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OntheLeuc
05-27-12, 01:05 AM
Just had a question about my leucistic rat snake shedding... I've looked up previous topics, and read up on it a bit, but wanted to get some more opinions.
My Leucistic Rat, Banshee, is almost a year old, and has shed fairly easily until now. It's getting towards summer, and our house gets warm and dry, and as this is my first summer with her, I'm going through it slightly blindfolded. I know that she needs more moisture then she is getting, as she just had trouble with a shed two weeks ago. She's shed in pieces, but made it through shedding completely, except for the veery tip of her tail.
I helped her get the last couple inches of shed off her tail, but the last 1/6 to quarter of an inch on her tail I'm not sure about. Trying to help her rub it off, and the rest of her tail kept feeling as if the shed was still on it, felt like I was still taking off old skin, when it was already shed. Didn't want to be hurting her if that part was dry or something...:confused:

To conclude my little speech, :hmm: just wondering how to go about determining if she still needs to shed that last bit or not. It appears to be one solid scale at the last tip, and the scaled part ends in that one solid piece. Don't want her tail falling off as I've heard about, but also don't want to try pulling off a natural part of her tail if she's completely fine, and has shed all the way. Would appreciate anything you can tell me, as yes, this is the first time one of my snakes has had trouble with a shed. Trying to be as wise about it as possible.
Thanks!

Toronto1977
05-27-12, 06:47 AM
Just had a question about my leucistic rat snake shedding... I've looked up previous topics, and read up on it a bit, but wanted to get some more opinions.
My Leucistic Rat, Banshee, is almost a year old, and has shed fairly easily until now. It's getting towards summer, and our house gets warm and dry, and as this is my first summer with her, I'm going through it slightly blindfolded. I know that she needs more moisture then she is getting, as she just had trouble with a shed two weeks ago. She's shed in pieces, but made it through shedding completely, except for the veery tip of her tail.
I helped her get the last couple inches of shed off her tail, but the last 1/6 to quarter of an inch on her tail I'm not sure about. Trying to help her rub it off, and the rest of her tail kept feeling as if the shed was still on it, felt like I was still taking off old skin, when it was already shed. Didn't want to be hurting her if that part was dry or something...:confused:

To conclude my little speech, :hmm: just wondering how to go about determining if she still needs to shed that last bit or not. It appears to be one solid scale at the last tip, and the scaled part ends in that one solid piece. Don't want her tail falling off as I've heard about, but also don't want to try pulling off a natural part of her tail if she's completely fine, and has shed all the way. Would appreciate anything you can tell me, as yes, this is the first time one of my snakes has had trouble with a shed. Trying to be as wise about it as possible.
Thanks!

In my experience with incomplete shedding, all one has to do is provide a moist hide for the snake, in the form of a tupperware with an entrance hole cut-out at the top, with damp paper towels (cheapest option). One bad shed isn't going to be detrimental, but if it repeatedly happens, I would be concerned. Hope that helps!

GarterPython
05-27-12, 11:38 AM
Easy fix. Get more humidity. There is always a way to provide enough humidity it just might be harder than you want it to be. Also pics would help.

jaleely
05-27-12, 06:02 PM
humid hide, or tupperware with paper towels, cloth, moss, works great! if you provide that over a little bit of the warm end, i bet you'll find a happy coiled up snake in there. Doing that will also moisten the end of the tail, which will make the shed fall off on it's own..OR it will moisten it enough that you can help remove it once it's pliable.
Tupperware with moss makes all my critters happy! : ) good luck..and we love pics, i'd love to see your snake! : )

Snakefood
05-27-12, 08:57 PM
yup, tupperware with damp moss.

and I have seen tail tip damage in corns caused from bad sheds, so get her a humid hide right away and get that end off!!