Confirmation!

[End Times]

Last saturday, I offered my BP a F/T medium rat after it had apparently been fed nothing but live mice its entire life and to my surprise it accepted it. Today, my ball slammed another F/T rat so I guess all is well and it'll take F/T from now on!

I noticed something unusual however, the other day I made a post asking how long it would take my bp to shed as it was displaying dull colouration and milky eyes... well today it looks fine, yet there is no shed skin in the rubbermaid! What the heck?!!?!? The dullness is totally gone, and I can't be certain the milky eyes are back to 100% normal as I didn't want to handle the snake after it just ate but I can at least confidently say that they are nowhere near how milky they were before.

Is this normal? A snake can't start a shed cycle and then just not shed can it???

[Edmond Y]

End Times, don't worry. After the dull skin and cloudy eyes for several days. Then the skin and eye will come back to normal look. after two or three days. he will shed the old skin. If you feed him now, it will take him to shed later. Remember keep the humidity higher. I will mist the tank a little bit when my snake is ready to shed.
Edmond

[End Times]

Thanks, so it's normal for him/her... to look, well normal? I figured they were cloudy right up to shed day... and oops... I already fed it. It accepted another F/T rat today...

[Cloudkicker]

No worries, this is completely normal. As Edmond Y said, make sure that it doesnt get too dry and don't be surprised if you see it soaking in it's waterdish over the next couple of days, also normal. You should find a shed in no later than a week from now. As for the rat it took, that really shouldn't be an issue, but for future reference make sure that you don't feed the snake when it appears to be going in to shed.
-Andrew-

[End Times]

Cool. Will do. I've done tons of research, and own the Ball Python Manual, but there's still just so much that it seems you can only learn through experience. This shed thing for example, I've never read anywhere that they go cloudy then look fine again before actually shedding the skin off! I just assumed they'd look dull right up until the shed came off! Now I'm a little paranoid about retained eye caps... I figured if one or both eyes was cloudy after a shed then that would be what it looks like, but if everything goes clear prior to the actual shedding of the skin, how do you know if the snake has retained an eye cap if the friggin thing is clear and looks fine like the snake does now!?!?!

[Edmond Y]

If there are retained eye caps after shed, the eyes will looks very funny and little cloudy again and you will soon notice the different, anyhow it only happened when it is too dry.
Edmond

[End Times]

No worries, this morning my wife woke me up and said the snake had regurgitated its rat from last night. In a panic, I said, "are you sure?" and headed to the room with the snake. She answered, "yeah, you can see the rat tail poking out from behind the water dish."

Well, I opened up the rubbermaid, and the "rat tail" poking out from the behind the water dish turned out to be the tail of the snake's shed skin! LOL! It appears to have come off neatly in one piece. I'm gonna give the snake until tomorrow to digest its meal a bit and then I'll give it a full examination just to make sure there aren't any little pieces of shed stuck anywhere on it. It looks as if there are not though, the shed skin is intact and appears whole so... again, more luck with my first snake!

[CARLiTO_]

Congrats, the eyes go cloudy and then clear up. The snake will only shed after the eyes go clear but I guess u know that now.

[TheMan]

CONGRATS!! Converted to f/t and a complete shed are signs that you are indeed doing a good job of taking care of your snake. Keep up the good work!

Sam

[End Times]

Thanks, Sam! I've been researching like mad and trying to do the best I possibly can for my snake and so far all's been going well. Now, to acquire a few more....

[Muhahaha]

just wondering, why does it matter if you feed the snake before he sheds? i thought they might refuse it but will it hurt the snake?

[CARLiTO_]

I have fed a snake during a shed with no ill effects. People say not to do it because the snake is already stressed out because of the shed and probably won't eat. Trying to feed it just adds to that stress.

[Kathy Shaw]

I have never heard of any ill effects from feeding durring shed. Many of my snakes eat even when they are dark blue. I know my snakes well enough to know if they are going to eat within a few minutes of dropping in the prey. If they are not going to eat and the prey is pestering them I pull it out.

[rrrrr]

Many snakes wont eat in shed, so I think the reason not to feed a shedding snake is to avoid wasting food. Some of mine will, and some wont. I thaw less food if any are in shed, but I offer some to everyone and see what happens. If I only had one or two snakes I would wait to feed shedding snakes unless I knew the snake would not refuse a meal.

[Cloudkicker]

As rrrrr said, it can be a waste of food even though some snakes will still eat during a shed. It can also add extra stress for the snake. Obviously everyone handles there collections differently and feeding my snakes while they're in shed is something I won't do unless I have to. I'm not willing to risk a snake stressing out when I can wait a few days and feed it when it's done shedding. Anyway, this is just a personal opinion.
-Andrew-