Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I just got my first venomous snake 2 weeks ago and it was in the middle of shedding. Well it shed and left skin down the middle of it's head and tail by it's rattles. I tried to soak it and raise the humidity in the enclosure but nothing seems to work. I even went as far as trying to hold it securely and use tweezers, but it got too hot for me. If anybody has any other methods that might work without touching it please let me know?
thanks

If it shed its eyecaps and the skin around its tail doesn't go all the way around its body I'd just leave it until next time. This skin might not come off without you pulling it off and I don't really feel secure describing how to do that in a forum post.
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Eryx - All the fun of a boa in a convenient pocket size!

I SENT YOU AN EMAIL WITH MY INFORMATION BECAUSE IT IS AROUND THE TAIL TIP AND EYE CAPS ARE STILL ON!

Well, did it work or what? Leave me hanging why don't you? I tried the same thing on my Russel's vipers (pictured below) and it worked great. Well, at least the guy told me they were Russel's vipers.

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Eryx - All the fun of a boa in a convenient pocket size!

It worked great. I only had to scrape the first coulpe scales off so that it could do the rest on it's own. thank you so much for the information, and like you said I (and everyone else who has venomous reptiles) need to learn how to use the tube method because it takes alot of the risk out of working close up with these wonderful but life threatening animals.Thank you again for all your help,
Jeremy

No offense, because everyone starts out as a novice, but you should have thought about how you were gonna handle situations like this before you got a hot. A simple problem like a retained shed becomes a little more problematic when you add venom to the equation.

AP

n/p

It's very odd how they keep constriciting their mice but they certainly are snappy enough!
(I was sort of embarrassed to say... "it worked on my sand boas"... but this hasn't happened to my hots yet!)
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Eryx - All the fun of a boa in a convenient pocket size!

hi,

i'm itching to know what you told the guy, i'm always looking for new ideas and approaches. just a couple of hours ago i had to peel most of a shed off one of my edwardsi (the biggest, wiggliest, nastiest one i have, but my prime breeder). all she got off on her own was the center dorsum. i was out of town over a week, just got home this morning, so what was still on was on pretty damn good (dry and hard). i was 100% successful, down to the eyes, pits, labials, all that, but nobody had much fun. i don't like leaving ANY skin on until the next time - i lost a nice eastern hognose as a kid that way once. and i like your private approach with the advice, to not encourage newbies to try things they're probably not going to succeed at anyway. so shoot me an e-mail if you like. my approach involved a warm soak and a tube, of course, but with no tape or other such potential fubars. the head was the worst, naturally, but i left that for last so she was pretty tired. like psilocybe basically said, it happens, and you have to deal.

cheers,
jimi gragg