trouble shedding

[libbo]

hey guys,

for the past 3 weeks my spotted python which is about 18 months old, has looked like shedding, she normally has complete sheds including the pieces over her eyes. except 4 days ago she started to flake pieces of skin and looked uncomfortable, so after some research off the site i placed her in a warm bath with a tiny bit of dish washing liquid and with in 10 mins it was all off.

my question is though what went wrong to cause this, is it temperature or humidity??

i have been using heat globes 75 watt 24/7 which produces 30-31 during the day hot end but at night the hot end drops to 20- 22 which i think is where i am getting my problem

i ordered a 100 watt bulb today to try and keep the temps up at night

just not a 100% sure where i am going wrong

 

[shamous1]

Humidity

Looks like humidity.

When my snakes are ready for a shed I normally place a spare waterbowl under the heat just to increase humidity.

If you want to remove the excess skin you can always do the following.

Place the animal in luke warm water (I go no further than 1/3 rd of the body and keep an eye on it. I leave it like that for around 10 minutes then have a pick or rub at the scales.

Place the animal in a damp pillow case and leave near in the enclosure. The increased humidity and the snake moving around should remove excess skin.

Depending on the size of the snake you can place it in a container with damp paper towell. The increased humidity will once again assist in removing left over skin. You may need to help if some skin/scales remain stubborn.

Remember - Always watch the snake if in water and never place anything else like (Fabric Softner) a chemical based product. If it reads "Poison" it probably is.

 

[libbo]

thank you heaps, i'll try to up the humidity next time hopefully that fixes the issue

 

[Chris1]

what substrate are u using, maybe thats whats taking too much humidity out,...?

 

[libbo]

substrate

is recycled paper. it's a reptile bedding from the pet shop

 

[Australis]

is recycled paper. it's a reptile bedding from the pet shop

Compressed paper pellet type substrates, can really dry out enclosures.

 

[Colin]

Compressed paper pellet type substrates, can really dry out enclosures.

exactly. thats another reason I never use that stuff.
I use newspaper / butchers paper and dont have problems with shedding.

 

[shamous1]

Paper

That recycled pellet paper is a great product HOWEVER it is designed for one thing it's absorbent qualities in soaking up water etc...............hence it's great qualities of taking every ounce of moisture out of the air.

Newspaper and butchers paper cost next to nothing.