Reptile & Amphibian Forums

After my last snake shed, my poor Burm had some left on his neck, and the cap for his right eye. After reading a tip saying i should bathe my burm in warm water to remove the skin still on his neck, i still have no luck getting it off whatsoever even after constant soaks. I have set my humidity level to around 85percent constantly by moistening up the bark substrate a little bit. Is this bad? I'm litterally pouring small amounts of water all over the cage since misting for me doesn't help with the humidity as quick. My temp for the high's are peaking around 95degrees Farenheit. I am now giving my burm 30 minute warm water bath soaks up till he sheds. Will this be adequate for my snake to have a good shed? Any other suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks!

Too much soaking will do far more harm than good; when you take into consideration the amount of chemicals in normal tap water and the drying effects of having too much water on skin, you are only going to compound the problem. My burms have NEVER needed to soak in a large tub yet they ALWAYS have complete sheds. Why? Well, ambient humidity is really the key in keeping burms healthy. I try to maintain ambient humidity levels at around 80%. When my burms go into a shed cycle, I do warm water misting of the SUBSTRATE twice daily and only LIGHTLY mist the actual burm (and I only use distilled water). Unless you are using dechlorinated, filtered water as a soaking source, you will just do more harm than good. Just thought I would share that with you.

Rob Carmichael, Curator
The Wildlife Discovery Center
Lake Forest, IL

>>After my last snake shed, my poor Burm had some left on his neck, and the cap for his right eye. After reading a tip saying i should bathe my burm in warm water to remove the skin still on his neck, i still have no luck getting it off whatsoever even after constant soaks. I have set my humidity level to around 85percent constantly by moistening up the bark substrate a little bit. Is this bad? I'm litterally pouring small amounts of water all over the cage since misting for me doesn't help with the humidity as quick. My temp for the high's are peaking around 95degrees Farenheit. I am now giving my burm 30 minute warm water bath soaks up till he sheds. Will this be adequate for my snake to have a good shed? Any other suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks!
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Rob Carmichael, Curator
The Wildlife Discovery Center at Elawa Farm
Lake Forest, IL

Deffidently easy on the soaking, unless you have very good distilled water as Mr. Charmichael said. Humidity is deffidently the main key to a perfect shed, all of my snakes have perfect clean sheds, as you can see even my large snakes have 100% perfect sheds. I have had a problem with a 9' Tiger Reticulated Python one time, even with the humidity up he still wouldn't have a clean shed. But they do make a product called Shed Ease or something on the lines of that, and you soak your snake in it for about 20-30 minutes or so, it did seem to help some. Either way, I would monitor the humidity as good as you can. Also a factor in this would be the bedding you are using too, if you have a rough and gritty bedding, the shed skin is possible to rip, and he will just continue to shed, it's not that it's not having a clean shed, it's just the skin has ripped apart. Just 2 cents, hope it helps!
~Ben R.

Thanks for that information guys. I guess i should stop using tap water for my mist bottle now? I am going out to the store now, and wondered if buying the Brita tap water purifiers help? I used distilled water before, but it gets too tedious to keep buying it, and i would prefer a filter that i use at home. Also, i'm making it my sole duty now to keep my humidty around 80%. But i do have some problems regarding the misting though. It seems like my bark substrate doesn't retain moisture very well, and misting it doesn't keep my humidity level at the suggested norm. When ever i mist, all the moisture seems leave, and my humidty level dips to around 60%. I have resorted to pouring some water on the substrate to increase the humidity. Is this bad? If so, please let me know. Thanks.

I just realized we have those 5gallon water dispenser things. But this water contains Flourine. WOuld this be bad for my snake?