Reptile & Amphibian Forums

its been a while and Kaa still has a lot of old skin on the top side of his body.
i guess that means the humidity needs to be raised?
i have been misting daily to help that, but i have been worried about resp. infections and the like...

maybe give it more soaks?

One warm soak, and gently try to rub the skin off - GENTLY. If it doesn't come off, then maybe it's just not ready and your best bet is just to wait, keep humidity constant, and chances are the next shed it'll come off.

Your biggest danger with too much misting is belly rot from moist substrate. Between 40 and 60% is fine, and if the snake has a waterbowl for soaking, you shouldn't need to worry about humidity any more than that.

Good luck!

~jenny
-----
"The python has, and I fib no fibs,
318 pairs of ribs.
In stating this I place reliance
On a seance with one who died for science
This figure is sworn to and attested,
He counted them while being digested."
~Ogden Nash

jenny.thegreenes.org

"If you're happy and you know it,
Bomb Iraq!
If you cannot find Osama,
Bomb Iraq!
If the terrorists are frisky,
Pakistan is looking shifty,
North Korea is too risky,
Bomb Iraq!

I believe from past post that you have her in a tank. You need to cover the lid about 90% get a hygrometer to monitor humidty, It will make things easier to see what is going on. Soak her help get the skin off.

i have it in a 40gal rep tank.
the area i live in has fairly high standard humidity rate of about 50-60%(coastal), that coupled with a large water dish which i put half over the heating pad figuring that would warm the water and increase the humdity a bit more.
the part that has not come off is the very top of its body all across. it hasnt been soaking like before so i started misting. i dont soak it just good a misting everyother day.

ill try teh warm soaking and ill cover 1/2 the tank screen with some plastic wrap and see if that helps next time.

thanks for the time

Even if the humidity is that high where you live, He has a uth that is going to suck all the humidity out of the tank very quicly. If you get a hygrometer, they are 5 dollars at walmart in the lawn section. I think you will be very surprised how low the humidity is in the tank..For 5 bucks you can easily monitor it. Really you should cover the tank lid about 90%, That will really help also..

can and will do

just dint think that with teh water ove rteh heat sourse it woudl leave that quickly
i have never had a prob with humidity before...oh well.
live and learn

I had mine in tanks and took allot of trial and error to get it right.

Get the water bowl off the heat pad - you're encouraging bacterial growth in the warm water and it's not helping your humidity level enough to be worth it.

Also, do as Melindaste suggested and get the lil humidity gauge, but I think you'll find the humidity isn't quite as bad as it might seem, especially if you cover at least half the screen. I live in the desert and just with half the screen lid covered, reasonable sized waterbowl, and paper towel for substrate, I had 50% humidity. Heat lights are far, far worse than heat pads for drying the air out.

The gauge will definately help you out though. I don't keep one in my tubs 100% of the time but when the weather's been dry or if someone's going into shed I'll stick a guage in the tub to keep an eye on things. Helps a lot

Good luck!

~jenny
-----
"The python has, and I fib no fibs,
318 pairs of ribs.
In stating this I place reliance
On a seance with one who died for science
This figure is sworn to and attested,
He counted them while being digested."
~Ogden Nash

jenny.thegreenes.org

"If you're happy and you know it,
Bomb Iraq!
If you cannot find Osama,
Bomb Iraq!
If the terrorists are frisky,
Pakistan is looking shifty,
North Korea is too risky,
Bomb Iraq!

I keep my young female in a similar set up only mine is a 20 gal long. I used aspen and misted it every couple of days but it would mold and not hold the moisture well. I have always had about 70% of the top covered wich helps. All of this is how things used to be. A month ago I switched to cypress (sp?) and it has been incredible, even in the winter in indiana with a heat lamp and a uth! My humidity is always 55-70% and I mist it maybe once a week. It is very easy to take care of, holds moisture better than about anything and looks really nice too. I had shedding issues with aspen and haven't with the shed she had on the cypress. I understand why people with a large number of animals wouldn't use it because at cage cleaning time it takes longer than newspaper or paper towel, but from your posts I think you only have one animal right now so I would give cypress bedding a try. Good luck with Kaa.
-Bryce