GTP poor shedding-advice?
Hi guys, I know I had a similar thread up about my GTP having a weird wrinkling and "looseness" to her skin, but she has since shed and it has resolved. However, I am concerned about her sheds. I have had about 3 months and she has shed twice for me, and has never had a smooth, one-piece shed, or even close. I have her in an Exo-Terra 18"x18"x24"tall glass tank with a screen top and side vents to facilitate air flow. I have her hooked up to a MistKing system that mists every other hour for 45 seconds from 8am-8pm and again at midnight, followed by a dry-out period for the rest of the night. I have a stick-on hygrometer (I know these aren't the best, but I haven't found a digital one yet. I have a digital thermometer though) which consistently reads 70-80% humidity. It is set opposite of where the mister is aimed, so it will (hopefully) read ambient humidity. This past shed of hers was quite strange. Her eyes never clouded up, although she did shed eyecaps- I checked the head piece. When she began to shed, she stayed still on her perch and it just slowly pulled off in little pieces. I was on vacation June 4-9 and had a neighbor checking the snakes and watering daily. She said the shed was coming along well, but when I came back, the cage was littered with little pieces of shed skin- on the walls, the lid, the brances, the water dish, and the GTP still had considerable amounts on her. I soaked her every other day and cleaned the cage out. I got the last bit of shed off of her last night, but I am a bit puzzled as to why she's having these problems. I know it must be something environmental, something lacking in my keeping. I welcome any advice and help. Thanks in advance! I have done my best to replicate the conditions I've read about on breeder sites, but something isn't right. Oh, also, she is 3 years old, so quite young, and she has a small scar on her nose from a mouse bite before I got her. She now gets only frozen/thawed, as the vast majority of my snakes do.
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Dr. Viper
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