Reptile & Amphibian Forums

My young water snake is having a strange shedding, he do all the stage of the normal shedding but his skin is going off scale by scale instead of in one piece !?! Can this be cause by a too dry terrarium ? In that case would it be a good idea to mist him once or twice a day ? He still ate normally but he look like his skin is very dry. I have him soak a bit this morning, i rub him gently and all i got was some scale going off. Any hint on this ?

Mizar

It's interesting that your snake is experiencing this sloughing problem. All of my water snakes at times have this happen to them. Most recently, my big redbelly though shedding most of her skin, did so in peices with remnants still attached. This despite the fact that they all have large bathing dishes provided at all times.

I'm leaning towards thinking that the heat provided at their
"hot spot/shelter" is too intense and therefore drying the oils that separate the old to new skin. It is not the ambient room humidity that is the root cause. Most have under-tank heat pads (that are covered to protect the occupants from burning) which creates an extremely dry local enviroment.

I know I have to find a balance of "appropriate" heat without providing damp housing. Last weekend I purchased a humidifier hoping to overcome the dry problem BUT, humidity is difficult to control; with an ambient room reading of 45% when the reservoir tank is filled to 75% within hours of use, damp conditions prevail! Even at this, I suspect that they (the snakes) remain too dry (are baked dry) by the under-tank heater.

Even though the snakes seem to love their hot-spot, perhaps too much of a good thing is'nt so good. I'm attempting to create a more "gentle" warm area by spreading the heat out a bit. This is done by creating an inaccessible (to the snakes) air space in the tank just above the heater, thereby providing the same volume of heat but less intense or localized.

Here in Canada, with enviromental extremes often day to day, climate control is a challenge!
Michael

Over heating...that's what i was thinking too this after noon. These last few days, temp around here is around 29 celsius (84 f) so i guess that this plus his usual heat...it might be pretty hot ! I use to have his light open just a few hours a day but i guess that even that is too much. Do you think that just the ambiant heat and lighting might be ok for a few day ? Where his terrarium is, he will have an hour or so of direct sunlight early in the morning...Is there anything i can do about this "sloughing" or time will help ?

Mizar

Wow, good question (probably 'cause I was wondering that too). I've been afraid of turning off their heat pads because it's only about 25 deg C in their room. This is in the basement (constant chill from the floor) but I have a space heater running all the time. I too have lights on in each terrarium.
My biggest concern is the baby snakes (yearlings) getting a chill but as I write this - I just checked again - all the snakes are sitting in the cooler part of their cages!
Today I will unplug all heating pads and use only the room space heater (24 hours) and the lamps (12 hours) until the ambient temp drops to below 25C. I have a digital thermometer with memory to check min/max temps over night.
Michael

No worry about the temp here, it dont go very much lower than 25 C at night. I was wondering about the fact that he will get less light than usual if i close it. But in the wild, dont they use to hide in bush or under some plant ?

About that sloughing...can i do something or it will go away on its own ?

Mizar

I would definitely work to remove the remaing skin, with warm water baths OR as I did last week for my yellowbelly - I used a cotton bag (old bank cash sack) that has a heavy texture. I soaked the bag with warm water, put the snake in it and allowed him some time to get good and wet (damp really). Then I held him while still in the bag so that he would crawl through my fingers. All the skin came off! My biggest concern was the one eye cap that was still stuck on before I "bagged" him - the warm, wet bag and the gentle rubbing did the trick perfectly - and I was'nt bitten once!
I'm sure an old pillow sack with no holes would work just about as well, but the heavy woven, rough cotton bag was great!
If your only heat source is the lamp you can (1)turn it off, 'cause as you say the room's warm enough with sufficient ambient light or (2)put a lower wattage bulb in so that he can pretend to sunbathe.
Michael