Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Ok, this has been bugging me for some time now. I have been told that if you pull an eye cap off of the eye when it did not come off with the shed, this will pull the eye itself out. But others say to go ahead and gently pull/rub it off. Is this true? Since I got the snake, the top back part of the eye if you are looking down at its head from the top, is like skin tissue blue where the eye meets the head. I am just wondering if his eyes were damaged by pet shop and are somewhat pulled out of thier socket. He seems to see ok, but pokes this head at stuff alot if he moves into it as he tries to find a way out. I can also see his pupile move around within the eye. Does anybody elses snake have this blue color?

The color I am talking about can be seen on the snake in the message "weird-"Black"-Whatchamacallit Ball **PICS**" a few posts below but this snaks has the blue towards the front.

Thanks,
Mike

On the Weird black .....Ball, what you are looking at is the tissue around the eye itself. Its more evedent on the darker snake. If this is what yours looks like, leave it alone, he is fine!

It is probably a stuck eye plate. Closely examine around the cicumfrance of the eye. A tell tale sign will be a rough edge of skin that surrounds the eye itself. This is where it has torn away from the main skin. If this is the case, a drop of baby oil dropped onto the eye plate will soften it up before you remove the plate. Give it a good 10 minutes. Take hold of the ragged edge of skin and GENTLY pull the pate off. I have successfully used this method on hundreds of snakes over the past 30 years. There were no forums or personal computers back then! If you are unsure weather or not it is a stuck eye plate, then LEAVE IT ALONE. If you start tugging on a good eyeplate it could cause serious damage to the eye. Any way of posting a close up pic of the eye?

I have a snake that has some blue coloration around her eyes. In this case it's just her coloration (she has lighter eyes) that make it noticeable. She sheds her eyecaps every time with no problems, so this may be what's going on with yours also. I wouldn't try to do anything or assume it's a stuck eyecap until the next time it sheds. Just check the shed skin to make sure the eyecaps aren't being retained and if so, then take steps to remove them if necessary.