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Shed questions

S

Snoopysmom

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Hi all,
My Eastern Milk Snake is not shedding properly. The skin to be shed is not coming off in one piece and in many areas not wanting to come off at all. I soaked him for about 15 min yesterday in the hopes that would help and it did a little. Yesterday he acted real sluggish but today he is acting a little more perky. Question is... how long can this go before it is detrimental to the snake? What can I do to help?

I put a call in to our local herp vet. His suggestion (through the secretary) was to put a UVB light on the cage. :shrug01: In any case, he wouldn't be able to see him until tomorrow evening.

Any suggestions?

Thanks
 
Some people have success by putting the snake in a pillow case with a warm damp towel inside, tieing it off and putting it in the cage for an hour or two, then trying to work the dead skin off.
 
Yes, I wasn't real impressed with the suggestion. Unfortunately, he is the only vet in the area that will take any form of exotics that I have found. I haven't had to use him yet.

I was thinking of trying this out.... maybe I just didn't soak long enough? The snake is still small... a little over 12 inches long.
 
That should work too, the only thing I was thinking is if you put some kind of towel (or other material) for the snake to move through, it could help to get the dead skin off while it's being treated. Best of luck!
 
TheFragginDragon said:
First suggestion - get a new herp vet. UVB isn't going to have an effect on the snakes ability to shed.
Click to expand...

Yeah, this seems to be the standard BS "I don't know what I'm talking about" answer. "Go get a UV bulb"

I'd so much rather a vet tell me that they're just not sure than to throw some crap at me that's not going to do any good and just cost me more money.
 
Yah! It worked! I put him in a smaller container with about 1/4 inch of water then put him near the warm side of his tank. An hour later I checked and nothing had happened but the skin was much looser. I found a smallish rock and put it in there with him... and a hour later he had shed everything but his head. I got the tweezers out and helped with that. Thank goodness!

Now, why do you suppose he didn't shed properly to begin with? The humidity in the house has been lower than normal since we turned on the AC and the other suggestion was a vitamin deficiency of some sort.
 
Excellent news! I would guess the problem is the lower humidity due to the AC being on. What kind of caging are you using? The answer will help determine the best way to solve the humidity issue.
 
You beat me to it...

I don't know what the humidity levels should be for your milk snake, but that would be where I'd start.
What kind of housing do you have him in? If it is an aquarium, they are notorious for not holding heat/humidity, so you would just need to compensate. When I had any in tanks, I would put the water bowl underneath the light and cover the rest of the top of the tank with a towel or newspaper. That helped hold in more heat & humidity.

UVB light...really? :rofl:
 
He is in a 10 gal aquarium. He has under tank heating on one side so I have not used a heat light. The AC has been off the last couple of days since the weather has been on the cooler side... maybe that will help. I can always put the water dish on the warm side of the tank but that always seemed to make it too humid. Maybe just cover 1/2 of the top? Put in some damp paper towel in a dish when I notice him going into a shed?
 
Do you have a hygrometer to tell you what the humidity level is?
Do you know what it should be?
Guessing on your temp & humidity levels can lead to more than just shedding problems.
Once you have the answers & put them to use you won't have to worry.
Glad to hear that the previous shed problem is taken care of!
 
It's always fun to throw in personal experiences that will confuse things, so here goes...
I've got a hypomelanistic bullsnake that has never, in her almost three years here, had a decent shed by herself*. She's always been in a tub, and it doesn't matter what substrate I use. I can start soaking her daily from the time I notice a coming shed, and it doesn't help. Heck, I've left her in water for 4 days....

I do have to admit that on 2 (and only 2) occasions, after I got her well started, I put her in water & she managed to complete the shed herself.
I also have to admit that since she doesn't really go opaque, I have missed shed cycles on several occasions - resulting in having to peel off 2-4 layers when I figure it out (which is when she stops feeding).

With THIS girl, it isn't humidity related.
*never had a decent shed* - lol...the most she has ever done by herself was to get her head done.
 
I do have a temp and humidity gage. I had been keeping his cage about the same as my kingsnakes... around 50%. I have read that milk snakes may need extra humidity (like 60% or so) during a shed. I will have to try to adjust it when I notice him going into a shed.
 
Here's a question....

I see many cage set ups with generally soft substrates and smooth water bowls and hides. Don't snakes need something a little rough to snag a starting shed on? I have some rough pieces of wood and rocks in the tanks for this purpose and don't generally have a problem. I know humidity is the most important factor, but think this could help.

When I have have a snake with an incomplete shed I've found it helpful to soak it and then let it crawl through a damp towel held in my hands: that seems to work.
 
Hello

Hello,

What I normally do is when I notice our ball getting ready to go into his "shed phase" I will move the water dish to on top of a portion of his undertank heater so it will increase the humidity to around 70-80% for roughly 1-2 weeks.
Once he has shed, we move the water dish back off of the heater & the humidity decreases to around 40%.
He is 3 & this has worked with no complications. He has never had a problem shedding or had a respiratory infection. The slight increase for short term of humidity helps tremendously.
Of course, we have a couple of rough lava rocks in the tank as well.
I hope this helps out.

Tracie
 
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