Awkward behavior

[starmom]

Everything sounds just about right to me. I've found that Ball Pythons (mine, at least) do not like to feed, move around too much, or be handled at all before a shed. From what I understand, the skin feels really tight, almost like a bad sunburn, before a shed, so you can imagine how uncomfortable it might be for her to really be doing anything.

In the future, make sure to raise the humidity in the tank to allow for a comfortable, complete shed. As soon as I notice my BP's eyes turning (they'll become very blue and cloudy) a couple of days before a shed, I'll soak her once a day in a warm bath until her eyes are back to normal, and I'll also spray her tank down with some water.

And I also suggest feeding your BP only once she has gotten rid of her last meal, if you know what I mean. I know that mine shows absolutely no interest in food until she has gone number two, even if it takes her well over a couple of weeks to a month to do so, then she's out and about and all over the tank, ready to hunt. So. Good luck.

Well, every snake is different and sometimes the same snake is different!!

I don't raise my humidity and instead keep it at a relatively steady 55% humidity. My snakes shed fine!

Last night I fed and this morning my albino shed. She ate last night and hasn't poo'd yet and still ate an 80g rat!!

I don't like to soak before a shed as soaking can leach the natural oils out of the skin and lead to a poor shed.

As for not feeding until they poo...naw!! My older and larger snakes don't poo all that much and if I waited for the momentous event, they'd really be very, very hungry!!

Just my thoughts and experiences with my own snakes....