What things cause a snake to go in and out of a shed?

[sanna]

What things cause a snake to go in and out of shed?
My 8 month stimmi will go dull, grey and milky eyed for a day or two then she will go back to normal (although slightly duller.) Then a few days later she will repeat this process up to 3 times until she finally actually sheds. The whole process normally takes about 2-3 weeks. This wouldn't really be a problem really, if it weren't for the fact that she is a fussy eater and is not interested at all in eating while she is shedding. And as she sheds pretty often, I usually only get 2 maybe 3 feeds in before she is repeating the whole process again.

Just wondering if this is normal? I have tried giving her a bath in luke-warm water with ShedEze but if anything I've noticed that this prolongs the shedding process :/

Temps are fine as far as I know. Warm end where her hide is (and where she spends most of her time) sits at about 30 degrees with just the heat mat on but during the day I put her globe on which brings it up to around 34/35 degrees and she will often come out and bask on her rock. Cool end around 26-28. Nice large water bowl. When she does shed they are complete sheds with only a few small tears around the head.

Any suggestions? Is this normal or?
Thanks

 

[cathy1986]

yeah normal although mine dont go grey 3x just once then about 3 or 5 days later she sheds only hungry after a shed not during or coming up to one

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[thomasssss]

cant help at all with the going in and out of shed but just a tip , that shedeze stuff is crap , if it looks like they might have a bad shed (which it sounds fine there anyway) then just a light misting with water will help raise the humidity and dont worry about frequent shed when their growing hatchies one of my womas shed 2 weeks apart 4 times in a row and then did the same thing a few sheds down the track , her weight records showed significant increases between sheds so the breeder and a few others all said the same thing that it was just a growth spurt

 

[mysnakesau]

Frequent shed could be quite normal but can also be caused by external factors.

How much are you feeding her? Youngsters do shed more often than older snakes as they are growing. But you say she is a fussy eater. But even so, everything she eats goes into helping her grow.

Mites can be another cause of frequent shedding as they try to get rid of them. But if you have soaked her, you would see the black specs floating in the water, if this was the problem.

Injuries are another reason why they might shed more often than considered normal. If she has been burnt, hurt herself, even injections piercing the skin can make them react to thinking their skin needs repairing so will go through a shed cycle as often as needed.

Retained skin from old sheds is another to watch for. Once or twice, some retained skin won't be a problem and will come off next time, but if it doesn't, it will glue back down to their fresh skin and they can be carrying layers of old skin without one even noticing. They can go into frequent shed cycle trying to get rid of that old skin.

 

[sanna]

How much are you feeding her? Youngsters do shed more often than older snakes as they are growing. But you say she is a fussy eater. But even so, everything she eats goes into helping her grow.

Mites can be another cause of frequent shedding as they try to get rid of them. But if you have soaked her, you would see the black specs floating in the water, if this was the problem.

Injuries are another reason why they might shed more often than considered normal. If she has been burnt, hurt herself, even injections piercing the skin can make them react to thinking their skin needs repairing so will go through a shed cycle as often as needed.

Retained skin from old sheds is another to watch for. Once or twice, some retained skin won't be a problem and will come off next time, but if it doesn't, it will glue back down to their fresh skin and they can be carrying layers of old skin without one even noticing. They can go into frequent shed cycle trying to get rid of that old skin.

I'll normally give her 2 x velvet mice (not sure if that's the name that people give them on this site, they are two sizes up from a pinky) which she gets down veryyy quickly haha, don't think i've ever seen a snake eat as fast as she does! Some people have said that she is better off just having one large meal instead of multiple smaller ones but I have asked the guy that sold her to me (family friend of my boyfriends who has one of my girls' brother/sister) and he advised me against going up a size just yet as it would be too big for her. So I think if she is willing to have two (which she always is) then I will stick with that until she is ready to go up a size. I feed her every 6/7 days. She is growing very rapidly which does explain the frequent sheds, more so in length than width but have noticed that she is starting to fill out a little bit more which is good (but definitely not looking overfed as far as I can see.) It is more just the whole going milky eyed then looking normal then milky eyed again for a while before she actually sheds.

I have looked into mites as I was a little concerned about some marks on her neck (white-grey dots) but they went away as soon as she shed so I'm assuming that was just part of her shedding process.

No sign of injuries as far as I can tell! Her heat mat is inside of her tank (as the bottom is plastic grooves then glass on the bottom of the tank it did not heat through the bottom any where near enough) but it is covered with a tile to prevent her burning herself and thermostat controlled (although I have turned it down since the warm weather has come back.) So I doubt she would be able to burn herself on it as I have tested the temps that the tile reaches multiple times on all different areas and they are fine.

No retained skin on her. Her last shed she did completely herself with nothing left behind and her one before that she had a small bit still stuck on the end of her tail but I removed that after about a day as I was advised that it could possibly cut off her circulation if left on.


Just a quick question. I have recently changed her tank from astroturf to sand. Although it is reptile sand and I was told by the lady at the reptile store that it would be fine to use for a stimmi I'm wondering whether it is a bad idea? It isn't too fine and I don't feed inside of her tank so she can't injest it while feeding. It looks nice but of course I'd rather do what is best for my snake Any suggestions?

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View attachment 267125 View attachment 267124 Just a couple of pics of my girl. First one is recent (within the past couple of weeks) and the second is older (over a month ago.) I may be biased but I think she's the prettiest of them all

 

[Jande]

yeah normal although mine dont go grey 3x just once then about 3 or 5 days later she sheds only hungry after a shed not during or coming up to one

Same here. 4 days after the colour seems to 'return' for the most part mine shed. It's always 4 days later, too. 2 of my Childrens do it so I would agree that it's normal.

 

[Pythoninfinite]

If the snake has mites, they will of course "go away" after a shed, because they will be removed with the skin.... but they will return...

Jamie