5 Month Old Stimson Hasn't Shed Since We Got Her

Aussie Pythons & Snakes Forum

Help Support Aussie Pythons & Snakes Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Cheltaran

New Member
Joined
Jul 19, 2022
Messages
3
Reaction score
1
Location
Perth
We purchased a Stimson's hatchling on 15 May, so we've had her for just over 9 weeks now. The breeder didn't mention when her last shed was when we purchased her, but even if she'd only just shed it's now been at least 9 weeks, and I was told that hatchies shed every 6-8 weeks.

The snake was hatched on 2 Feb 2022, so is 5.5 months old.

We've been feeding her weekly, and the last few feeds she's moved up to eating fuzzy mice. She gets them down without issue, but has refused the last 2 feeds. Last successful feed was 18 days ago.

I figured she was not wanting to eat as she was finally coming up for a shed, but it's been 2 weeks and nothing has happened. She might be going a bit dull, but it's really hard to tell.

Should I be worried? I know snakes don't always shed on clockwork, but is it normal for her to go this long without a shed?

Also, this might be a dumb question but we have the click clack set up sitting half on/half off a heat mat. We were told to set the hot end to 35 degrees. Should I be measuring the temp directly on the plastic, or on top of the substrate? Because it's sitting at 35 when I lift up the substrate and take the temp on the bottom of the tub, but measuring on top of the substrate is noticeably cooler. We have a paper towel down with aspen on top.
 
Last edited:
No need for any substrate just use the paper towel , beside from substrate not being needed it will make your temp control much easier not to mention cleaning
 
No need for any substrate just use the paper towel , beside from substrate not being needed it will make your temp control much easier not to mention cleaning
I'm going to remove the aspen and put the thermostat probe inside the tub instead of on the outside. I had the probe directly on the heat mat and then have been using a temp gun to check the inside temperature and adjust the thermostat accordingly. But after reading some other threads on here I think I'll get better results just putting the probe inside the tub.
 
They shed when they grow, feed more. It is winter now, so she probably won’t feed, don’t try untill middle of august Atleast, just a waste of your food otherwise
 
My stimmy of a similar age did something similar a month ago, she went probably 12 or 13 weeks without shedding, and then finally got blue eyes and went off of food and just laid in her warm hide without coming out for just over a week before finally shedding.

Once it had been a few days since her eyes went clear again and she still hadn't shed I started gently spraying her environment with a spray bottle of hot water twice a day to try to increase the humidity in case that was a problem, but eventually she got around to shedding and didn't have any stuck shed or anything. I think it's just the cold temperature slowing everything down, even when their warm hide is warm enough, things will probably speed up again as the environment starts to warm up again.
 

Latest posts

Back
Top