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Posted by: Bolitochrome at Wed Sep 2 11:08:43 2009   [ Email Message ] [ Show All Posts by Bolitochrome ]  
   

I did some reading on this several weeks ago when an owner was perplexed when his year old BP hadn't shed in a long period of time. Here's what I got from my research.

There are two primary normal environmental factors that control and induce shedding: feeding (growth) and humidity. Of course, there is also stress, but I don't group that under "normal".

Growth will cause skin to be shed in order to allow for primary (length) growth and secondary (girth) growth. If an animal is not growing and their skin is not *exposed to extremes, the brain will not be stimulated to release ecdysone, the "shedding" hormone.

*Having said that, if a snake is not growing, but experiences fluctuations in temperature and humidity, the snake will shed its skin to maintain is moisture permeability. So a snake that is kept at about a constant humidity and temperature is less likely to shed also.

Given that your snake hatched with no additional yolk to absorb, and you are probably keeping it under normal hatchling conditions, constantly warm and moist, it may take longer to shed. You could try offering a wider variety of food items to stimulate feeding. Or, what worked in the case I mentioned above, I recommended they let the snake "dry out" for 12-24 hours under close observation. Sure enough, within a week after this the snake started to cloud up.

Again, this was just informal searching through some peer-reviewed journals and wedsites, but it is some info anyways.
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Lincoln, NE
0.1 Pastel, 1.0 Pastel het Pied, 0.1 Pied, 0.1 Cinn, 1.0 Black Pewter, 1.1 Normals, 1.0 Thayeri, 0.1 Thayeri X Alterna, 0.1 crazy cat, 1.0 husband


   

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