Troublesome Snake Shed

[zero3803]

Hey guys,
I recently purchased (Sep 22, 2010) a small ball python from rcreptiles. She's a beautiful girl, and I couldn't be happier with my purchase. Her tank setup is as follows:

20 gallon long
UTH heating (90 warm side, ~76-78 cool side)
2 private hides (one on each side)
Log in the middle for climbing/security
water bowl
substrate of ~4 layers of paper towels.

Humidity is stable around 60-65% as checked with two calibrated digital hygrometers.

I noticed after ~4 days of having her, that she began shedding in small flakes. I checked the conditions in the tank, and everything seemed to be within good ranges. It has now been 12 days since she began shedding, and the majority of her body is free of skin with the exception of about 3 inches behind her head...a patch on the top of her head, and as far as I can tell both eyecaps. At the advice of Ron from rcreptiles, I've tried bathing her every couple days for 10 minutes to which she seems to do fine with. She tends to not stay in the water as much, and prefers climbing out into my hands. I have noticed the baths helped loosen up about 80% of her body, but theres still the problem of the head and eyecaps. I've tried kicking up the humidity to 75-80% overnight, but it hasn't seemed to help much at all.

Just wondering what would be the best course of action here. I hate to keep bathing her as I feel like it must be slightly stressful, but I'm not sure what to do.

For the record, my other snake (corn) has always shed fine in one piece, so this is a bit of a new issue for me.

I appreciate any help/advice anyone can offer.

Thank you,
David

[Willow]

considering she started to shed right after getting her, I wouldn't be to worried....sometimes an environment change can mess a snake's cycle up a little...continuing to soak her and mess with her everyday will be stressful on her...and bumping up her humidity along with the baths might even give her a RI

I really would suggest leaving her be...one layer of stuck shed behind her head isn't going to kill her...make sure everything is stable for her next shed and hope that she has a good shed for the second round....if you have issues at that point...consider her set up and make changes if need be

[bakew13]

I am by means no expert... however, I have a BP that used to have quite the shedding problem. The biggest concern of your post are the eye-caps. You want to make sure those come off in a timely manner. When my problem BP used to retain his eye-caps the way I found easiest to remove those was with a Q tip, some water, and a pair of tweezers. Get the Q tip wet with some water. Gently rub the wet Q tip on the retained eye-cap. Make sure it is well saturated. The more water the easier it will be. After the eye cap is moist, very SLOWLY start trying to peel off the cap using the tweezers ( try to find a loose edge somewhere near the eye.) If there is no skin near the eye to grasp with a tweezer, I have had success with a piece of scotch tape. However you MUST BE VERY CAREFUL if you use the scotch tape. Go very very slow and if it won't come easy don't force it. Just keep dabbing with water and a Q tip.

All other skin can be moistened and peeled off by hand or tweezer. To prevent bad sheds with my problem shedder, when I see him go "blue" I start increasing humidity and giving baths every other day until shed is complete. Also I find it helpful with screen top cages to put saran wrap over half the lid to help keep the humidity in. Hope this was some help, most important thing with the eye caps is be CAREFUL.

[JudyC]

I have to disagree with the whole eyecaps thing, as well as the advice to soak while they are blue.

The risk of damaging the eyes by trying to remove eyecaps (they may not even be there...inexperienced keepers often think they are stuck when they are not) far outweighs the risk of just leaving them alone to let the snake rub off in its own time. Especially when it is just one layer caused by a stress-induced shed.

Soaking while in blue can actually cause sheds to be more troublesome than if the snake was just left alone. The "blue" phase is caused by oils building up between the old skin and the new, getting the old skin ready to be sloughed off. Soaking in water can leach these oils away and make the shedding process more difficult.

I agree wholeheartedly with Willow. Just let her be and let her get settled into her new home. So long as you can maintain that level of humidity all the time and she has plenty of fresh water to drink...her next shed should be just fine and will remove any lingering bits from this one.