aaargh....he\'s shedding in bits

[Lisa]

My baby boa's started his first shed since I got him. I've been keeping the humidity up around 50 to 65 since his eyes went opaque but his skin is only coming off in bits...what have I done wrong?

I've just misted his cage to try and get the humidity up higher and he's got an extra waterbowl over the heat mat. Should I switch the light off, it might be drying his skin out. I read that you can use hand cream.......is it ok to out aquaeous cream on him?
[addsig]

[XzyluM]

If he hasn't lost all of his old skin, you could soak him in luke warm water for about 10 minutes to help with the shed and using your thumb to gently rub the skin. This will loosing up the skin or it might just come off while you are rubbing it. Humidity seems fine to me, but I think you could increase it to about 70%. Also, do you have a rock or something in the viv, this also helps as it will rub on the rock or whatever to loosing the skin. Perhaps others could give you more information about this.

[Lisa]

Yes he's got loads of rough rocks to rub against. I noticed that the humidity in the tank is always higher in the morning when the lights been off all night and the temps are down. The light will be knocking off soon but I don't want him to get cold with the tank being so damp .

I've ordered a thermostat and a redlight because the temps have been getting too low during the night.

I ended up putting some aqueous cream on him.......it should be ok, I use it for my sons eczema, its got no perfume in it or anything.

I'll see how he is in the morning and if he's still got retained shed I'll have a go at soaking him.
Any more tips will be welcome in the meantime...thanks [img]modules/Forum/images/smiles/icon_smile.gif[/img]
[addsig]

[eddie]

Hey Lisa,
Here's a pretty good care sheet on bad/retained sheds.
Courtesy of Redtail Caresheets!

Sheds Care Sheet
[addsig]

[impermanentrage]

Rather than go into what you should do now, since the others have been kind enough to help you there, i will give some preventative measures that can be taken so that next time you wont have to go through this.

When your snake is obviously in the "blue" (eyes opaque) , place a rubbermaid container half filled with moist spaghnum moss and a circular hole in the top or side so that your snake may easily enter. S/he will utilize this as needed whenever she goes into the first phases of ecdysis (molting process).

Or you can simply increase the humididty significantly during this period until the shed is over. This could simply be achieved by misting the animal 3 or 4 times a day until the process is over. Of course the former method would seem to have the least amount of time consumption so.....it's ultimately up to you.

Entropy,
Alex

_________________
"We are destined to become the most well informed society to ever die from our own ignorance."
Edward Abbey

[Lisa]

Thanks for all your advice everyone. The day after I did soak him in a luke warm bath and the rest of the skin gradualy came away although I had to help get it off the end of his tail, its all come off now though.
I thought I had taken the preventitive measures like as soon as his eyes went opaque I added another water container to increase the humidity etc.... I'll keep trying though, I'll try the moss in a rubbermaid box thing next time also.

One little problem. Its been over 2 weeks since he fed , he refused his feed before he shed, and he's refused his feed again since his shed.

Shall I wait another week till I offer him another feed or should I do it every couple of days, he actually seems afraid of the f/t pinkie rat/mouse, whatever we offer him.
I feed him in a seperate box and dangle the rat with tongs. he's only accepted food twice and he's been offered food about 6 times since I got him about a month ago. He should be eating about once every 7 to 10 days for his size but I know they can go a few weeks without eating. How long is it ok for a baby boa (22&quot to go without eating and not need to be force fed?

I've tried leaving the pinkie overnight with him twice which failed. I've split the pinkie a bit so that the blood and stuff is coming out to see if that would spark any interest, but to no avail. The only other things I can think of is to leave him overnight in a bag in his house with a pinkie or to leave him undisturbed for a week and then try again to feed him or something......any other ideas? [img]modules/Forum/images/smiles/icon_confused.gif[/img]
[addsig]

	Frozen/Thawed A rodent or other prey item that is frozen and then thawed to be fed to a reptile or other animal.

[mirabelasunshine]

Lisa -- don't know if you've tried this, but what I used to do when my brb baby was reluctant to feed (no problems there anymore) was put her in her feeding tub with the prey item, then cap it and leave it, with her and the mouse inside, in a warmish spot in her cage. Usually worked.

I'm not sure what the rule about force feeding is, but I have a clutch of baby boas here who will be a month old on Wednesday, and while most have eaten three times or four, a few have only eaten twice and two of them have only taken one meal so far. The ones who have only eaten once are noticeably smaller and skinnier, but they still seem strong and active. I think it's mostly a matter of letting them get hungry enough.

Is the frozen prey item hot?

If you get desperate, try live prey. At that size, he won't be eating anything that can do him much harm.

Good luck --

Matt
[addsig]