Urgent Help!

[Felix the snake]

My snake is shedding now for it's first time. It looks to be coming off in lots of little strantly bits. Is this normal? I thought it's supposed to come off in one piece! Please reply urgently!!! The humidity reads between 50% and 60%.

Thanks,

Andy

 

[Felix the snake]

About the first 1/4 or 1/5 of the snakes skin has come off at the head end and is coming off in strandy things along it's side where it has rubbed against it's bark etc.

 

[Jicin]

Yes. It's supposed to come of in one piece. Your humidity sounds right. I don't know why you have a bad shed.

What you'll have to do is make sure *ALL* the skin comes off. Especially watch the eye caps and tip of the tail. A good way to rub the remaining skin of is to take a wet towel and apply slight pressure when the snake crawls through it. A bath in advange may help the proces. Make sure the water feels slightly cool to you.

 

[Jicin]

Next time you might want to consider a 'humitiy box' for your snake. Just do a forum search on how to make one. Also, do you have a water bowl big enough for the snake to soak in?

 

[Felix the snake]

ive just woken up now and had a look at my snake. im worried because most has been rubbed off except for a part on it's flank but thats really loose. The bad part is a lot is still completely coverng its tail.
Should i put a humidity box in now?

please reply,

Andy

 

[Felix the snake]

It's Ok!!!

It's ok everyone! I managed to get the old skin off and now he looks soooo cool and smoothe!!!

I managed to get the skin completely off the tip of the tail. It didn't seem to be such a bad shed Really apart from the tail because i found a few tubular pieces of skin so I think it shed a bit then it got broken off close to it's new skin or something I dunno :shrugs: But every thing is OK now!

:cheers: :cheers:

 

[Azruial]

well... I know that nutrition problems can cause sheds to be in pieces. How often do you feed? you may consider vitamin supplements for water too. Where do you get your mice? And what size are they?

 

[Felix the snake]

I get frozen pinkies from my local reptile shop, when I buy, say 10, i get 10 pinkies. Random sizes. I wonderend if the problem could have been that my snake ate after it's blue eyes had cleared and shed soon after. Could it be because of him/her feeding so soon to shedding? (my snake ate 24 hours before starting to shed)!!!

I feed 1 pinkie on Sunday night and one on Wednesday.

Andy

 

[Felix the snake]

When I said it was it's first time shedding in the origional post, I meant with me. It is around 16ish weeks old.

 

[Cindy]

As this is it's first shed with you I would not be too concerned, you don't know what the environment was at the breeder/pet shop you got him/her from. From this point forward you can control the temps, humidity and feeding regime. I don't think feeding just prior to a shed would make any difference. It will be OK next time....

 

[Godzilla2000]

Whoa! You guys have me worried here! I've never owned any snakes before. This will be my first time. With my Tarantulas and Scorpions I have a tough enough time worrying about whether or not they will shed their old exoskeletons properly without getting stuck inside the as the new one starts to harden.

 

[rspier]

When you start to see shedding problems...

in a container with some wet paper towells for a couple of hours (I put mine in overnight in the warm, 82 degree, part of the enclosure). When I pull them out in the morning the shed is off. Keep an eye on the tail tip. If that doesn't come off you will have to pull it off, or re-name your snake "stubby".

 

[Azruial]

on the hot side, make sure you don't have any kind of heating bulb on it because an enclosed plastic tupperware get's hot a lot faster than a big, well-ventillated viv. It's like the world vs your car.

 

[Spirit]

Whoa! You guys have me worried here! I've never owned any snakes before. This will be my first time. With my Tarantulas and Scorpions I have a tough enough time worrying about whether or not they will shed their old exoskeletons properly without getting stuck inside the as the new one starts to harden.

My first tarantula had a bad shed. The skin got tangled around his abdomen and ripped it right off. I found his butt detatched from his body the next morning.

Got me to thinking though (my snake is in his blue phase right now - first time and first snake for me too)... what must that be like for a snake to go through this process? I wonder what that feels like...

Edit: I have pictures of the tarantula molting if anyone is intesterd in seeing them. (sorry, off topic).

 

[Azruial]

(my snake is in his blue phase right now - first time and first snake for me too)

Edit: I have pictures of the tarantula molting if anyone is intesterd in seeing them. (sorry, off topic).

Cool, you knew it was getting ready to shed.
I would LOVE to see pictures of the tarantula, you can email them if you want [email protected]

 

[Spirit]

Or I can just post a link here... http://photobucket.com/albums/v409/Spiriit/Animals/Crawl/

 

[Azruial]

phew, give me a snake any day!

 

[Godzilla2000]

My first tarantula had a bad shed. The skin got tangled around his abdomen and ripped it right off. I found his butt detatched from his body the next morning.

Got me to thinking though (my snake is in his blue phase right now - first time and first snake for me too)... what must that be like for a snake to go through this process? I wonder what that feels like...

Edit: I have pictures of the tarantula molting if anyone is intesterd in seeing them. (sorry, off topic).

I wager shedding for a snake isn't as traumatizing as it is for a poor Arachnid.

P.S. I did create a thread in the General Topics forum for spiders so post away. I have pictures of a Tarantula molting as well.

 

[Dayoh]

I some times bathe my snake when he is blue just to make sure he is going to have a good shed. My first time was the same way and the baths helped alot. As concerned as you are Im sure you'll do fine taking care of him. Good luck.