Reptile & Amphibian Forums

about 4 days ago I Checked on my juvenile jcp with I hadn't seen out of her hide in a day or so. When I checked on her I found her with milky blue eyes and a really dull coat. So I figured cool she is getting ready to shed. I went and looked up some suff about shedding, and I basiclly said that she will become very inactive around which time her eyes will turn and her scales will become hazy. then in about 7-14 days after that her eyes will lose their hazieness and she will shed her coat. I just checked on her and she eyes have lost all their haziness but her scales aren't at all hazy. she hasn't shed yet. she looks exactly as she did before she started shedding. She looks like she need to deficate and is still really inactive. I wasn't going to write and give her a few days, but I figured I would ask if that is a normally how a shed occures or what. I am keeping her humidity at 60%-70% and her temps are 86 degrees warm hide and mid 70's on the cool side. I am new to this and any inputs would be appricated.
chuck

sounds all normal to me. although i don't worry about humidity except at shedding times. so after yours sheds i would drop the humidity a bit.
my 6 foot male will go up to 2 weeks from starting to cloud up to actually shedding. so any day now yours should shed.
p.s. mine also deficates after shedding so yours should 'go' sometime also.

good I wanted to make sure everything was ok I don't keep her humidity that high normally around 40%rh is that about right? I follow Anthony Caponetto" care sheet he has posted on his web site pretty closly.
chuck

yea, that's what mine is. about 40% the rest of the time. i also really like acreptiles.com. it's a great site for the care of carpets and other snakes.

Hey what do you know she shed last night.I have still a few more questions. she shed almost all her lenght except her last 2 inches which I soaked her today and it came off. when they say an incomplete shed being an indicator of an unhealty snake. I am totally confident she is in great health but is that an incomplete shed. I just read that an incomplete shed often times is an indicator of how healthy your snake is, but my question is what exactly is an incomplete shed is not sheding her coat in one piece is that what they mean or what. Hey also I looked pretty closly to make sure her eye caps were shed it looks like it. her eyes are really clear and I can't see any edge of the cap I am cool right.
chuck

I'm just a pet owner also so not sure what experts consider an 'incomplete shed' is. The eye caps are a big deal so always make sure they have come off. You can see them on the shed skin. A couple of my snakes have shed all except the end of their tails also. I just moisten them and the shed comes right off. I think it could be a humidiy issue also. Even though I spray down my tanks when they are in shed I will also take out the snake its self and mist them down as well. I've always gotten great sheds doing that too. I also keep water in their tanks all the time.
To me an incomplete shed would be if it came off in several pieces. Sounds like yours is doing fine.

I have:
1 6 foot JCP
3 corns
1 honduran milk
1 sonoran gopher
3 fire belly toads
2 anoles
2 dogs
4 cats