Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Since the cold has come to our area the furnace is coming on more and the air is drying out...I notice my snakes are having more trouble shedding.
They all have water bowls, heat pads, and lights..but they will not go into a humidity chamber.
What if I put a vaporizor with water to promote a little steam into the room only at night while all the lights ore off..except the black lights. This way I will be home when it is on. Thanks
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All creatures great and small we are to care for them all.
4 Corns,6 Kings,3 Milks,1 German Shephard,1 Cairn & 1 Giant Schnauzer

I don't know how many snakes you're talking about, so consider that my advice may not be feasible with a large collection.

I have the same problem. What I did was simply put each snake in a plastic shoebox with a little water on the bottom and place it over a heat pad for about 15 minutes or so. This helps to thoroughly hydrate the snake. Doing this once a week enabled my snakes to never have problems shedding during the very dry times of the year.

If you have a dedicated snake room, an inexpensive humidifier can help alot. You don't need much humidifying to correct things. Good luck.

>>Doing this once a week enabled my snakes to never have problems shedding during the very dry times of the year.

mark,
it would be an interesting experiment if some year you did your soaking process for half your snakes and didn't for the other half, and see if there was a diff in their shedding processes. doing them all and noting they didn't have any probs (and attributing that to your treatements) is like subscribing to the newspaper and suggesting a causal relationship to the fact there are no elephants in your yard LOL. I bring up the subject because i'm reading a neat book on the emergence of "natural philosophy", the scientific method, and I was reminded that i didn't do ANY of the special care you do but the outcome was the same--all my snakes shed fine too. ( i realize i'm in florida where it's pretty humid and you may be in the driest part of the country, so my comparison is not valid science either).
Regardless, this is a chance to learn more.
peace
terry

I am scared to death of humidity and even soaking bowls. I've had a snake die from soaking. Never had one die from not soaking. What I do is when I notice a snake is in shed I write an "S" on their container in dry-erase marker. After the eyes clear up I put a humidity box in with them until they shed. Works for me.
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The way to safely "soak" is to use barely 1/8" of water for young, and barely 1/4" for adults. During the dry season where I live, I did this routinely for my sinaloans and boas with great results. Never needed to for pituophis and some other types. What did you do to have a snake die from soaking?