Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Ok, I'm new to this so advise would be really appreciated.

My ball paython shed last week. It did not go particularly well but by bathing him in warm water and gently rubbing the areas of old skin he has managed to get rid of most of it. I have done this nightly but he still has a layer of old skin over the back of his head and over his right eye. He has got better and better with me as the days have gone by as he was initially very jumpy but whenever I go near his head he is not happy at all and tries to get his head away from me as quickly as possible. Does anyone have advise on a good way to remove the skin over his eye? Or possibly any advise on holding the head steadily so that I can gently sooth the skin over the eyecap? I have heard in the past of people using sticky tape that has had the adhesive rubbed away a bit to quickly stick to the eyecap and pull it away but that seems a bit dodgy to me and I do not wish to distress the chap any futher.

Cheers

You can try to peel the excess shed from around the eye off gently after misting his head for a couple of minutes. If the only scale remaining on the head is the eyecap scale, it's fine to just leave it until the next shed (one layer should come off easily with the next shed cycle so long as you provide adequate humidity next time around).

When my snakes start going blue, I dampen their substrate (paper in my case), and leave it on the moist side until shed is complete. When I do this faithfully, I get perfect sheds.

Good luck,
Christy

By misting the head do you mean spraying it with water? Thanks for the advise.

When that happened to one of mine, I had a very reputable breeder use the tape method to get it off. It came off in one try and he has been better ever since. I tried waiting until the next shed but he just stacked up two of them. I also know it didnt have anything to do with humidity as my other one has full, clean sheds every time.

Yes, I mean misting it with water .

Regarding the following post. Tape definately works in the right situation - but, if you don't know what you are doing you can damage the eye by using tape, tweezers, etc., to remove the cap. It is true that some balls seem to retain eyecaps regularly (eye shape issue?) even if humidity is right - and for those you may have to resort to using tape or tweezing.

But, in your case, the problem is humidity, as evidenced by the lousy shed. I'm betting that if you just correct that problem for the next shed, the cap will come right off with the rest of the shed. Waiting is less intrusive and less dangerous to the eye, so that's why I went with that suggestion .

Christy

If you don't want to mess with his head yourself, try leaving him in a damp pillowcase for an hour or so, and let him rub it off by himself...

I just did this for the first time 2 days ago. Hold the snake or have somebody else hold the snake then dampen a paper towel untill it is soaking wet, hold the wet paper towel on one of the snakes eyes for 3-5 min. Then very carefully rub the eye cap off it should come off very easy. The repeat to other eye. Hope this helps. I also use the shed bag but i have found with eye caps it doesnt work all that well. Goodluck Thomas