Crappy Shed

[sam78s]

Our Spotted appears to be having a bit of a crappy shed. The front half of his body has come off (I've found his head section and his eye caps came off) and his back half is coming off now. It's all in bits and pieces. I was wondering if it has anything to do with him being missing for the last week (he suddenly reappeared in his viv tonight, with bits of shed around the tank) and being a bit dehydrated, maybe? At what point do I worry? His last one was about a month ago and came off in almost a whole piece.

Thank you.

 

[Senator358]

Put him in a tub of tepid water, around 28C, and let him soak for 20 minutes. Take him out and remove the rest of the shed yourself.

 

[Bluetongue1]

A poor shed is symptomatic of an underlying issue. You have suggested inadequate hydration and this is indeed the most common cause. Snakes will not drink water that has stood for a day or more. Therefore they should be provided with fresh water in a clean water bowl at least three times a week. They also should have access to hides that are a tight, cosy fit with a restricted entry rather than large, spacious and open. The tight spaces, which they prefer, helps them to reduce water loss through breathing and to conserve body heat acquired when basking.

My preference would be to do as Senator suggested but rather than peeling it off by hand, place the snake in a moistened calico bag, moist towelling in a container or a pillow slip lined with a moist towel. So long as the material is just moist and not sopping wet, the animal can be left over night if necessary. This way it will shed the remainder by itself.

Blue

 

[andynic07]

As Blue has pointed out it probably is due to dehydration. You said that the snake was missing for the past week or so, was he hiding really well or got out? If he got out that is a pretty good cause of dehydration as there may not be water in the area he escaped. I hope that you have found how he escaped and resolved the problem because that is a bigger issue than a bad shed and as Senator stated give it soak to fix the bad shed.

 

[sam78s]

Thank you for the tips. I've given him a soak and some bag time. Most came off over night, there is a little still on the tip of his tail. I'll check him again tonight.

We've absolutely resolved the escaping issue. It was his first night in a Repti Zoo 30cm cube enclosure, and while we thought we'd escaped proofed it, Jake proved us wrong. That was was he reappeared in, and the first thing we did was put him back in his click clack. He's still a baby, 3 months old, and obviously he can get through the smallest gap.

Thanks again.