?'s About Incomplete Shed

My '05 Opal seemed to start shedding a day or two ago. I missed the blue phase because I was giving her time to settle in since she refused her first two meals (she ate her most recent one on Oct. 21st).
Yesterday I noticed it looked like her skin was flaking so I assumed she was in shed, and put some moist paper towels in her sterilite overnight. Nothing this morning so I moistened things again and found only a few very small bits in her viv when I got home this evening.
I worked forever with her and a moist paper towel trying to assist her but it just wasn't helping much. Soaking her a bit seemed to help a somewhat. I ended up getting most of it off. The problem areas were around her head and neck. It is difficult to tell what has come off and what hasn't because of her colors. And it is tough to see if she retained her eye caps because of their color. They look normal, but I haven't seen them enough to be able to tell for sure. :shrugs:

Could there be any problems if not all of the skin came off around her head and neck?

And in case you're wondering humidity was ~60% and I haven't had problems before. I'm not sure why she had so much difficulty.

Update...

No more skin seemed to come off around her head area.

The tip of her nose seems to be fairly dry and rough. Could this be skin that didn't come off? Or maybe something else? :shrugs:

So, should I be worried?

I hate to have to triple post , but can anyone offer any advice on this. I am worried about the health of my pet and can't seem to find definite answers elsewhere. Thank you!

I'm very new, but I just did a forum search with "shedding problem" (use the quotes) and found several suggestions, including letting the snake slide through your hands while holding a warm, damp washcloth and making a moist hide with sphagnum moss.

Good luck, and hopefully someone with more experience can give you more tips.

Thank you for your reply. I have tried the wet cloth and moist hide tricks (after doing a search). Most of what is left is around the head/neck area (as far as I can tell, it's tough to see). I'm afraid to get too rough with her, and I'm also not too sure about forcibly submerging her head in water.
I appreciate your help!

The Pillowcase Trick

Have you tried the pillowcase trick? (I've used this method countless times on rough-shedding boids with a 100% success rate. It's fast, effective, and probably a lot less stressful. Of course, you may wish to use something smaller than a pillowcase for a little cornsnake. A small snake shipping bag should do the trick.)

Step one: Dampen a pillowcase in luke warm water.
Step two: Insert snake into pillowcase.
Step three: Tie the pillowcase closed.
Step four: Place pillowcase (with snake) inside snake enclosure.
Step five: Wait one hour.
Step six: Remove snake from pillowcase and marvel at its beauty.

Let me know if this helps at all.


Chris

make sure the warm side isn't too hot. if you're using a thermometer without a probe, the substrate temperature can be up to 5 degrees warmer than what the thermometer reads.