welcome to the obsession! All my snakes have a shed cycle that lasts approx. two weeks. You really can't tell anything visibly the first 5 days, but their activity level stops and they go into complete hiding. Then they start to dull, and sometimes you can see sagy skin around the chin area. After about a week, the eyes will become milky and probably stay that way for a least a couple of days. Next, their eyes will clear up and even the dullness can go away, and depending on the snake, go a day or two where they look normal and you're wondering "did he shed?" Then they shed! I have a pretty wide range of snakes but they all seem to go through about the same cycle. I know it's hard to resist the temptation (especially since this is your first snake!) but try not to mess with him/her for at least a week, but probably two or more is better. They are very nervous creatures, especially the boas and pythons, and need plenty of hides and "clutter" in their cages to feel safe.
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-David

Check out my pet pics at:
http://www.myspace.com/obx_fisherman

1.0 ball python (Pandora - don't ask)
1.0 argentine boa (Prometheus)
0.0.1 colombian boa (Athena)
0.1 hogg island boa (Andromeda)
0.0.1 brazilian rainbow boa (Inara)
1.0 Dumeril's boa (Hannibal)
1.0 kenyan sand boa (Diablo)
0.0.1 normal corn snake(Cypress)
0.1 amel. corn snake (Morgan LaFay) RIP
0.0.2 baby corns (Romulus and Remus)
- 1 normal, 1 ghost
0.0.1 banded cali. kingsnake (Cain)
1.0 tangerine honduran milksnake (Narcissus)
0.0.1 snow corn snake (Valkyrie)
1.1 garden phase amazon tree boas (Pegasus, Lenore)
0.0.1 baby yellow amazon tree boa (affectionately called
Snuggles)
0.0.1 albino san diego gopher snake (maybe Octavian)
0.0.1 sandfish skink (Slick)
0.0.1 fire skink (Phoenix)
1.0 bassett hound/black and tan coonhound mix (Luke)
0.1 Boxer (Zoe)
1.0 bearded dragon (Leonidas)
1.1 ferrets (Ares, Enyo)
1.2 cats (Galahad, Ripley and Sassy)
2.0 rats (Pan, no name yet)

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