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I posted this in the Health forum, but got no responses.. then realized no one probably would respond, because the last post made there was back in January. Anyways.

I'm taking care of the class cornsnake for science.. the shed comes off in a million little pieces.. how can I change the tank so that it comes off whole? It's a real pain to pick out every little shed out of the tank! Theres an UTH, two hides, and a large waterbowl that I make sure has clean water that he can submerge himself in for shedding, at all times. Yet it still comes off in pieces. Oh, and the substrate is that rodent bedding. The pellet type. I'm pretty sure it's rodent bedding at least.. I really have no clue, since I never saw the bag for it. And I feed it 2 pinkies a week.

Thanks

>>I posted this in the Health forum, but got no responses.. then realized no one probably would respond, because the last post made there was back in January. Anyways.
>>
>>I'm taking care of the class cornsnake for science.. the shed comes off in a million little pieces.. how can I change the tank so that it comes off whole? It's a real pain to pick out every little shed out of the tank! Theres an UTH, two hides, and a large waterbowl that I make sure has clean water that he can submerge himself in for shedding, at all times. Yet it still comes off in pieces. Oh, and the substrate is that rodent bedding. The pellet type. I'm pretty sure it's rodent bedding at least.. I really have no clue, since I never saw the bag for it. And I feed it 2 pinkies a week.
>>
>>Thanks

The first thing I would do is change substrates.
Until you get it to shed properly you should probably just go with paper towels. After it sheds I personally recommend aspen shavings.
I think the rodent bedding is probably absorbing all or most of the moisture.
Do you have a screen top?
If you do, cover about 3/4 of the top.
This will help hold in moisture.
ok to sum it up...get rid of the substrate and replace with paper towels, cover most of the screen top and spray the tank daily to moisten the paper towels.
After the snake sloughs the rest of it's skin, which you can also aid by letting your snake crawl through a towel moistened with warm water, add the new substrate and see how it goes.
Some people use paper towels or newspaper as a substrate all the time.
I personally don't care for the look.
Aspen is easy to spot clean, cheap, looks fairly decent and actually acts as another hide. The snakes love to burrow through it.
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Corn snakes and rat snakes..No one can have just one.
"resistance is futile"
Jimmy (draybar)

Draybars Snakes

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Humidity is the key to a good shed. Make sure all peices of the shed come off, if not, the snake could have health problems. If I have a problem sheding snake I put a humidity box/hide to help. See next post for a better description. Make sure that when you switch to aspen, you get ASPEN, not just any shavings. Most are toxic in one way or another. Start with changing the substrate, raising the hunidity by misting and partial covering the cage like mentioned before. If that does not help, try the box. Only add the box at shed times to prevent scale rot
good luck
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------Misty-------
We have enough youth....How about a fountain of smart?

I use the rodent pellet bedding.

All I do is place a humidity chamber in the enclosure (deli cup with crumpled, wet paper towels) half on the heating pad and cover most of the screen top and the skins come off like a charm.

Thanks a ton to everyone that answered so quickly!

I'm going to put a humid hide in the tank once I get an OK from the teacher, and then if that doesn't help, I'll ask if I can change the substrate to the aspen shavings.

Thanks again!

-Val