Reptile & Amphibian Forums

My year old yellow rat started shedding last night and did not have a complete shed. The shed on the head to the back of the neck did come off incuding eyes.The rest of his shed came off clean. I noticed that he appeared to be a little dehydrated last week even though I have a water dish with fresh water every day. I have a humidity box inside his enclousure also.

So what should I do? I have a spare 10 gallon tank not being used so should I put some warm water at the bottom of the tank with some paper towels and a rock to help with the rest of the shed? How long can I leave him in there for? I placed him in his water bowl today and he stayed there for maybe 5 mins tops then when I turned my back he was gone into a hide box.

This guy ALWAYS hides. Another question is why would he NOT come out of hiding to drink water? I mean its very quite at night time and he still won't come out. I actually took him out of the subtrate and placed his face in front of the water dish because he started to get little folds of skin behind the neck.

This is the first time the eye caps did not come off with the shed(I couldn't find them with the rest of the shed anyway but some of the shed did not come off clean but in pieces so it's hard to tell.) How long should I wait for him to try to shed this? I read that retained eye caps can cause a snake to go blind? Is that true on ONE shed or multiple sheds? Should I wait a few days then take him to a vet or should I wait to see what his next shed is like?

Thanks for the advice!

The temp of the cage is 85 on the warm end and about 77 on the cool end. The subtrate is aspen and the shed did NOT come off the head and eyes. Sorry I had a typo from the first post.

I can't answer the questions on the eye caps, but if I have any problems I lock mine in a large tupper ware with warm water for a few hours and this has always finished up the shed. Now I do prevenitive and lock them in there a couple of days in a row for a few hours just prior to shed. This is not a good solution if you have many snakes. I only have four. Good luck.

Yeah,I placed him inside his humidity box and he stayed there for maybe 30 mins before he decided to hide in his coconut hide I made for him. I checked this morning and found the rest of his shed on a piece of cork bark hide complete with eye caps and all. I had planned to take him to the vet tomorrow if he didn't shed it off but looks like that trip can wait.