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pieces of shed...

N

norbert03

norbert and aelfric
Norbie is doing pretty well these days, no more regurges and he's much more active. He is constantly trying to escape :) Anyway...a few weeks ago he shed, but it was tough for him. His skin began to roll back and I glanced in right after he had started and the skin was right up near his eyes...then a little while later he managed to get it down to his middle, after that the skin began to break away leaving only part of him shed. I was concerned about this so I gave him a bath and then let him slither through a wet paper towel, but it didn't do the trick. He finally got all his skin off about three days later, but there were bits of it all over the place. If anyone has any suggestions on what I should do in the future to assure that my little guy has a good shed I'd appreciate them.

:dancer:
 
From personal experience...I always make sure they have fresh water in a dish big enough to soak in available always...and once they go into "blue" I mist my snakes well once a day until they shed...this seems to be MORE important after they go back to preshed clear...but I figure it can't hurt all the way through.
Handle the snake as little as possible during this process as well (although I often do NOT heed this advice as well as give it). It can be stressful to a snake (especially the more neurotic ones) to be handled when they can't see.

Since I began misting through the ecdysis process...I have never had a snake that has had a single shed problem. Always one nice big piece...eyecaps and all.
 
I actually mist the snake directly...obviously some gets into the substrate and on the other stuff...but I try not to raise the total humidity as much as possible...can cause too many other problems.
 
A change of husbandry setup, such as changing the heat source or the size of the water bowl, is much prefered health-wise to misting the animal.

Can you describe the snake's enclosure??
 
OK. I thought I was doing something wrong because I was misting him before he shed. So I stopped doing that now. I don't like giving him baths because it makes him nervous, I can tell, I'm the dad. :crazy01: Could the viv temps have anything to do with the shedding problem? I keep it at 82 or so during the day...at night it goes to 70 now, but during the summer months it would stay between 78 and 80. Should I have a night glow light now?
 
I have a twenty gallon tank. I use a coconut fiber substrate. On the warm side I have a vine and one hide, on the cool side I have a hide, heating pad (small), two suction cup tree branches, and a large stone water bowl, and a little neon pink rubber ball for him to play with. I keep a light on for 12 hours a day.
 
Bingo!

"Light" is the problem. I've found over the years that heat lamps are notorious for drying out the air and causing shed issues. I recommend either switching to under tank heating or coving the majority of the tank's top with cardboard or plastic (without starting a fire under the lamp ;)). The latter helps moisture retention by reducing the rate of evaporation.
 
I use standard fluorescent lights (no-heat) to give photoperiod (most of my snakes are in my basement)...I agree with CAV...if it's a heat light I would get rid of it.
 
Sooo...I should just use my heating pad? I can get a larger one, I guess. Ummm...I'm just concerned because my apartment is sooooo cold at night.
 
All I use for heat is UTH's...
My house stays reasonably cold and they do just fine.
I check heat with an infrared temp gun...so I can check surface temperatures throughout the enclosures instantly. If the ambient (air) temperature is lower that what would be considered normal...you can raise it by covering some of the vents...all my snakes are in tanks...I just use newspaper and cover the screen top over the warm side...up to 90% of the top depending on how low the temperature gets. If we get a sudden temp drops that the house can't keep up with and the household temp gets really cold...I will put a blanket over all or part of the enclosure until the house temp comes up.

Never seem to have a problem this way...
 
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