A bit of skin remains

[Toeboe]

HI,,,my full grown male amelanastic corn has just shed, but a small patch of old skin has not come away. I have tried the usual tricks to remove (soaking and easing), but it is not moving. I stopped trying as I was clearly agitating him. He is a big placid snake (5ft) so its not a problem gettin hold of him, but has anyone left old skin on without getting problems. He has never had this problem before.
Oh yes, and he hasnt fed for 3 months either, but he does this at this time of year.:confused:

[Iris]

Well I know if you leave old skin on the tip of the tail, it can cause the tip to die and fall off, leaving a stump.
WHere is this patch old skin?

[Toeboe]

Thanks for taking the time to reply, Iris ( I take it thats your name). The skin is on his side about half way down his length. I dont really have too much concern over him at the moment, but its just i have never had a piece of skin that i have had to leave in place before. I'm sure I'm not going to wake and find him with his middle missing,lol;)

[Tim Madsen]

This happening once is not a problem, if it doesn't come off with the next shed you will have to start looking for problems.IMHO

[Toeboe]

Cheers Tim,,,,any views on the fact he has not fed for 3-4 months. I'm not overly concerned just yet as he has done this before at about this time of year. He still is active and is not thin at all. I'll be giving him one more try on mice, then start looking to coax him with pinks soon.

[Tim Madsen]

I once had a hatchling go 3 months before it eat its first meal. I must tell you I was really worried. That snake is doing fine now and is a very robust adult snake. I tell you this as an example of how long they can go without eating. A snake going off feed this time of year is not something to be overly concerned about. As long as it doesn't start loosing weight I wouldn't worry. One thing you might think about is having a fecal exam done. It's always a good idea to know if there are any unwanted critters running around in your snakes gut. IMHO

[13mur 6]

Snakes going off food this time of year is a common occurance for a good reason too. 'Tis breeding season. :D

-13mur 6

[Tim Madsen]

Actually in the wild breeding season isn't until April or May throughout most of the cornsnakes range. If it's off feed this time of year its most likely because it thinks its time to brumate.IMHO

[moreptiles]

I think that you should make an effort to get the skin to come off. If you put the snake in a plastic container (for example about a 2 quart size rubbermaid or a shoebox) with damp spagnum moss and sufficient air holes, and leave this overnight, the skin will almost always loosen up and come off (unless the time from shedding is more than 10 days). Better yet is to cut an access hole in the container and leave this in the vivarium whenever the snake is ready to shed and the moisture in your house is low.

Snakes in the wild can go into different rodent holes, and find damp areas whenever they have a need. In a captive environment, it is nice if we give them something of this sort to allow them to properly regulate the moisture in the skin.

If the area of the unshed skin is more than 10% of the total skin area, then leaving this on can cause problems to the snake. From what I have heard, problems can include Kidney problems (due to excessive moisture loss) and possible fungal infection.

Mark

[Toeboe]

Thanks for all the replies so far, all worth reading. As he is a large snake and very placid in handling, I was able to try softening skin with warm water and cotton wool balls for an hour or so. It is only the size of a penny, but was firmly attached to the new scales. So much so that even after this length of time soaking, he was finching everytime I tried to ease it away with tweezers. I think I will leave alone now and monitor on a regular basis for any change in state around the area.
As I have also said, he is off his food, but very, active all of the time. Is This activity a sign of him wanting to search for a mate ?