Won a ball python in a raffle. Whoops.

I entered a raffle at my go-to LPS last week, hoping to win a gift card or a new cage. Instead, I won a female mojave ball python (which wasn't one of the prizes when I entered--they just added more prizes later to get more people to buy tickets).

So I set up a viv and decided to give her a week of acclimation time, as I'd do with a new corn. About 4-5 days into that week, I noticed bits of shed, so I looked in her hide (which she'd been in for the whole time--ah, ball pythons!), and noticed she'd shed from her head and about 1/4 of her body. The rest hadn't come off (eyecaps are off, though, so thank gawd for that). Since then, I've been misting the tank every morning and evening, swapped out her regular warm hide for one of those more enclosed repti-shelters filled with moist sphagnum moss (which smells! I had no idea!), added a branch with more rough edges to snag the skin, and gave her a bigger water dish that she can completely curl up in.

It's been 3 days, and so far there's been no real progress. A few small pieces of shed have flaked off, but 3/4 of her body is still basically wearing old skin. I haven't seen her go in the water dish, and I she won't go back into the moist hide (maybe the smell bothers her, too?).

When should I get worried? Should I soak her in warm water? For how long/how deep/how warm?

Neither of my cornsnakes has ever had a bad shed, so I'm not really familiar with the troubleshooting here.

I knew I should've just turned down the prize. But from what I've seen, female mojaves can go for $200+, so I didn't want to pass this up.

the towel trick works on them as well... She will be uncomfortable with the shed on, they are normally hardy animals very much like corns... So I think she would be happier with a towel treatment, or you can do what I do with gardening gloves the rougher kind and just let her slitter around your hands as well.. You have already tried the normal stuff, help her now and afterwards with a legit set up chances are next shed will go better..

Oh And Congratulations to your price!! lol (im slow at times)

I have a ball python trouble shooting guide down in my personal forum on this site, as a sticky.

Soak her like you would a corn and have her slider through a pillow case or towel.

I love my ball Python and find he's lower maintenance than my corn but is pretty inactive the majority of the time.

Nanci said:

I have a ball python trouble shooting guide down in my personal forum on this site, as a sticky.

Click to expand...

How do I find your personal forum? I'm using Tapatalk, so navigation is a little weird. Still getting used to it.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

I don't use Tapatalk, so can't help you there but the thread is located here.
http://www.cornsnakes.com/forums/showthread.php?t=128897

Tavia said:

I don't use Tapatalk, so can't help you there but the thread is located here.
http://www.cornsnakes.com/forums/showthread.php?t=128897

Click to expand...

Thanks, Tavia! Tapatalk is proving to be a pain, but it does make it a little easier to read this forum on mobile. :/

Nanci, that primer was awesome. I would've done more research about BPs before if I had known I was gonna win one. Like I said, the raffle was originally just for gift cards, cages, and feeders.

Thanks to everyone else who replied, too.

I've bought some cheap shop towels and some rough latex work gloves. I'll give her another night to try to get the shed off on her own. If she hasn't shed by tomorrow morning, I'll give her a soak in lukewarm water for an hour, then let her slither around in my hands while I wear the gloves. I hope she lets me. Since I only just got her, I haven't handled her except for the initial once-over and weighing-in.

To navigate on Tapatalk, first get to the actual forum you want, like Cornsnakes.com. Then touch the three lines in the upper left corner, then Forums, then the section you want- Cornsnake Forums, Classifieds, Member Forums, etc. Then the subsection.

Or, from that first page, you can choose to read unread, messages, etc.

I think you'll like it once you get used to it. So much better than scrolling around, and uploading photos is sooooo easy!

One more question. It's been unusually cold (and wet) here in Los Angeles, and the cages (for the new BP and for my corn) have been in the 50s overnight and mid-60s during the day in my apartment. Their warm sides are fine, but I don't want them to be restricted to their warm hides for possibly weeks, especially the BP since they require warmer temps. I bought a halogen mini dome light and stuck a 50W red light into it (although on first look, it's brighter than I thought--might switch to a ceramic heater or it'll keep me up at night). My UTHs are plugged into thermostats. But I heard that constantly turning lamps on and off (from the thermostat kicking in and out) is really bad for the bulbs. Would it be better to get a separate rheostat for the lamp?

Yes. It will significantly shorten the life of the bulbs if they're turned on and off constantly.

I love CHEs. And you could get a proportional thermostat for it, so it isn't off and on, it's just steady.

A little update:

I soaked her for an hour in warm water yesterday and today, both times with rough terry cloth towels in the tub so she could slither around in them (although basically she just sat on top of them). Yesterday, I scrubbed her with the towels; today, I kinda rubbed her while wearing rough latex gloves from Home Depot. Most of the shed is gone, including the eyecaps and the tail tip. Now there's just a stubborn 3-inch patch on her back. I tried pulling it off, but she is just losing patience with me and getting really pissed off.

Does anyone have any other suggestions?

Is this a common problem with BPs?! Cuz I'm getting fed up with this. If I didn't have the week off from work, I would've given up a long time ago and given her back to the pet store where I got her. :headbang:

I should just stick with corn snakes.

I don't know if it's common. But I've seen breeders' ball pythons with shed stuck on them. I assume if the shed isn't going to constrict anything, you should just try yo remove it when you have time

Its very very common for them to have some areas with shed. Do NOT ever pull it off. It will most likely come off with the next shed. If it isn't a full ring around the snake, its nothing to worry about. The only time to worry is if it's wrapped around the snake's body. Congrats on the ball, they're amazing pets. I have four ATM and I plan on getting more. If you really don't want to continue with her, I could take her off your hands for you LOL! But patience is key. That goes for most reptiles actually. But your dilemma is nothing to worry about. Try to bump up the humidity for a few days to a week to get the skin to loosen up.

I have found that if you raise the humidity it will allow for a cleaner, more complete shed. As soon as the heat came on in my house, the humidity dropped like a rock. So i used all the suggestions i learned from this forum, and I raised it from 20 to between 40-45% and use a hand mister to raise it to 60%during shed for my corn. My new Ball Python is set up the same way but his humidity would never go higher then 50% so i added a reptifog, fogger and that did the trick the humidity is now 65-70%. I have it on a timer to go off every 4 hours. I use a 40 watt red heat lamp on the BP because the room my snakes are in can be as cold as 65 degrees, and that can also lower the humidity.

Just leave it be...it will come off with the next shed. just be sure to up the humidity prior to shedding...when you see them go into the dull stage. Your cage temps are too low on the cool side for a ball python. I'd use a heat panel or those plastic encased heat emitters (looks like a giant piece of heat tape encased in a plastic coating with a cord and plug...they give off heat without drying as much as lamps or CHE's.....Don't make things too damp though or you'll end up with scale rot. You need enough heat in the cage to actually get humidity though.....just making it wet does not increase humidity....getting the temperatures up enough to allow the moisture to turn into a "fog" is what's needed.....