Reptile & Amphibian Forums

i need help, i bought my first ball python, hes on his second shed, his first shed was disasterous and hes now on his second, and its the same story.. a MILLION different peices, and it took him about a week to get it all off last time, he has a humidity chamber AND i spray his terrarium everyday, what else should i do

P.S im posting this because he has an eye cap that hasnt come off yet and im starting to get worried that this is a health problem, thanks for your time

This happens to my two also. When it does I soak them in a plastic sweater box filled about halfway with luke warm water with the cover on for about twenty minutes. I also take a wet wash cloth and gently go over the eyes. After a couple times the caps usually come right off.

I still use the ol' bathtub for soakin', but this will work in any size container. Put warm water, enough to cover about 2/3rds of the thickness of the snake, in your container. Put a folded towel, of appropriate size, in the container. Once it's wet all the way through open it and place the snake on the bottom half. Cover the snake with the wet upper half. The snake will get a feeling of security from the weight of the wet towel over it and usually stay in place till it starts to get chilled. Let it soak in this as long as necessary. When it decides to start leaving the container just apply some pressure with your hand on it's back. This should remove any stuck skin. If not, what's left can gently be rubbed off with the towel. This is probably a bit over explained, but once I got started I couldn't stop my fingers . Hope it helps.

Quig

First question is how long have you had him? If he's newly acquired he could be under stress which will lead to improper sheds.

Second question - what is the humidity level in the cage? And is he actually using the humid hide? Often times, they won't go into the humid hide so you need to make sure you bump the humidity up in the whole cage.

To remove the shed, I prefer to use a warm wet wash cloth and just let the snake curl up inside for a little while, then coax him to crawl through it, skin comes of fairly easy, gently rub his eyes with the wash cloth and the caps will come off too.

Hope this helps.
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Tosha

8.15.0 Ball Python (Harry and Fluffy and currently un-named)
1.0.0 Angolan Python
0.2.0 Feline (Pippen and Pandora)
0.0.1 Dessert Tortoise (Pope)
2.2.1 Fish (1,2,3,4)
0.0.3 Lizards rescued from pool skimmer

Take a look here:
Sweat Box

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Jay A. Martin
Jay Martin Reptiles