Reptile & Amphibian Forums

My albino het. female began to shed last night. Tonight she was at least 98% done, except for a portion directly on top of her head and a portion on her back. Prior to shedding, she had the normal milky appearance to her eyes. Now after almost a complete shed, she still has what appears to be a dull look to her eyes. It's not the same milky look prior to shedding, but it's not what her eyes look like normally. As far as I can tell, her head has completly shed except for the small portion directly on top.
An help/suggestions would be greatly appreciated. I tried to photograph her eyes, but the pictures were no good.
Thanks
Russ

Most likely she has retained her eye-caps. Try to gently get hold of the edge of that skin on top of her head and slowly peel it toward her eyes (one side at a time). Most likely the eye-caps will come off with that skin. Just use common sense and be gentle.

Laura

I'm against manually peeling any shed off a snake unless there are extenutating circumstances. This will work just about 100% of the time, and be much less traumatic and gentler on the animal:

If (and that's IF) they're having a bad shed, put them in a damp pillowcase for a few hours in their cage (so it stays at the proper temps). Presto, they'll shed out. Don't like the pillowcase idea? Put them in a container with damp rags or paper towels, it'll have the same effect. Both work wonders, just give them a few hours to work (in rare cases it might take longer). I have never had either of those methods fail to remove even the snallest piece of shed. I just had a girl with a lot left on her head (eye caps, mouth, etc), and after a couple hours in a damp pillowcase she was completely free of old shed.
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Astronomy Picture of the Day

One more thing.. make sure the water you use to wet the pillowcase or rags is about the proper temp for the snake - around 85 degrees. Measure it, don't guess.
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Astronomy Picture of the Day

This method worked perfectly when I first got my little guy. I used a water temp of 90 and sat it on the warm side, a couple hours later it looked like he had been through the magic snake wash. I was amazed.

I testify to this method! My baby was in there for only 40 minutes and his skin came off like a dream! Try it!
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