Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I noticed my corns shedding comming off in peices despite my trying to keep the humidity up in his cage. Last night I soaked him in some tepid water for about twenty minutes and then let him crawl sandwiched between a rough towel. Worked great, the rest of the shed came off...except for the very tip of his tail. I tried just soaking his tail with a wet cloth for several minutes and repeating the crawl in the towel but it's still there? I put him back in his enclosure (I could tell he was starting to get a little bit annoyed with me at this point), misted the enclosure and threw a wet towel over the top almost completely covering the screen to keep it wet (which is what i've been doing for the past few days to aid with the shed). I'm HOPING that between the moisture and all the slabs of rock I have in there it will come off. But what can I do if it doesn't? How long should I let nature try to fix it before I intervene again? Are there any other tricks for that tip of the tail shed that is being stubborn? I would hate to have him lose the tip because it didn't come off. Also, I can't find the piece of shed from over his head so I don't know if the eye spectacles came off either, should I be concerned?
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Chantel a.k.a. sillygirl
"I came, I saw, I adopted"

2.4.0 green anoles
2.2.0 green tree frogs
0.0.3 D. tinctorius (Cobalt froglets)
0.0.1 Anerythristic 'B' (Charcoal)corn snake
2.4 Domestic house cats
1.0 Rottweiler
1.0 Husband (who loves all my critters too)
AND I play foster care for 3 homeless kittens & their mom for a few weeks for the shelter.
(and not even going to count what I raise as food for all these guys)

I have no brilliant solutions, but here's what I do for very tiny snakes when their tails won't shed. I get them hydrated so the skin is wet, just like you've done, then I take them out and with DRY fingers gently but firmly start above the broken skin and tug gently down, like rolling off a pair of stockings. Dry fingers will slide harmlessly over healthy skin, and catch on the wet, unshed skin. At least, theoretically. I occasionally will use my nails gently to get the edges pried up, but you have to be careful on very little snakes not to pinch too hard and break the tailbones.

How long is the unshed section of skin. In my experience, the shorter the piece, the harder it is to remove because the skin underneath has less 'give' and bend the closer to the tailtip you get.

Your other choice is to let it dry out a bit (because you will have to restore normal humidity at some point) and then try to do the same thing with the dry skin, using wet fingers, dry fingers, and your fingernails. Dry skin can be made to flake off, often in 2 - 3 big pieces.

I'm sure your baby will be fine. If all else fails, catch the snake in the middle of the next shed and take it out, then help it shed the final piece of the tail. The old shed will come off with the new. I have had to use this method on tiny baby house snakes.

Good luck, and I really hope this helps.

As for the eyes, don't worry about it until the next shed, then make SURE that they come off with that one.

--Naamah

Instead of going thru all the rituals after the shed just mist the cage daily when you see your corn is getting ready to shed.I had the same problem with my guyana redtails,and it's no fun useing a wet washrag to take the shed off between the eyes...Good Luck ..Paul..

how do you guys mist your cages?
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0.0.1 pacific gopher snake ; Mich
0.0.1 amel corn snake ; Andy
0.0.1 motley corn snake ; Shmee

np

yeah, i got one of them, but the mist isnt really that fine..should i just spray the snake down?
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0.0.1 pacific gopher snake ; Mich
0.0.1 amel corn snake ; Andy
0.0.1 motley corn snake ; Shmee

.
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0.0.1 pacific gopher snake ; Mich
0.0.1 amel corn snake ; Andy
0.0.1 motley corn snake ; Shmee

Last night when I got home I got Popcorn out and noticed that pesky 1/4" piece of shed still stuck to the very tip of his tail. BUT the good news is I also found the head piece of the shed and it DID have the eyes to it so those did shed. For the tip of the tail I took a wet cotton ball and just started stroking the tip of his tail downwards and after about 10 strokes the piece of shed came off. WOOOOHOOOO....Damn I hate it when I get paranoid about my animals.

Anyways, happy ending, he downed two fuzzy mice in less then 7 mins right after that so full and content he went back into his cage.

I think I'm going to start using that humidifier I have in my house that's been sitting there unused for ever now. I have a reason now.

Thanks again everyone for the help.
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Chantel a.k.a. sillygirl
"I came, I saw, I adopted"

2.4.0 green anoles
2.2.0 green tree frogs
0.0.3 D. tinctorius (Cobalt froglets)
0.0.1 Anerythristic 'B' (Charcoal)corn snake
2.4 Domestic house cats
1.0 Rottweiler
1.0 Husband (who loves all my critters too)
AND I play foster care for 3 homeless kittens & their mom for a few weeks for the shelter.
(and not even going to count what I raise as food for all these guys)