Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Ok, so my yearling beauty snake (I know, wrong forum but the responses are always quicker here) shed about a week ago and while I was feeding him today I noticed that one spectacle appears to have been retained (there's a rim of loose, dry skin surrounding the eye).

Now, I've read the recommendations concerning using scotch tape and wetting the area before removal. The only problem is that there is no way this snake is going to tolerate anything coming within a foot of his head. He's fast, strong and impossible to get a grip on. He would have to be unconscious in order for that procedure to work.

So, my question is, is there anything else I can do aside from increasing the humidity and hoping for the best on the next shed?

>>Ok, so my yearling beauty snake (I know, wrong forum but the responses are always quicker here) shed about a week ago and while I was feeding him today I noticed that one spectacle appears to have been retained (there's a rim of loose, dry skin surrounding the eye).
>>
>>Now, I've read the recommendations concerning using scotch tape and wetting the area before removal. The only problem is that there is no way this snake is going to tolerate anything coming within a foot of his head. He's fast, strong and impossible to get a grip on. He would have to be unconscious in order for that procedure to work.
>>
>>So, my question is, is there anything else I can do aside from increasing the humidity and hoping for the best on the next shed?

about the only thing I can think of would be to use a towel dampened with warm water and run it up the snake's body and over his head to see if that might work. Or place it in a small sterilite container with damp paper towels and a water dish only.
Leave it over night and see if the cap dislodges.
Otherwise you need to simply grab the snake behind the head, tightly, and remove the cap by hand.
I don't really know why you can't do this, a yearling beauty snake can't be THAT big can it. Hell, I had to do it to a seven foot burmese python one time.
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Corn snakes and rat snakes..No one can have just one.
"Resistance is futile"
Jimmy Johnson
(Draybar)
Draybars Snakes

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It's not that I can't do it, just that it's taken a lot of work to calm him down to the point where he doesn't try for face strikes and I don't want to give him a reason to fear me again.

I'll try the wet towel but I think it's stuck on there pretty well.

You should try it with a 15 ft retic
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Arlon Delorge
Classic Constrictors

Haha, no kidding.

I'm worried about hurting the snake's "feelings" not ending up as a lump in its midsection.

>>You should try it with a 15 ft retic
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>>Arlon Delorge
>>Classic Constrictors

Don't think I would like to do that....lol
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Corn snakes and rat snakes..No one can have just one.
"Resistance is futile"
Jimmy Johnson
(Draybar)
Draybars Snakes

_____

I learned this technique on here and have used it several times for all kinds of bad sheds:

Put about an inch of warm water in a sterilite or rubbermaid box with a lid. Put him on for about 7-10 mins and let him settle down (and let the moisture take effect). Then put in a dampened (with same temp warm water) and crumpled up dish towel. He will climb around on it to get out of the water and the rough cloth will likely rub the eye cap off within a few minutes.

On a side note. My Speckled just had a stuck eye cap yesterday. She let me take a dampened paper towel and gently wipe it free. I was amazed how calm she was.
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5.4 Variable Kings
1.4 Kunasir Island Rats
1.1 Albino Japanese Rats
1.1 Everglades Rats
0.1 White Oak Gray Rat
0.1 Speckled King
0.1 Tarahumara Mtn King
0.1 Amelanistic Corn