• Hello!

    Either you have not registered on this site yet, or you are registered but have not logged in. In either case, you will not be able to use the full functionality of this site until you have registered, and then logged in after your registration has been approved.

    Registration is FREE, so please register so you can participate instead of remaining a lurker....

    Please be certain that the location field is correctly filled out when you register. All registrations that appear to be bogus will be rejected. Which means that if your location field does NOT match the actual location of your registration IP address, then your registration will be rejected.

    Sorry about the strictness of this requirement, but it is necessary to block spammers and scammers at the door as much as possible.

Yet another shedding question

C

CornDad

New member
Me again, on behalf of my daughter Rachel. As I mentioned recently, her snake--which is 2-3 years old, and which she's had a week--has about a 3-5 inch section that seems to be shedding. His eyes don't look cloudy, but his colors aren't very vibrant. He's been like this all week, and now there's some skin flaking off in this one patch. Overall, he seems healthy and active.

In the pet shop he spent most of his time in the water dish--which we assumed was because the temperature was high, about 90 F. Since we brought him home he hasn't soaked in the water dish, which is plenty large enough.

Should we try gently wiping him with a damp paper towel? Mist regularly? Provide a damp hide? Stick him in a damp pillowcase overnight? Do nothing? :shrugs:

I'm not too concerned, but Rachel is panicking.

-Dave
 
CornDad said:
Me again, on behalf of my daughter Rachel. As I mentioned recently, her snake--which is 2-3 years old, and which she's had a week--has about a 3-5 inch section that seems to be shedding. His eyes don't look cloudy, but his colors aren't very vibrant. He's been like this all week, and now there's some skin flaking off in this one patch. Overall, he seems healthy and active.

In the pet shop he spent most of his time in the water dish--which we assumed was because the temperature was high, about 90 F. Since we brought him home he hasn't soaked in the water dish, which is plenty large enough.

Should we try gently wiping him with a damp paper towel? Mist regularly? Provide a damp hide? Stick him in a damp pillowcase overnight? Do nothing? :shrugs:

I'm not too concerned, but Rachel is panicking.

-Dave
Click to expand...


Dave, you can tell your daughter that there is no need to panic. There is a lot of room for error with adult snakes.

I'd assume that the snake was in his water dish at the pet store due to the high heat. None of my corns soak, so I wouldn't worry about that and just chalk it up to high temperatures at the pet store.

Since there is a portion that is shedding, the snake is either in shed now, or previously shed and did not get it all off. I would suggest running some warm water and soaking a facecloth and wringing it out so it's just slightly damp. Hold the facecloth/towel around that section of the snake firmly and let it go through the towel. That should get the remaining skin off the snake. I dont think there's a need for a moist hide or misting yet.

If that doesn't work, post a follow up and we'll see what we can do.
 
I'm having the same problem with my corn that I got last week, his eyes are clear but he has got flaky patches all over his body mainly on the top and a few patches on the side. He looks healthy and is willing to be handled, I tried wiping him with a wet cloth but this did nothing?? I think I'm just going to leave him now as he might be in the early process of shedding, I presume that when he next sheds it will solve the problem?

If not then he might need a trip to the vets!
 
We calmed down and waited. His eyes got cloudly a few days ago. Today he shed--a nice one-piece skin about 46" long.
 
Boris said:
I'm having the same problem with my corn that I got last week, his eyes are clear but he has got flaky patches all over his body mainly on the top and a few patches on the side. He looks healthy and is willing to be handled, I tried wiping him with a wet cloth but this did nothing?? I think I'm just going to leave him now as he might be in the early process of shedding, I presume that when he next sheds it will solve the problem?

If not then he might need a trip to the vets!
Click to expand...

Not so much. Flaking skin is not normal, nor is it part of the shedding process. If you let the snake crawl through a damp towel. Wiping the snake down really wont do much.

Since it doesn't seem like it's wrapped anywhere, you can probably wait and let it shed on it's own, but it might be a while. You'd be better off trying to get it off.
 
CornDad said:
We calmed down and waited. His eyes got cloudly a few days ago. Today he shed--a nice one-piece skin about 46" long.
Click to expand...

Awesome! You can probably assume that your snake is roughly 40" long based on that shed. I think I referred you to Serp's program in another thread to check on that, but if not, I'll do it again.

www.serpwidgets.com, and then go to apps.
 
Joejr14 said:
Awesome! You can probably assume that your snake is roughly 40" long based on that shed.
Click to expand...

Sounds about right, based on my previous attempt to measure him from outside the cage.

I think I referred you to Serp's program in another thread to check on that, but if not, I'll do it again.

www.serpwidgets.com, and then go to apps.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I'll do that once I get some good photos. Right now we're trying to get him to eat--not sure whether he was raised on live or frozen. He's interested when we present the mouse, but doesn't do anything more than sniff it. We've tried twice, a week apart. We're not panicking yet.
 
CornDad said:
Yeah, I'll do that once I get some good photos. Right now we're trying to get him to eat--not sure whether he was raised on live or frozen. He's interested when we present the mouse, but doesn't do anything more than sniff it. We've tried twice, a week apart. We're not panicking yet.
Click to expand...


No need to worry yet. A 40" snake with some good girth can go a while. It might be he still smells love in the air and isn't interested in food.

Have you tried live, ie stunned or freshly killed? You might also try tempting him with a live fuzzy---most snakes don't pass that down.
 
Joejr14 said:
No need to worry yet. A 40" snake with some good girth can go a while. It might be he still smells love in the air and isn't interested in food.

Have you tried live, ie stunned or freshly killed? You might also try tempting him with a live fuzzy---most snakes don't pass that down.
Click to expand...

He actually ate the frozen one we offered yesterday. We left it on his cork hide and he ate it while we weren't watching.

-Dave
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top