Reptile & Amphibian Forums

This is the weirdest thing. Any input appreciated.

My snake was ready to shed - skin was coming off any day. I come into the room the other morning and she's laying there with her skin backwards. I touched her a few times and got no response. Thought she died.

By skin backwards, the only explanation I have is that she shed, but then crawled back inside the skin backwards. Her head was inside the skin near where the tip of the tail was. She was 95% inside the old skin. (!)

And she wasn't moving. Limp and lifeless. Picked it up and put it down - nothing. No movement for hours while I waited for the guy I got her from to come over to see the spectacle. Then finally we thought we saw her head move a little.

Took her to the vet, and he thought sure she was dead and was baffled by the skin. He started pulling it off and she woke up and startled us all.

Now she's moving around like nothing happened. We all thought she was dead. Any ideas on what happened here?

Thanks

Sounds like she was suffacting herself inside the shed.
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Please don't talk about snake prices when my wife is around!!

That's exactly what happened. I've had the same thing almost happen a few times over the course of many years. I have two sheds saved right now that are perfect circles from the snake's crawling back inside and continuing on toward the tail.

On one, I had to tear it out and rescue it, or it could have suffocated too. It sounds ridiculous, but weird stuff happens every once in a while..LOL!

Another snake I had years ago crawled around the water bowl as it shed, and crawled right back into the mouth of the shed it just crawled out of, and finally came out the cloaca vent, just like a tight little window..LOL!

It is a VERY rare occurrence, but it can happen once in a blue moon!

Weird, but true!

~Doug
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"a snake in the grass is a GOOD thing"

I have seen this before a couple of times over the years.. Next time, if there is one, i would remove the shed asap..

~ Mike Russo

Photo by. JKRUSE

Sweet black cap Mike.

Thanks Bud.. That is my only blairs phase keeper of '09... and, i produced a few.. ~

~ Mike Russo

...man, that alterna is flamin' perfect! WOW!!!

The vet was the one that ultimately removed the shed... hours after you found the snake not moving?

?????
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Josh Loehr

I removed the portion around it's head immediately upon discovering it. Left the rest on because 1) I thought she was dead, and 2) the guy thought I was insane and there was no way possible for a snake to crawl back in its skin and he wanted to see it.

On one of the times I mentioned it happening to me earlier, I actually "WITNESSED" it crawling back into the mouth of it's shed, then it got trapped at the end around the cloaca vent, and was obviously panicking a bit because it could not escape because it ventured too far in at this point, and the tight shed had him trapped as well, as it could not back-up either..LOL!

That is when I ripped the cloaca part of the shed, and some of the rest of it, and pulled it out myself. I think it could have easily become overwhelmed with it's own carbon dioxide from it's own breath in the extremely tight quarters. It would be similar to a small child suffocating in a large cellophane bag.

Weird, but true!

~Doug
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"a snake in the grass is a GOOD thing"

Why would you take a dead snake to a vet ?

]

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Doug L

The original post did say "Then finally we thought we saw her head move a little" so they knew she wasn't dead.

"The original post did say "Then finally we thought we saw her head move a little" so they knew she wasn't dead."

Yes. It was actually about 30 seconds away from being disposed when her head moved a bit. Vet was close & easy.