Eyes too big for his stomach?

[liedra]

Hi all!
I just fed my 6 month-old coastal a largish rat pinkie/fuzzie (probably the largest he's ever had) and it was so big it split his skin! Now I don't know that he was ready to shed, I didn't notice that he'd clouded, but I was away for a day and a bit over the weekend so he could have then... He has kept the pinkie down for 12 hours or so and (I think) shed all his skin (I checked his eyes particularly), though it's not that nice clear colour, it's dark.
Is this normal? He seems okay, if a bit irritable, but he's always like that ;-)

Thanks!
- liedra

 

[junglesrus]

By skin you mean his old skin he is about to shed?

if it is only the old skin you will find that it will shed it skin tonight.

buy tommorrow you should find it sitting in the enclosure.

i often have pythons that will feed a day before they are due to shed.

this happens, when like you i have not seen them go through the opaque stage.

If you can mist the enclosure with warm water (not the python) to increase the humidity this will make shedding easier.

Darin

 

[Magpie]

Liedra, the best way to check that your snake has shed his eye caps is to look at the shed skin, not at the snake. Just a matter of finding the head part of the shed and making sure the eye caps are there.
Re. the feed causing the skin to split, I'd say he'd have to be within a few days of shedding for this to happen but it is the first time I've heard of it. :?

 

[liedra]

Thanks guys,
Yes, I did mean the skin he was to shed - it's like the pressure of the food going down split the old dry skin and sort of forced him to shed. Unfortunately he then went and lounged in the water bowl for a while, and then executed an award-winning sloughing maneuvre overnight that meant that the shed skin is now a very soggy ball of stuff that is pretty mushed up and not at all easy to work out what parts are there or not I have it drying now so I can check it out but I don't have high hopes for being able to see any features in it.
I can see why it would have happened, if the old skin is ready to shed, it becomes brittle and non-stretchy - when he goes to eat a largeish food item it stretches his body about and the older skin just can't cope with being stretched like that...
Anyway, I think he's okay; I'll keep you posted if anything more exciting happens

 

[africancichlidau]

That mushy ball of stuff you talk about will be a lot easier to unravel while it is still damp so dont let it dry out completely before you do it. Once you find the head it will be very easy to see if the clear eye caps are there or not. Good luck.