Does anybody else hate it when your snakes are in shed?

[TRD]

Maybe she's simply not drinking enough. Snake doesn't drink enough, snake doesn't shed well, but otherwise may have moisture enough to be well. I have a similar experience with a milksnake. She's healthy as can be, but she's not drinking from the water bowl for whatever reason and as a result isn't shedding well as it requires quite some water intake prior to starting the shed cycle. She gets whatever water we can get into her by feeding her wet mice... absolutely won't drink a drip from the bowl.

It's interesting because nelsoni milksnake is suppose to live in close proximity to water streams in their natural habitat. I'm not sure why she's not drinking from a bowl (and we tried many different ones). Maybe because the water is not in motion, maybe because she feels exposed (though we have moved the bowl to different places and also covered it). She just doesn't use it. Even my KSBs come out to drink at night and I see them drinking on regular basis. The nelsoni, never, not once.

It's one of those things that's bugging the hell out of me. I wish to provide well for her and make her comfortable, but she's just really not the type that is going to do well in captivity for some reason compared to my other snakes. I almost completely stopped handling her to see if there would be any change, and also provided a lot of leaf litter in her enclosure to give her tons of hiding options, moved her terra to a more silent area, but nada. She's seclusive around the clock. Now I'm thinking about what I can try next. Not drinking is the most worrying, I'm not sure how milksnakes get their water in nature... I read that snakes who drink from streams in nature may not recognize standing water in a bowl as suitable water source... but nelsoni is a well established species in captivity, so I doubt that applies here.

[Andy_G]

TRD...just because you don't witness it, doesn't mean it isn't happening.

[GyGbeetle]

Originally Posted by Andy_G

TRD...just because you don't witness it, doesn't mean it isn't happening.

That's what I've been told too. But if you're worried that it's the standing water, there are some water features that provide continuous flowing water to put in their enclosures, if you have the room. I thought about getting it for some of my snakes, but they're kinda expensive, and I have a lot of snakes, and I'd feel guilty if I bought it for only one, and the rest didn't get one. Plus we're redesigning everything so I'm trying to be cost efficient until we transition to new enclosures.

If you end up buying one, let us know how it works out. I'm curious to know if snakes will enjoy it