Reptile & Amphibian Forums

My female ball has been having dry/incomplete sheds for a year and a half now, ever since I acquired her as a neonate. Believe me, I've given her high humidity before and during sheds; I've soaked her in warm wet pillowcases or towels in plastic boxes (on top of UTHs or heating pads, to keep from chilling her) sometimes for 8 hours a day, 3 days in a row, to try and help her out; I've let her crawl through warm wet towels, gently, after her soaks; yada, yada, yada...and now she's still not only having strippy slow sheds, but I'm pretty sure she has developed some layers of eye cap on at least one eye. SO I'm wanting to try something like Shed Ease, but isn't there a homemade version I could put together with, like, lanolin or aloe and/or a drop of glycerin soap or some tiny amount of a surfactant, rather than spending lots of money on a bottle of some concoction? Surely somebody who breeds balls (or other herps) makes up their own stuff and wouldn't mind sharing the recipe? I sure would appreciate it!

1.1 CB ball pythons
0.1 CB boa constrictor
1.0 CB florida kingsnake
0.0.2 CB california kingsnakes
3 years of experience with gophersnakes, the above, blood python, and a rescued & re-homed retic...in other words, have read a bunch of books but I don't know squat yet

Thanks in advance---
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kiter

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http://forums.kingsnake.com/view.php?id=609788,609797

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Astronomy Picture of the Day

Yes, I have tried this method; thanks for the suggestion. I still think I need to resort to something to help her skin hold moisture through her shed. I've tried misting her enclosure twice a day, to the point that I had to check her often for belly rot. That didn't work either. I'm wondering if just lanolin on my hands while I handle her will help - I wouldn't think it would be toxic to snakes, but I'd hate to take a chance. Still hoping for a recipe.
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kiter

This makes it penetrate much better. Just use the smallest amount of dish washing soap you can, and mix with a little water.

Dish washing soap (liquid) is probably the safest since only a very small amount is needed, and it has a very low toxicity since it was developed for us to wash our dished in it!

I've never had a problem with my pythons shedding, but I have used this on some of my colubrids with excellent results.

I put them in some regular water first to make sure if they want to drink, they will drink pure water first.--Just to be safe. Then I add the "soap water" for them to soak in for a while.

Rodney

The soap is toxic to snakes.. Simple you just need to get a bottle of mineral oil. around 2 dollars at walmart.
Coat the snake then 15 days later again, twice should be enough. This will solve your problem.
How is your tank setup? You may wish to get a Large water bowl so the snake has plenty of room to soak.

Mineral oil sounds safe enough, actually, thanks. Obviously I wouldn't use anything with any fragrance. The soap idea had occurred to me, but only if it were a fragrance-free olive-oil-based soap, and then only enough to act as a surfactant, which breaks the water surface, which actually sounds like a practical idea since our water is pretty mineral-y. And I had been thinking, just touch the dry soap bar with my pinky finger, then swirl it in a pint or more of filtered water since it takes very little of anything to be a surfactant. OTOH, we just installed a reverse-osmosis water filtration system, so from now on I'll be using that water as opposed to Brita pitcher water for my snakes. RO is supposed to get the minerals out, too, or so I'm told.

Plenty of soaking space for my girl - large bowl for soaking in addition to a couple of small bowls in case the big one gets pooped in or anything. But I check them every day, and change them as needed.

Really, I don't think it's a problem with the cage setup (55-gal tank, perfect temp differential, multiple hides, clean, couple of rocks for rough surfaces, multiple water dishes/soaking bowls; believe me I've read everything and am adhering to it perfectly I think. No probs other than I can't possibly provide perfect humidity all the time since I'm in central California where it's very arid, other than when a bit of coastal fog rolls in. But I mist, I soak, she's fabulously healthy other than the year and a half of strippy sheds.

Maybe my other question, then, is whether anyone knows whether lanolin is toxic to snakes? It's the natural grease from sheep's wool, so if it's not mixed with anything, wouldn't it be okay, too? Or are sheep toxic to snakes?

1.1.0 adolescent normal balls
0.1.0 boa constrictor (var. LARGE)
1.0.0 florida kingsnake
0.0.2 california kingsnakes
2.2.0 bad cats
1.2.0 semi-sane humans
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kiter

Mineral oil is likely to cause premature shedding, which can be life threatening.

IMHO, Shed-Ease is a rip-off and does nothing that plain water can't do.

Paul Hollander

Why would dish soap be toxic to snakes??

Maybe if you gave your snake strait soap, you could do some damage, but that is true of anything. Oxygen is very toxic if the concentration is just a little to high. As is too much water (drowning!-LOL), heat, etc. but a very low concentration would be extremely safe.

It must not be very toxic, because I raise animals for a living, and I raise hundreds of snakes every year. I have used this remedy dozens of times (after trying commercial products that cost way to much, and don't work any better than just water).
I have never lost a snake that I have treated this way, and never seen any bad side effects either. Plus, dish soap is readily available (everyone has it in their home--no special trips to get it), it works, and it is very cheap.

Sounds like a wives tale to me.--But, after raising animals for a living for about 12 years, I have heard a lot of wives tales that I have proven, by experience, to be totally false. (and I've heard some doozies!)

I would worry a lot more about putting oil (or anything not water soluble) on a snake, than liquid dish soap that was diluted by about a million to one. Plus, since oil and water don't mix well (one of the reasons oil should be much more dangerous) the oil would be much harder to "rinse" off once the treatment was done, while the soap could be easily, completely rinsed off.---Though I have never done this, since the concentration is so low anyway. I just soak the snake in some soap water for a couple of hours (until it sheds its skin by itself) and then return it to it's cage.

Rodney