Shed questions

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. In any case, he wouldn't be able to see him until tomorrow evening.

Any suggestions?

Thanks

First suggestion - get a new herp vet. UVB isn't going to have an effect on the snakes ability to shed.

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.

sorry, forgot to ad the link.

http://www.applegatereptiles.com/art...okshedding.htm

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!

Originally Posted by TheFragginDragon

First suggestion - get a new herp vet. UVB isn't going to have an effect on the snakes ability to shed.

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.

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?