It is perfectly safe as long as no insecticides were sprayed in the area. Some people will give their snakes a "bath" after going outside, I personally do not and I have not had an issue.

Hi Nanci, I haven't been on the site for awhile, but revisited because my 8 year old snake has had two bad sheds in a row. To make it worse, she was wheezing after her bad shed. I was ready to take her to the vet for a respiratory infection. Upon revisiting the forum I noticed others have had that problem. Well today after I tried some of the treatments mentioned here, a big piece of skin sloughed off her snout. Poor gal was breathing into a pocket of old skin. I don't breed her, but she double clutched this year, and I moved, so she has had a busy last couple of months. Thanks to you and this site for all the information. She looks so pretty in her new skin. Now I have to figure out why the bad sheds.

She probably just needs a little more humidity. You can provide a moist hide for her when she is blue, or, if she is in a glass viv you can put a piece of plastic wrap loosely over the top of the viv, and then mist lightly every couple days while she is in blue. If she is in a rack you can just mist every two or three days. I would also provide a large water bowl to increase humidity.

Thanks for your response. I do have a question because she has been in a moist hide. She recently laid her second clutch of eggs. I had a feeling she was, so I put in her lay hide with moss and made sure the moss was moist. After she lay her eggs, I kept the hide in there with the moss to faciliate her shed. Her viv was in a room where there is an open A/C vent (but not drastically cold). I did move her back to a a room where I have the A/C vent closed. Could it have been the ambient temperature of the room? Or could it be an underlying problem? She has never had a bad shed except we recently moved. I didn't have A/C before, now I do. Good for the family, but maybe not her. Otherwise all temps on both sides of Viv have been good.

Thank you for the tip!

So my hatchling Nixie has been out of blue for 5 days now. No shed, I've scoured the tank pretty completely everyday for the past 3 days. I've also been following Nanci's advice with the tub/washcloth/lukewarm water routine for 30 min a day for the past 3 days. parts of her look flaky like one of Nanci's pictures. The only time she rubs on things is when she's in the tub, in her tank she just stays in her hide all the time. Should I just keep going with this routine? Or is there something else I can do?

my last one that shed took 6 days after I noted that he was blue. I guess some take longer than others. i did the soak thing and he shed that same night.

Oh dear I should have look for this befor asking about my male shedding issues he is okay now but I feel stupid now. :(

I will be reading this again if he has another bad shed.

well I wake up this morning to find a shed in his viv! it had eyecaps but no tail :( so I gave him a 20min "bath" like Nanci's first post said to do, ran him through a wet washcloth and no dice. gave him another 10min in the bath and after running through my hands for another 5min the tail managed to start sloughing off. so I believe I got all the old skin. Thanks for this guide Nanci! He looks so brilliant now!