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Shedding

SQUID67

SQUID67

New member
I couldn't find a threat about shedding. I was just curious if you guys had any good shedding tips, as when I bought my snake he had just shed skin at the petstore, and undergone an impartial shed. My wife and I cleaned him off with a wet paper towel and helped peel off his skin. Last friday he was in the blue phase, so I put in an extra water bowl on the hot side to increase humidity and went home for the weekend. Humidity was 40-50% last I checked. Over the weekend I bought some moss, and made a wet hide. This morning I checked the snake, and he had shedded only the skin from his head to about an inch down the neck. I put the wet hide in the terrarium, and left him with it all day. He ignored it completely, which defeated the purpose of having it. I ended up putting him in a seperate container stuffed with wet paper towels and wet moss and left him for fifteen minutes. After fifteen minutes I used the wet paper towels to peel his skin off as I had before.

This seems a little unnatural that I should need to help him shed his skin every time, and that he can't shed on his own. Any suggestions as to what I should do next time to help him have a normal shed?
 
He had already peeled off his skin up to a couple inches down his body. I was told the shed should come off in one piece, so he had attempted to shed his skin, but only managed to peel off part of it.

I let him soak for fifteen minutes in a small tank with wet paper towels and wet moss to help moisturize his skin. I'd also sprayed his tank with water to increase humidity as soon as I saw he was getting ready to shed. When I helped him loose the skin I did so by having him run his body through the wet paper towel as I held on to it, which I read on another website was an effective way to help if the snake had an impartial shed. But technically I believe he should be able to shed himself all in one piece if conditions are right.
 
The #1 reason for stuck sheds is using a basking light. I recall from your other posts that the pet store had him under a heating light, and that you've now had to use it again to bring up the heat. Many people argue in favour of using lights, but for corns the fact is it often dries their skin. My first two snakes came with heating lights and their sheds were awful until I got rid of them.
 
It's an infrared 50 Watt bulb that I am using. Well that could be, but the humidity gauge always reads between 40 and 60% which I was lead to believe is optimal for corns.

Well the problem still is if I cut off the bulb the heating pad so far has been unable to heat the terrarium by itself. But maybe next time I notice he is getting ready to shed I could cut off the bulb for that time period.
 
You need to get out of the mindset that a Heat Pad must heat the entire terrarium.

The purpose of the heat pad is to heat only the glass bottom at the spot the pad is attached. For Example- My heat pad along with a Rheostat heats the glass bottom to about 85 degrees. (Perfect temp for a Corn snake). However the air in the cage itself is maybe 3 to 5 degrees warmer than the air in my house, maybe about 75 to 77.

You don't have to get the entire cage to 85 degrees. just a spot on the floor where the snake can curl up on.
 
Well the air temperature in the cage is probably around 77. The top of the substrate so far has been 80-85, but if what you have been saying is true, that is too high. I will place the tip of the probe on the very bottom of the tank under the substrate, and then the temperature will drop. But then the top of the substrate will probably be around 80 degrees or less.
 
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