GTP poor shedding-advice?

Will0W783 · 06-17-09, 01:41 PM

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.

citysnakes · 06-17-09, 10:36 PM

Willow, in the other thread you mentioned how you took the heat lamp off of the screen top because it was getting much to hot in the exoterra. i would suggest covering up the entire screen lid with plastic to reduce the amount of total ventilation. this will keep more moisture within the air within the tank but keep an eye out for mold. if you see any mould growing then you need to slightly increase the ventilation or reduce the misting. youll have to experiment to find the right combination of ventilation and misting. ventilation is important but you dont need as much ventilation as you may think especially if you are openning the enclosure once a day to manually mist or maintain.

i think the mistking you have in there is unnecessary. a 45 second mist each hour for eight hours it too much. obviously this is not working as proven by the consistently bad sheds. you need to raise the humidity within the environment by other means and reduce the amount of misting as it can cause problems later on.

cover up most if not the entire screen lid and experiment with your ventilation and the amount you mist the tank, use a substrate like cypress mulch or newspaper and get a water bowl with a large diameter. if you follow these steps you should be able to keep up the humidity even if you are housing the GTP in an exoterra.

sometimes i only mist my GTPs a few times a week and i always get perfect one piece sheds. this just goes to show how influencial the environment is on the health of your animal.

im writing this post pretty late so i hope it may actually help.

Will0W783 · 06-18-09, 07:44 AM

Thanks Julian. I will try those suggestions. What temps do you keep your GTPs at?

Will0W783 · 06-18-09, 09:53 AM

It's 45 second mist every other hour for eight hours. What kind of problems could this cause in a GTP? I have the same set-up for my ETB, and she sheds in one perfect piece every time.

citysnakes · 06-18-09, 07:33 PM

a wet enclosure is not necessarily a humid enclosure and a constantly wet enclosure is not good for many reasons.

like i said sometimes i only mist a few times a week. my enclosures are humid, not wet and my GTPs shed perfectly. clearly your mistking isnt working for you and you need to try a different approach. your GTP and ETB are unique animals from different species. what works for one may not necessarily work for another sometimes even within the exact same species.

you need to experiment with the amount of ventilation your enclosure has and the amount of moisture you introduce into it.

what type of substrate do you use?

Will0W783 · 06-19-09, 06:05 AM

GTP has coconut bedding and ETB has forest floor

MegF · 08-30-09, 06:20 PM

As stated, wetness does not equate humidity. Humidity is the amount of moisture that is in the air. I mist my enclosures once an evening so that the humidity comes up to around 90% and then let it dry out until it's at 60% humidity or so. I don't care for automatic misters as they tend to get algae and bacteria in the lines and I use the misting time to check my animals over for health. At shedding time I might mist twice a day or really soak the substrate (I use sphagnum moss) to make sure that the humidity levels stay up. Often lack of drinking water is a cause of poor sheds. I spray the animal directly with water in the evening so that they can drink off themselves and I also have a large tub of water for them to drink out of. I had one chondro that had poor sheds the first few times but she seems to have outgrown the problem.

Will0W783 · 08-31-09, 07:58 AM

I check my misting system weekly for algae and such. It sprays directly at the perches, so I know she's getting droplets to drink off of herself. I've also seen her come down and drink from her bowl.