Incomplete tail shed, how common?

Just a question I'm asking out of curiosity, no major issues here.

How common are incomplete tail sheds/tail segment loss, right at the very tip?

I was helping a friend slowly moisten and roll the old shed off the very tip of the tail of a young corn, but it must have been there for a while. To my surprise, pop!--off came about 3-4mm of the end of the tail. The very end was white and clean, it just doesn't have a scale there now.

And of course when inspecting my snakes afterwards (3 of which I didn't get as babies) and all three have the same white tipped end. Must have had the same thing happen at some point in their lives.

Makes me think it's very very common for the tip of a tail to be lost as the snake matures.

It is common, but it is from lack of care and attention, not because it is supposed to happen. I have older corns with tails that come to a perfect point, after they shed check them from head to tail for any stuck shed and help get it off with the method you are using with your friend.

Every feed each of the beasties get a tip to tail checkup, from the clarity on their eyes to the tail tip and everything in between. I document everything in a notebook, from feeding to shedding and anything notable. This helps me keep track of what is going on with each kiddo.

Retaining the tail tip of a shed is fairly common. I always check my snakes very thoroughly after a shed to make sure it all came off. Losing just the tiny tip of the tail from multiple retained sheds should not detrimental for the snake, but I would still try to avoid it!

I check them too, I was just startled to see that 3 of my snakes appear to have lost a very tiny section of tail in their childhood! I wonder how common this is at pet stores, I'd like to inspect the snakes sold near me and see...

Yeah I'm not worried about it being harmful to them. My snakes are all healthy and the young snake belonging to my friend doesn't act any differently either.

Obviously if a larger piece had been lost, or if unshed skin was constricting blood flow to a larger area I would have been more concerned. I made sure to have my friend dab neopsporin on the tip of the tail a few times following the incident to be safe regardless of how healthy it looked.

I like the way tiny snakes have super long and thin tapered tails, now I'm just mad that someone didn't take care of my snakes before they were my snakes >:/

How do you tell if your snake has retained shed on their tail? I have a hatching right now and the very tip of her tail is black. Would this be retained shed? Or is it just because she is a tessera?

I don't know how it will be on different snakes, but on mine it was like the dead skin from a bad sunburn. You could tell there was a thin layer of something whitish/clearish on the end of the tail, and if you rubbed it the skin would start to pull away a bit (again like a sunburn)

JellOh said:

How do you tell if your snake has retained shed on their tail? I have a hatching right now and the very tip of her tail is black. Would this be retained shed? Or is it just because she is a tessera?

Click to expand...

You should be able to tell by looking at it, it would appear as slightly lighter due to the layer(s) of skin and usually it's pretty obvious. Exact same look as retained shed anywhere else on the body.

I'm not sure about your snake in particular, but it all depends on what kind of black you're describing. Obviously if it's part of your snakes markings it's no big deal, but when retained skin is left on the tail it becomes tight and constricts blood flow, eventually causing the tip to die, become black, and fall off. Or worse if it's a large section, but I presume you would have noticed that.

If you can toss a photo of the tail up it should be fairly easy to tell.

Also, you'd be able to feel the slight ridge where retained skin begins if you let the snake slide through your fingertips.

Thank you guys! I will definitely post a picture once she is finished digesting, but from what I saw before it sounds like her tail just has a small black tip.

Alrighty, this has taken way longer than it should have, but here is Savvy's tail. I've tried doing the wet paper towel trick, but nothing happened...

Opps, sorry. Let me try that again...

All right, lets give this one more shot :/