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Shedding box?

L

logic

New member
Just wondering how many people here use shedding boxes?!
The reason I ask is...

I have never had problems with any of my corns in the past, in this area...
But, recently I have moved and noticed an obvious temp/humidity diff from my previous home (same city).

All my snakes have been shedding, eating, etc. normally...
except my new blizzard... I just added him to the collect about 3 months ago and he is a hatchling...
well, the problem is that he has shed about 3 times since he arrived and he has had 3 incomplete sheds...

The first 2 times it was just a small bit of skin remaining on the tip of his tail or a bit further up...
For fear of it cutting off circulation and/or creating an infection, I added a shedding box for a day, and then manually removed the rest. It took me about 15-20 mins, until I was satisfied. :angry01: Keep in mind, his skin tone made it more difficult to tell if it was all off, especially on the tip of his tail, where there is a slight color change.

A few days ago was his 3rd shed and it was really bad. 3/4 of his old skin had not been removed. Per Kathy's book, I tried the easy route again - the shed box. This time he didn't even feel like going into it. So today, when I arrived home, once again I had to manually remove it (using a damp paper towel)....
and what do I get for my trouble...!? :toiletgra
He either pooped on me or musked me... :angry01:

Going forward, I may just start using a shedding box every time I see that he is getting ready to shed...

The odd thing is that, none of my other snakes have had any problems at all with shedding... and they all kept in the same room - he is the only one...

Do you think his morph has anything to do with it perhaps...?!

The other odd thing is, that both my new hatchling have not been shedding as much as my other snakes have when they were very young. I am currently feeding both of them 2 small pinks every week or so. I was originally giving them 1 pink about 4 days apart, but their bulges would disappear within 24 hrs, and they would active again… any ideas there…?!

Thanks in advance…!!!!
 
My adult corn and baby king both use shedding boxes. I have upside down disposeable tupperware things with the lids on, with an appropriate entrance cut in the front. Filled with store bought moss. Pretty damp. Both go in and stay until the shed is complete, and then maybe use it another day or so if I don't remove the hide. This shed was the king's first experience with it. His previous shed (first shed for me) was in three pieces so this time I gave him a moist hide. He loved it. His shed was one piece this time. I also lay a piece of plastic wrap loosely over the top of the viv, and sprinkle a small amount of water about the viv one time.

Nanci
 
I just mist the viv, and don't usually use a shedding box, though I have in the past.
 
Neyals said:
errrr..... stupid question, whats a shedding box?
Click to expand...

not a stupid question at all...

basically...
its a hide of some sort, (ie. tupperwareth, an upside water dish, upside down flowerpot, - with access etc.) - somewhere that can hold a decent humidity level and be tight enough for a snake to have some friction when moving around in it.

This 'container' is basically stuffed with some moist material, (ie. moss, paper towels, etc.). The snake can then go into this hide to shed its skin, more easily. The goal is to have a single piece of intact skin, rather than pieces (which usually results from low humidity levels, and I am assuming possible genetics?! - not sure yet, first time I've encountered this problem).
 
Ditto, my snake sheds around the edge of the viv...I come home and there's a long skin stretched at right angles round a corner or two. :grin01: Always makes me chuckle.
 
I use moist hides for two of my three all the time. Both plastic tubs with one entrance, packed with papertowel that I mist once a week. I have to change out papertowel biweekly in the summer and monthly in the winter. My normal lives in this hide on the warm side of the viv, she is also the only snake I have that soaks (in her water dish) on a regular basis. I think she just likes the high humidity.

My strip had a couple of bad sheds when I first got it so I went to a shed box, it only uses it when in blue before a shed. I just leave it in there so I do not have to guess or forget to put it back in. It works for me.

I tried with our blizzard but he NEVER went in and he hates water. When we first had him my son was used to putting our normal in the water dish after handling her because she appeared to love it. It only took a couple of times with the blizzard to realize he hated it. So like all things corny, from temps, to feeding, to humidty and all other things in snake care (heck I have a 4 ft normal who still tail rattles when she is eating) you just have to figure out what works best for each animal. Unless you have a big collection but even then I have read about large breaders figuring out the temp prefered by individual snakes.

Just my 2 cents.

Peace
Paul
 
Off topic...!!!

Crossmen: (or anyone else with info on this)

I noticed on your avatar pic... that snake has a slightly pinkish area on its cheek...

Is that normal?
I noticed a similar pinkish coloring on my blizzard the last few days (on both sides).
I was thinking the worst (perhaps a problem inside its jaw, that is visible outside due to his translucent skin), but is that normal?

He is a male blizzard hatchling, approximately 3 months old....
 
The colors change so much in the first 18 monthes it is hard to say what is normal. But if there are no other symptoms I would not worry about it to much.
 
Those that use shedding boxes, do you put it on the warm side, cool side, or in the middle? Or does it not matter?
 
The normal we have prefers it on the warm side and our stripe prefers it in the middle. We used trial and error and saw where each snake spent the most time in the hide. The stripes box is clear (gladware) and it will change sides warm to cold from day to day. :shrugs:
 
an update...

I am happy to inform you that the shedding box did the trick...
He shed yesterday! It was a perfect shed, nose to tail...!! :crazy02:

I will definitely be using it monthly.
He isn't quite 'white' yet, but definitely less pink then earlier...

I will post pics as soon as I can...!
 
I know it's late to reply but I just wanted to voice my support for full time moist hides/shedding boxes! Yes my snakes all shed outside of the hides however I find that every one of them spends some time in there, particularly about three or four days before shedding! :)

I prefer this to moistening the viv as I feel it's too easy to overmoisten the viv and there might be problems with molds or some other bacteria going nuts! I regularly completely change the moss in the moist hides and am always sticking my nose in to make sure it still smells "spring fresh" lol! :)

As for the pink on the blizzards, I have been dealing with lots of blizzards this year from differnt lines and yes the majority of the young ones seem to have those pink cheeks :)

Congrats on the good shed!

Rebecca
 
Thank you all...!

Great point on the bacteria...
I noticed, that after I removed the hide for cleaning (he actually shed outside the hide as well), there was some odd coloration on the remaining substrate below the moist paper towels (possible mold). I immediately removed it, cleaned the hide, and replaced it with some fresh aspen bedding.
Therefore, I agree 100%; there is a need for vigilance in keeping moist hides around...

Thanks again! :cheers:
 
I was just thinking about the warm/cold thing this weekend. My adult corn has been in her shedding box all last week, and it was getting into the 60s at night in the house, so I thought about moving her warm hide and putting the shedding box over the heat, but then she'd be _stuck_ over the heat, and she doesn't go in there very often...I noticed on the coolest evenings, she'd leave the shedding box once an evening and go sit in her warm hide for a while, but she always went back to the shedding box.

While she was in the shedding box for the week, I bought her a big branch. She's never had anything big like that to climb on- just vines. When she got done shedding and I removed the moist hide, she was all over the branch, and she's _always_ laid out on it now- she's so happy...

Nanci
 
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