Reptile & Amphibian Forums

So, I mentioned before that my Leucy hatchling hasn't shed in two months. I noticed a few days ago a small patch of peeling on the top of his head. It almost looks like he had a bad shed and that small part is left. But, I throughouly cleaned out his tank...there is no shed skin to be found. I worry that I may have messed up. With my corn, it is always quite obviously when she has gone into blue, and so I mist her cage a couple times a day until she sheds...and she always has perfect sheds. With Worm, however, I'm afraid maybe I missed his blue period and therefor his tank was never humid enough? Or maybe he just hasn't shed yet..but why the strange peeling on his head? He never lost his appehtite or stayed in hidding like my corn does before a shed. I dunno. Anyways, here's a pic below, to show you what I'm talking about. Any adivice? Should I soak him? Or keep a moist hide in the tank? Or just wait it out?

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- JENN ROSE -
www.jennrose.com

0.1.0 classic corn~ "Pumpkin"
1.0.0 leucistic texas ratsnake~ "Worm"

first of all, you need to stop getting so worried...the things our herps put us through up until very recently i never noticed my juvi rats eyes getting blue. she would just shed with no prior hint of it. just keep the enclosure more humid than normal for a little bit and he should shed soon.
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"it takes a small person to beat a defenseless animal, and an even smaller person to eat it."

"it is better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to open your mouth and remove all doubt"
1.0.0 bearded dragon (spaz)
1.1.0 green iguana (zephyr,F and Liz,M)
0.0.1 columbian tegu (diablo)
1.1.0 knight anole
0.1.0 green anole
0.1.0 asian longtail grass lizard
1.1.0 golden gecko
1.0.0 ball python (guinness)
0.0.5 oriental firebellied toad
0.0.1 green treefrog
0.0.1 barking treefrog
0.0.1 cuban masked treefrog
0.0.1 gray treefrog
0.1.0 gulf hammock rat snake (fluffy)
0.1.0 eastern kingsnake (ms. king,kingy)
0.1.0 siberian husky (blue)
1.1.0 ratties (bonnie and clyde)
0.1.0 hedgie (karma)

Two months is not an inordinately long time without a shed - especially if they are a off feed a little due to time of year. Even in the peak feeding times, my young snakes usually only shed about every 6-7 weeks. Some go longer even in summer.

As long as it still eats I would not worry to much. You could get a humity gauge to stick in the tank for a while to get your base levels. luckly ratsnakes do not need too high a humidity to shed, unlike my boas.

I have 2 lucys (1 pink-eye, 1 blue) and I know it can be tough to tell when they are adout to shed. Make sure to watch their eyes for the cloudy coloring, that is what I do.

In this picture you can see a clay pot over on the right hand side of the plastic container. I use various sizes of these clay pots for all of my snakes. Kings, rats, corns, garters, they all love them. The perfect hidespot. You can make whatever sized hole you need on the bottom of the pot for you snake. Now what I really love about these clay pots is, when one of my snakes is in the blue, I grab a paper towl or two, and soak it. Then I ring out the excess so that you have a nice moist paper towl. Place the wet paper towls in one of these clay pots, place it back down in the cage. Bingo.You have a perfect moist hide spot.

Steve

I got some advice on this forum last year for my w/c BRS. I soaked a pillow case in water and wrung it out a little. Put the snake in it and tied the top. It took 30 minutes and all the skin was off. My snake had a very patchy bad shed. It worked great. Just make sure you check on the snake often, I dont know of any negative consequences of doing this, I had none.
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Jason