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Shedding questions?

J

Jessclarke

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I really thought I knew a good deal about snakes when I got this one. I was raised with them, but I can't seem get this one right. The last 2 sheds have left the eye scales on my ball. When he starts to shed, I move his water bowl (which is plenty big enough for him to get into although I've never seen him in it) over the UTH so that the humidity rises. He has paper in his tank so I'm not sure how that holds humidity. I've read about Cypress and Care Fresh. Will that help? He's 27" long and eats 2 sm/med mice every 2 weeks. He's growing well and he's healthy but I don't know what else to do. I've also tried Shed Ease to moisturize the scales but that doesn't seem to help too much. he's got a great big branch to rub up against and there's always skin on it but he's NEVER shed in one piece. I'm obviously doing something wrong. Any advice would be helpful. Thanks.

Jess
 
Raise your humidity.

You can buy a humidity guage at almost any petstore, and probably from a hardware store.

If you will post all the details of your enclosure someone can suggest a solution more accurately.

Linda
 
Monty is 27 in. lone and right now he's in a 10 gal. tank ( a bigger wooden enclosure is being built) and I use newspaper as his substrate. he's got a great big branch in there to rub against. He doesn't have a hide b/c there is no room. His bowl is big enough for him to curl up in although I've never seen him do it. I did put him in it to make sure. He eats 2 sm-med mice every 2 weeks. I don't know what else to tell you.

Jess
 
I have a reptile rescue and I've had quite a few ball pythons that just don't shed right. You can put him in a container (or his tank) with a wet towel, then when he goes through the towel it usually will take off those extra pieces of shed. Or, if you know what you're doing, you can spray him with warm water and soak those pieces very good, then very slowly start pulling the skin off. As for the eyes, try putting some mineral oil on them, (don't get any in his nose) let it sit , then take a Q-tip and roll it along the outer edge of the eye and see if the edge comes up. Be VERY CAREFUL with the eyes! If this doesn't work, I would leave it alone until next shed. When he gets ready to shed next time, spray him with water several times to help him. One more thing, I've HEARD that a wooden enclosure is very bad if you want humidity, but I don't know from experience as I've always used glass tanks. I hope some of this helps you, I know how frustrating it is to look in the tank and see bits of skin instead of one nice big skin in one piece. I've noticed that babies seem to have a harder time than adults. Oh, one more thing, paper towels might be better for humidity than just regular paper.

Good luck.....Debbie
 
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