Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I'm not sure where else to ask this question. I recently acquired a wild caught red spotted beaked snake. He's my first rear-fanged snake.

He came in with a bit of retained shed on his tail, and I was wondering, what's the best way to remove it while minimizing the chance of getting bitten? I've handled him four or five times and he's been completely docile each time, but I'm nervous about poking and prodding and manhandling.

What's the safest way?
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0.0.1 jungle carpet python - Hydra
0.0.2 ball pythons - Kurtz and Marlowe
1.0.0 red spotted beaked snake - Admiral Beak
1.2.0 corn snakes - Valis, Orlando, and Geislandi

1.0.0 bearded dragon - Shackleton
1.1.0 Chinese tree dragons - Trapezoid and Trapezium
1.0.0 crested gecko - Lampkin
1.0.0 golden gecko - Nosferatu
0.0.1 house gecko - Clubfoot
1.0.0 leopard gecko - Darwin

1.0.0 Southern toad - Lurch

1.2.0 cats - Moony, Lucky, and Ziva
0.2.0 rats - Kara and Tilly

2.3 betta fish
Lake Malawi aquarium - mbuna, peacocks, synodontis multipunctatus
South American aquarium - Bolivian rams, diamond tetras, emerald corydoras

Roach colony

Put some tepid water (about as deep as your snake is thick) in a shift can or plastic bin with an escape proof lid. Get a nice big clump of paper towels and put that in the water and then add the snake and lock down the lid. Most likely he will lose the retained shed overnight. If not you can leave him in longer till it comes off or gently remove it manually. If you have any suspicions he will bite you can get him to go into a restraint tube or gently restrain his head with gloved hand.

95% of the time shed will come off with the water/paper towel treatment without ever having to touch the animal.

Peter
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Peter and Sara
Beouf River Reptiles

Place it in a cloth bag, and then place the cloth bag in a container with 1/2 an inch or less of water, just enough to make sure the cloth will be wet. It was to be really really shallow to avoid drowning.

Leave for 2-6 hours and check.

I would suggest NOT putting it in a bag or with paper towels (unless the poster meant a dry tub with damp papertowels), both run the risk of turning into a soggy, suffocating, mess. Rather, if I were you I would put it in a tub of tepid water with something more substantial such as a porous rock or piece of cholla branch. The water depth can be as stated previously (1/2" or dia. of animal)but I would use something the snake can actually rub against vs. the other methods...far more likely to get the skin off this way.

you could also put them in a DRY tub with damp paper towels and see if that is enough. I have used both methods and they work well.

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Cheers
Lateralis
"I would rather be precisely wrong than approximately right"
Marion "Doc" Ford

Pour some Hydrogen Peroxide in a cup, and then use a snake hook or tongs or stick, whatever, to dip its tail in that.

Then, they can be placed in rough materials like burlap sacks and it will aid in peeling the skin off.
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2.4.0 Leopard Geckos
0.1.0 California Kingsnake
0.1.0 Copperhead
1.1.0 Eastern Box Tutles

Soak him in the tub with worm water for 15-20 min. and it should wipe right off . David