shed

[Pythonian]

I have just been taking my snakes skin off for about an hour. I noticed how ugly the skin was and how sickly she looked and the skin from the belly was VERY loose.. so loose i could fit a pencil inbetween it and the snake.. so i soaked her and start to rub her and an hour later all the skin was gone :) .. wow what a job!!! .. but yea she looks beautiful :)

Mike

[Bryce Masuk]

nice avatar :D glad to here your snakes doing good

[Linds]

I'm a bit confused :confused: Were you removing some leftover skin that your snake didn't get off, or were you taking it all off for your snake, before it had the chance to do it itself?

[Grant vg]

i was thinking the same thing....

if the snake had not begun to shed, its not good to jump the gun.
whether you were able to take it off or not, if theres no sign that the snake has attempted to get it off, its probably not ready to.
Its like peeling a banana b4 its ripe....k, maybe a bad analogy, but you get my point.
Not sure of what(if any) bad things can come of doing something like that, but id imagine the skin to be a little tender as well as increasing the chance of an infection, due to the less-then-developed scales which usually shield a snake from many bacteria's
if you have your humidity up to par, it should be able to shed on its own.
in the future, i wouldn't do this again.
theres no point.:)

gvg

[Pythonian]

Sorry i've been away so i haven't had the time to respond. The snake looked terrible. she obviously tried to do it herself but the humidity was at 60% and i guess wasn't moist enough there was shed skin hanging off of her in the back and i saw 2 or 3 pieces of skin inside her cage. i picked her up after putting my hands in water and some skin just came off my hands from doing that. I have no doubts in my mind that she tried to do it herself. but she was very dry and could only get very little off.

Mike

[Grant vg]

ok mike, just lookin out for u bud!

[Pythonian]

yea thats cool man thanks. I was actually kinda nervous about that cause when i was taking the skin off it made a "ripping" noise. So i don't know if thats normal cause i never witness a snake shed.. ripping is a bad work... but it's the only thing close to what i can say. maybe a little like velcro? i dunno.. but yea the snake had no problems with it except for having to soak and when i was taking the eyecaps off she didn't like me so close to her face.

Mike

[RachelS.]

Bloods usually don't like they're heads being messed with so much. I have helped with Sauron's eyecaps and had to literally wrestle him and "pin" him down with my body weight just to help him out. You really don't realize how strong they are until messing with them in that manner. I felt bad for soing it, but it helped him a lot, and his eyes looked nice a blood-red :).

[Linds]

His skin wasn't moist enough to be taking it off if it made any sound at all. They have lubrication beneath their skin which aids in the shedding their old skin. It shouldn't be firmly attached, and if it is it should be moistened enough that it just slides off with a little assistance, not with force. This can injure the snake and is very uncomfortable for them.
My advice for removing eyecaps is -don't-. There will not be any harm done if they are left on. If not done properly, the snakes eye can be injured. IMHO they shoudl be left, increase the humidity and make sure your snake is adequately hydrated, and they should come off with the next shed.

[Burmies]

Now she knows you care.

Burmies