I work in a pet store and am relatively well traversed in reptile care. Nonetheless, my ball python who is approx. 2 feet long is having some shedding problems. I dont have a humidity monitor in my cage. I have a heating mat under the cage, hide box above it, and a lamp on the opposite end. A bowl full of water and some wood/shrubbery purchased from my store. My girl's eyes turned blue probably about 5 days ago.. dissipated about a day and a half ago. She's having an incomplete shed so I proceded to soak her for a half hour in luke warm water and now only the bottom half of her is shedding. I am going to monitor the humidity starting tomorrow when i go to work and buy the necessary monitor. I have a spray bottle of which I have sprayed the substrate with and I monitor the temp so I assumed the humidity was ok. I am really worried about her bc I love my snake and I want her to be as healthy as possible. What did I do wrong that resulted in an incomplete shed? What needs to be done?
Answers:
When a snake has problems shedding, it is almost always a humidity problem. Ball pythons need at least 55% humidity. That can be hard to maintain in some areas, so you'll definitely want to get a humidity monitor.
Also, there is a problem with the heating sources you have in the cage. You say that you have an undertank heat mat on one side of the cage and a heat lamp on the other. That means that you aren't providing a proper temperature gradient for your ball python. One side of the cage needs to be cool and the other should be warm. You don't want both sides of the cage to be warm. Unless you have your snake in a 55+ gallon aquarium, remove the undertank heater. If you can't keep a basking spot in the warm area at 85-90 degrees, then put the undertank heater on the same side as the heat lamp.
Most likely the shedding problem is due to the humidity being too low, but the heat sources could be contributing to the problem.
You may need to help your snake shed this time. If the eyecaps don't come off on their own and you've never manually shed eye caps, get a reptile vet or a reptile rescue worker to show you how.
look in the reptile isle @ ur store...im sure they sell the zoo med shedding aide...its cheap and im sure u would get an employee discount too so it wouldnt cost you much more than $5 if that...u just rub that on her once a month when its time for her to shed and the skin comes off wonderfully...sometimes in one piece...good luck!
I have owned snakes before, and have encountered this problem. You will have to help your baby shed.
Here is a website you can go to about shedding.,
I rescued a ball python and he'd had an incomplete shed right before I got him. To prevent this from happening again, I went to the pet store and found a vitamin spray that helps keep the skin moist and healthy. I don't use it on my ball python every day.maybe two or three times a week at most. The rest of the time I just let him soak in his water bowl or mist him lightly with water.
His first shed with me wasn't perfect because he was still stressed from the incomplete previous shed...by the second time his skin came off in one piece. Whoot for vitamin spray! ^.^
I want to echo the comments about improper heat gradient. I lived in the Northwest where avg room temps are 60-something, but I was still always telling people NOT to use a heat pad. I did with mine, but it was a small pad on the SAME SIDE as the lamp. The water bowl was near the middle, and I also misted.
I would keep a very close eye on your baby girl. It is not uncommon for young snakes to have some issues shedding, but that doesn't not mean it's OK. I rescued several Ball Pythons with pnuemonia that initially were shedding issues, and none of them ever survived pnuemonia, even with Antibiodics.
Instead of a luke-warm bath, you may want to try a very warm washcloth. I would take her into the bathroom while I took a shower with the overhead heatlamp on and the fan off, then after the shower wrap her in a very warm, moist cloth. I did this with a very ill carpet python that lived to a second shed, although it lost an eye due to infection, succomed to pnuemonia.
If the bad shed is over her face at all, take her to a vet; if she doesn't eat soon, take her to a vet.
Good luck.
We have two snakes (one of which is a ball) and we found that after we brought both of them home they had a terrible shed. Since then though they have both had great sheds and we didn't really change anything.
We have a theory that the bad sheds come from an environmental change.
It sounds very much like you are do what you need to do for the bad shed though the only additional thing I might suggest is to add a rough (but not cutting -quartz or pumice) heavy stone into the tank so that the snake can rub safely against it.
Best of luck!
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