Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Ive got 3 tiny tiny baby popes vipers, 2 of which shed a few weeks ago. The male, who hasnt eaten as readily as the other two, toook a few weeks longer to show signs of shed. I mist him and sprayed shed-aid on him and finally his eyecaps and head peeled- but the shed stopped after that. the enormous head peice came off and he is unable to get the remaining skin to detach from his new skin. I attempted to soak him for a few hours and even tried gently rubbing the area where his old skin remains, but he is just too small to get to stay still. I may try forcefeeding him and perhaps that will loosen the skin a bit for him? Anyone with advice on this tiny little guy please help! he is visibly uncomfortable and continues to rub to get his skin to lift- to no avail! Its been 3 days.

Try keeping him in a delicup with soaking wet paper towel and then back in it's cage..... that way it will be in constant contact with the water and if the snake is still determined to get the old skin off as it seems the case, it might have better success this way.

Rob

Also add a few twigs in, to aid with the shedding.

Hey there TexasReptiles...

I don't wish to offend you(please I hope I don't) but would putting twigs in defeat the purpose of having the animal in with the soaking papertowel? The reason I say this is by keeping the snake exclusively on thw wet substrate, the dry shed will act as a wick for the water and hopefully saturate enough that it will come right off... I have found this to work with emeralds which also have very thin skins that can stick like glue if you are caught off guard.. I tried putting them in a delicup setup with a branch and they stayed on the branch the whole time not allowing themselves to re-hydrate.... after removing the branch and forcing them on the towel, my success went up... just bouncing ideas around.... anyhoo hope your lttle popes comes out of it fine...

Rob

No offense taken. I didn't say the twigs to be used as perches, as that would surley defeat the purpose, as we are talking about arboreal snakes here, I meant, add them to the floor of the deli cup so they could use it as an aid (to rub upon) to come out of their skin.
Randal

Pope's are a nightmare when the don't shed properly. Even after soaking them for many hours the shed will remain tightly attached. Something about their skin that doesn't allow for easy shed removal once they don't get it off during the critical time period.

Soak the animal in shallow water for a good day, then get an assistant and some fine forceps and start picking. It will probably come off in tiny pieces. You may want to focus on the tail, and remove as much of the body as possible. Feed the heck out of him to get him into a shed cycle again, and watch the humidity when he goes into shed. It will all come of with the new shed.

If anybody knows of additives to placed in the soaking water, I'd be interested to know.