Our little Mexican's opaqueness cleared up 2 days ago, and today we found he had shed the upper part of his head but that was it. The old skin starts about 3/8 in. from the back of his head. We found the upper head piece-the eyecaps and nose sections shed fine, but the old skin is still on his lower jaw and rest of his body.
When should we worry if the rest of his old skin does not come off? We see him rubbing on the hide rock and wood in the vivarium but his skin does not want to come off. We misted the moss inside of his hide rock to make it more humid, and misted the vivauirum itself.
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Shedding concern/question
paulnola
Jan 01, 2007 08:59 PM
Replies (2)
DMong
Jan 01, 2007 09:15 PM
Get a deli cup or something similar with air holes polked in it, or a small cloth back like a pillow case for example, put some moist spagnum or similar substrate in it and let the snake "soak in it for a couple of hours. Chances are, when you open the container or bag, the shedskin will be off. Be sure and check that all of it comes off including the tail tip. This is very important to check, if the tip stays on for many days or weeks,this can "kill" the tip of the snakes tail due to the shed drying and tightening in the process leading to the blood supply being robbed to the tail tip and eventually to the tip falling off!!. If the snake did not fully shed after doing the above mentioned, the shedskin will be very soft by then and you can easily rub the rest of it off for the snake...........Doug
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Better to be silent and thought a fool, than to open mouth and remove any doubt!
paulnola
Jan 02, 2007 09:10 AM
Thanks Doug,
We took your advice and last night we put more sphagnum inside his hide rock and misted it pretty well. This morning my wife found the rest of his shed skin in 1 piece.
It was strange that he got his head piece off the day before the rest of the skin; we could see him trying to get the rest off but it was just not coming.
He is still fat from the 2 pinkies we fed him friday, I wasn't sure if eating so close to shedding would cause a problem or not. I think next month we'll wait until he sheds to feed him, this time we were out of town on his scheduled day to be fed and so it was delayed a couple of days, pushing his feeding into his shed phase.
