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Consistent Bad Sheds

sbale

sbale

New member
I've been poking around the forums but have not found anything as to a remedy for a snake who consistently has bad sheds. Forgive me if this question was already addressed - but I didn't find it.

The reptile room humidity is kept at 36% and the temperature remains between 77-85 degrees depending on the time of day/night. (Both are electronically programmed and controlled). Each tank has been put together with exactly the same items and sub straight (Minus lighting for the jungle and king) that were bought in bulk from the same manufacture. Each tank has a warm side (80-85 degrees) with wet hides and cool sides (70-75 degrees) with dry hides and additional hides in the middle along with watering dishes and branches to climb. (Temps are monitored from the hide's sub straight)
In addition, each tank is cleaned out on a regular basis usually once every other month.

Out of 15 snakes (13 corn/1 jungle/1 King) I have one corn snake that consistently has bad sheds. The 'bad shed' corn snake is around 4-5 months old and has never had a good shed. She is a ghost corn. Yet, corn snakes on either side of her and above her tank are fine. - Once in a blue moon I will see a bad shed with one of the other 12 corn snakes in the room.

Starting from her shed before last (Approx. 6-8 weeks ago. I don't remember the exact date. I do not record blue phases or shed dates/times.) I began giving her a very minute amount of repti-vitamins (I don't have the exact name with me) at each feeding (every 5+ days) in the hope it would off set any possible nutritional issue. Just enough vitamins to cover the bottom of a foot on a pinkie she was going to be fed. Like clock work she had another bad shed followed by the most recent a few weeks later.

I'm at a loss as to a reason for the consistent bad shed with this corn snake. could it be a nutritional issue? Is there something I can improve on in her habitat? Could this just be genetic? Or is this common with this type of morph? (My other ghost doesn't have this issue but she is much older).

Has anyone else encountered this?

Thanks for any help in advance.
Steve
 
I doubt it could be genetic and if this snake eats well I would doubt it was nutritional. I have noticed with my own reptiles some need more or less humidity and not every one will fit into the heat/humidity requirements they should. As an experiment maybe you could isolate that corn in another room and keep the temps constant while raising the humidity to 50% and see if this works.
 
try to mist the snake twice a day when it turns "blue" until it sheds. usually the extra humidity helps... some snakes just dont use the humid hides like others so you HAVE to actually spray or bathe the snake yourself until it learns how to care for itself :)
~kin
 
Does the snake _use_ the wet hide? Do you have screen covers? You could try covering the top, if it's screen, with plastic wrap, just laid on top.
 
I bathe mine. 2 Days after feeding and once after they go blue(meaning when they go back to clear, just before the shed). I use to have a problem with a couple of mine. I haven't had an issue since. Now my bathes are in a container, luke warm water and never more than inch or two in depth. I have a rock for them if they want to crawl out of the water and i am there the whole time(20 mins or so) watching. Mine seem to like it and they usally go poo in the container. I use a reptile friendly cleaner(I can not think of the name) on the container and rinse and dry it well. I use to do it in the tub, but then I relized all the cleaners I used on the tub were not good.
 
Hi Steve

The first thing I would also try is raising the humidity to way above 36% when a shed is due. It's more likely that she just needs more humidity in order to shed; I wouldn't suspect a nutritional issue.

Give that a try - I see you already have a moist hide, so try misting or moving the water bowl over to the warm side of the viv - and see if the next shed is better.

I don't know if anyone who has experienced this problem will come up with some more suggestions, but I would be careful not to try too many things at once, that way you will be able to narrow down what has worked. Best of luck, I hope you can help her soon.
 
Cyrus had 1 really bad shed, his 2nd shed was in 2 pieces (but I think that was due to his injured tail, he shed then it got hung up on the scabbys on his tail and ripped the shed in two) his third shed was great except for the very tip of his tail....but that rolled right off....no water, towels or bathing needed. I noticed that the difference between the first shed and the last two were that I put in a Moist Hide...which he avoids like the plague (I still offer it though) and I mist a few times a day.

I do see that everyone here is telling you to get your humidity up to 50%, which confuses me because I was told during shed to try and keep it up around 80% (by someone on here). Is this correct or am I getting it too high?? Hope I haven't been hurting the little guy with too high humidity! I think I may try that bathing method Buzzard uses.....Cyrus seems to enjoy a dip now and then!

Hope these little tidbits help!
 
Thanks again for all the suggestions. The problematic shedder is a good eater. She eats on a regular basis (roughly every 5 days +/- 1 or so days).

After reading all of the suggestions it seems the least invasive method that i can implement without disturbing habitat with little or no impact to the other snakes is to programmatically increase the humidity in the room to 50%. (Let me know if there is a concern here). I will give this a try for the next 2 ish sheds and see if this makes a difference. If she still has a bad sheds I'll plan to isolate her and see if i can rule out humidity as the culprit.

Once again thanks for all of the help, support and suggestions they are all greatly appreciated.

Steve


MyLittleGuyCyrus, Very cool! Hello to you as well.
 
No concern with 50% (some people recommend higher, if 50% isn't high enough). I hope it works, keep us updated!
 
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