Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I've only had my young ball python long enough to see it shed once under my care, and it came off in small scraps over a period of a couple of days. This is in stark contrast to my corn snakes, who shed all in one piece. When I notice the ball is going into the blue-eye stage, I start misting regularly to raise the humidity from the normal 60% up closer to around 70 or 80. There's also a fairly large bowl for soaking that I've never seen used. Is it normal for ball pythons to shed in pieces, and I'm concerned only because I'm comparing apples to oranges by wondering why it doesnt shed like a corn snake? Or is there something else I need to be doing to help this youngster shed more successfully? Thanks in response for any suggestions.
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0.1.1 Corn Snakes
1.0 Western hognose
0.0.1 Ball Python

of problems. Most of the time, it is due to low humidity. But in many cases it can be health related. Do you live in a dry region?
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Jay A. Martin
Jay Martin Reptiles

yeah, i live in el paso texas- smack dab in the middle of the chihuaua desert. i guess i'll mist more frequently and see what happens. thanks!
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0.1.1 Corn Snakes
1.0 Western hognose
0.0.1 Ball Python

In that case, you may want to add a humid hide box. Living on the east coast of Florida, I don't have issues with humidity - well, being too little that is.
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Jay A. Martin
Jay Martin Reptiles

El Paso huh...i've gotten drunk at the surf club there once,then there was the cab ride to Mexico,but we dont' wanna talk about that...

I have two cages that were always dry,(since they are made of wood).I tried misting,but i could never keep it high enough for a good shed.So now they get two water bowls.A large one on the cool end and a smaller(but heavy)one on the warm end,and it seems to have taken care of the problem for me.

Good luck to you.
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Charles Glaspie

My balls all shed in one piece but I really wet them down during the shed cycle. I use paper as substrate, and when I see one heading toward blue, I wet the paper down (meaning the paper is soggy not just a bit damp - there is some pooled water in places). In a day or two the paper will be completely dry (Ohio winters are arid), and I wet the paper down again. I keep doing this throughout the shed cycle until shed takes place.

When I used mulch as substrate I did the same thing, making the mulch quite wet during shed.

When my animals are not in shed I wet their paper down when I put in fresh paper once a week. Making the paper wet after I put fresh in also molds the paper to the tub as the paper dries and makes cleaning very easy. So, in general my animals' cages get pretty drenched once a week and gradually dry out. But, during shed they are kept pretty soggy.

I have never had any scale or skin problems this way - because even though their enclosure is wet a day or two it always has the chance to dry out.

Christy

Keeping a moist hide in the cage with the snake, especially once they hit the 'blue' stage will certainly help with shed. Something I have to do myself actually, as the last shed of my ball python was not the greatest (mostly whole but broken pieces here and there, none retained fortunately). I would have misted more but didn't know she was in shed...either she was in blue just before I bought her and I didn't notice, or I just can't tell on a ball python. Then again I didn't notice that phase on my ghost corn, but she shed in one piece. Fortunately the humity of my health is rising now that we are hitting warmer and wetter weather, interior humidity is in 30s instead of about 4 over the winter.