Help with sheading

[metalheadvette]

I was just wondering if someone could help me. I have corn snake that is having trouble shedding. She is only about 7 months old. My friend got her for me and he said when she had her first shed she had problems. I have tried putting wet cloth into her cage and tried letting her crawl through a wet towel. some have came off but not all. the shed starts right up by her head. could someone please give me some advise?

[Shimmer]

I don't know what methods more experienced people use but the trick I found that worked with my awkward hatchling*she never shed competely,ever till she got to about 3 years old and yet her tank mates did perfectly :shrugs:* was to let her have a little swim in a luke warmish dish of water like a tupperware dish pop them in with a lid with a few holes in for ventilation for no more than 5 mins at a time,its hard work swimming for them I also used to have a rock in there so she could get out if she liked,then get her out and let her crawl over a rough towel or very gently peel the *what should be loosened dead skin*if it resists then let her soak for a few more mins and try again and make sure you get the tail tip or she might have a problem of the dead skin constricting her tail and basically killing the tip of the tail,I speak from experience :cry: peeling the skin sounds awful but it doesn't seem to hurt them and they don't seem to mind in fact my lil one seemed to quite enjoy her little pampering session :) hope this helps

[pcar]

Shimmer hit the nail on the head.

Let your little one soak for a while in warm water, should still feel cool to your touch. If you want to be accurate, use a thermometer and make the water about 85 degrees F. After the soak, let the snake slither through either wet paper towels or a bath towel that you are holding in your hand. Apply slight pressure to the towel as the snake crawls through and you should start to see the shed peel back.

Now, lets try and get to the bottom of why your snake is having shedding problems. We will need to know, viv Temps, humidity, substrate, size of water dish, type of heat source, If you mist the tank, and anything else that you think might be pertinant.

[metalheadvette]

Well i did let her soak in a small tank of water but not it didnt seem like to much help. the water dish is about an inch and a half in diamater. the temp stays about 80. i do not mist the tank. The heat source is a heat lamp, dont know the exact watts right now. ANything else?

[pcar]

well, first of all, a heat lamp will dry out the air in a viv. Might be one source of your problem. Second, how deep is the water dish? Is it big enough for your snake to submerge its entire body in the water? If not, you need a bigger water dish. Temps sound ok. Do you have a heat gradient? It is recomended that you have a temp gradient of 82 to 85 on the hot side, and the cool side about 5 degrees lower. Then you put the water dish on the cool side.

To provide correct belly heat, you might want to look into a UTH (Under Tank Heater). This will help with digestion, and will help you create the proper temp gradient.

the misting is a personal call. not everyone does it, but some do. Mist the tank once or twice a day during the blue phase to help keep humidity up. You can also create more humidity by covering half of the top of the viv with plastic or towels or something to keep any evaporated water in the air inside the viv.

Hope this all helps.

[metalheadvette]

Thanks, ill try to do some of your sugestions. Anything to help her.

[pcar]

not a problem. That is what we are here for. Try some of the things out, and see what happens.

Have you been able to get all of the old skin off her yet? If not, you might still want to work at that. Having unshed skin on a snake is not good and can be fatal. I lost a snake because of that about 3 years ago.