probably have to restrain him. ;]

[truthsdeceit]

Yeah, take a warm wet towel and just keep gently running it over his head.

And when I say wet I mean soaking if you're not sopping wet when your done then it wasn't wet enough. I just crawled into the bathtub with my snake last time this happened and worked steadily with a towel till it was done. Dip the towel, Rub over head, Repeat.

But make sure your water isn't chlorinated or anything cause soaking can make the next shed worse if the water is all chemically.

[HaleBug]

Thanks guys. I'll go give that a shot now.

[hawaiianice99]

yes you need to get the head piece off, especially if the eyecaps are still attatched. leaving the eyecaps can lead to your snake going blind.

[starmom]

yes you need to get the head piece off, especially if the eyecaps are still attatched. leaving the eyecaps can lead to your snake going blind.

How? They typically shed off the retained eye caps during the next shed....

[FatBoy]

If you still have trouble messing with his head you can put him in a soaking wet pillow case. Tie the case up and put him back in his enclosure. As he tries to escape the bag he should shed himself.

[hawaiianice99]

How? They typically shed off the retained eye caps during the next shed....

true they can, but not if they are consistantly have problems shedding. The constant build up of eye caps can lead to blindness.

not saying this snake is going to go blind, most often occurs in cases where the snake is repeatedly neglected.

[BigCeC43]

This recently happened to me.

The wet towel trick worked fine, but it takes persistence and a lot of patience, lol.

I sat him on my lap with a small wet towel. I never really put too much force on him...just kinda 1) folded the towel around him so he had to push his way out, 2) let him crawl on my leg while gently brushing my hand back over his head with my hand covered the towel obviously.

I tried to grab him to keep him still while I did this,but there was no shot. It was much easier to let him cruise around. I he was crawling one way I made sure he had a little bit of resistence from the wet towel to push through.

I continually soaked it in warm water, figuring he wouldn't appreciate a cold bath.

Needless to say it worked, and believe it or not... by the end he realized what I was trying to do and he was voluatarily sliding his face acrosse my towel covered hand... quite the bonding experince

p.s. this took two seperate attempts (one for each side of his head)

[ohyeahnow]

Retained eyecaps can be a problem. If I am reading correct, is this the second time he retained his eyecaps? If this is his second time I would seek help sooner than latter, as retained eyecaps can lead to bacterial infection.

If you are going to soak him, I would try and fine a small tub (with breathing holes) to place him, and keep in on the cool side of the tank. This would keep him from escaping. You can add a few warm washclothes or thick paper towels, but I would keep the amount of water to a minimum. I have uesd a pillow case in a tub before, with few important notes: 1) a low thread count on the case to allow for air. 2) very little water. 3) under supervision. These three points are for the safety of the snake.

On future sheds, adding a humid hide with sphagum moss should help with this problem in the future, even if away for a few days. Bump the humidity up for sheds to 60-70%. I have used a humid hide on all but two sheds. The first shed: incomplete. The second shed: never saw the blue eyes, just notice a complete shed, but humidity never drops bellow 52% now with an average of 58%

If you are having humidity issues, describe your set up and some can help you out with that and/or a hide box. I also add a little sphagnum moss on the hot side in the cornor to my aspen to help hold moisture. I use an aquarium, and designed a way to hold in humidty and keep the ambient heat up.

See if you can find a way to get the caps off safely. I have never had them stick, but IMO if it happened twice and both sheds caps are still there, I would seek help if these methods do not work.

Good luck, and follow some of the advice above, and furure sheds should be better.