Patchy, incomplete sheds are are common problem starting this time of year. It is most likely caused by low humidity. The easiest way to avoid it is to provide a humid hide box, simply an enclosed hide with a small entry and an inch or so of damp moss. The remaining shed on top of his head can be rolled off after moistening it with a wet paper towel for a minute or so. An added note, if the 82 degrees is your hot spot rather then the ambient temperature I would suggest that you raise that to around 90 F for the species you are keeping.



T.B





>>Hey all, I hope someone can help. I have a pretty young ball python, about 1.5 feet long, and he just shed for the first time since I got him, apparently he shed just before I got him about 2 months ago. Anyway, it wasn't a good shed it was patchy, it took him like 3 days to shed most of his skin and he still has a patch of skin right on the back of his head that doesn't look like it is going anywhere. He has a good apetite, I just fed him 3 fuzzies, and he ate 3 1.5 weeks ago. The humidity is 50% on the side of the tank that has the water dish and 82degrees on the other side of the tank where I have a heat lamp. I also have a columbian boa in with him (it's a large tank) and the snakes are relatively the same size, my boa has never had a problem shedding, she has shed twice. What should I do? Could he have parasites or what?

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• Patchy shed - kasandra_5, Fri Oct 24 01:50:31 2003
• RE: Patchy shed - T.B, Fri Oct 24 07:40:43 2003