Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Oh my problematic girl, but that's okay I still love her.

So the other day was the day for my python to shed (her sheds have been great 'til now). I took her out to clean her tank, and during that time the shed on her belly started to come off. I placed her back in, upped the humidity a little, and left her overnight.

The next morning, she'd shed all of her stomach but none of her back. Huh. So I filled the tub and put her in for a soak. Most of it came off easily, but some spots were still not budging after half an hour, and looked thinner than the rest of the shed had been. I put a little mineral oil on the spots, upped tank humidity really high, and left her for the next night.

I think the oil did more harm than good, yikes. This morning she hadn't done anything on her own so I soaked her again while I dried up the tank, then pulled her out to GENTLY rub her skin. At this point it's pretty impossible to tell shed from not (I blame the oil on that one), and now spots of her are HORRIBLY peely. The peeling in the problem areas are really thin shed pieces coming off one scale at a time, and one of two things happen: either it's the shed and the scales are leaving pieces of stuck bits between the scales, or it's new scales and the 'shine' layer is coming off.

Since this is all definitely no good, I gave her a quick wipedown bath to lightly soap off any remaining oil, dried her and the tank, and returned things to normal as best I can.

She looks and acts fine, other than the patches. Never had a shedding problem before like this. Advice? Do I just leave her alone and try for a better shed next round to fix, or hop her over to the vet post haste? Inside her mouth is healthy, no wheezing, fecal matter and urates appear normal. There've been no recent changes to the tank or the room it's in.

I'm no expert, but if she otherwise looks healthy, I'd probably leaver her be.

These things tend to work themselves out. If it becomes a pattern with her, then I'd probably be concerned (alright- I'd be concerned right now too, but I tend to be obsessive-compulsive...).

Give her another round in between sheds, bump up the humidity (on a more permanent basis), feed, water, etc.

Got any pics you can post?

//Todd

Yeah I'm admittedly a little obsessive compulsive sometimes. Here's a photo, hard to see but the new scales that got the shine peeled are on the left, and the right has some spots of previous shed (just hard to see, in person and in photos).

Yeah- I'm no expert, but doesn't look like a big deal to me.

When my female was younger, she had several pure white spots after a shed- turned out, that she completely peeled off all of the pigment off the scales. I was really worried, but after the next shed, she was back looking like the water jewel she is!

Jasin,
You ever see this before?

//Todd

You're "killing w/kindness"!!!!!! Next time, spray her down and leave her alone! She'll do the rest!

Quite possibly. She's had problems shedding before on her nose due to a bad scar (that she had when I got her), and the advice I'd been given for that was a tiny bit of mineral oil since it's so hard to soak a snake's nose. So it was mental standard procedure to try that.

Though now I'm not sure if the oil did it, since she's got the flakiness where she has no trouble shedding (but still her back, everything is fine along the belly).