• Hello!

    Either you have not registered on this site yet, or you are registered but have not logged in. In either case, you will not be able to use the full functionality of this site until you have registered, and then logged in after your registration has been approved.

    Registration is FREE, so please register so you can participate instead of remaining a lurker....

    Please be certain that the location field is correctly filled out when you register. All registrations that appear to be bogus will be rejected. Which means that if your location field does NOT match the actual location of your registration IP address, then your registration will be rejected.

    Sorry about the strictness of this requirement, but it is necessary to block spammers and scammers at the door as much as possible.

Long Shed Cycle?

L

Lessej

New member
Hi all,

I'm starting to get nervous as to how my 3 ft. corn is doing. I've had him for just over a month and I haven't had a snake since about 10 years ago so my knowledge is a bit rusty.

I think my snake is going to shed, however, I can't be completely certain and I think I may have missed his "blue" phase since he's been hiding in his cereal box for about a week. He last ate on 08/11/16 and up until then I've been feeding him every 5 to 7 days because he seems to have quite the appetite... always poking his head out looking for a meal by about the 5th day. Today is the 13th day without a meal and he IS dull(ish) but not white or anything like that. It may be hard to tell because he is a Sunkissed Amel, or he simply is not in the process of shedding.

About ten days ago I noticed he was out and i went to handle him and noticed he was extremely feisty and in a strike-like pose and he has been extremely feisty ever since. Like I said before he has been in his cereal box for about a week but I did take him out of the box about 4 days ago by just gently dumping it out a few days ago and he drank water right in front of me and then went to hide again. Last night I dumped him out again to check on him because I'm starting to get worried honestly and again he's just extremely feisty and is not poking his head out at all looking for a meal or anything and I can't tell exactly what's going on. I attempted to place him in his large water dish and he immediately scurried away.

I looked up pictures of snakes in shed and snakes starting to shed and I was not very successful.

Cage conditions are 82 - 84 degrees Fahrenheit on the hot side and about 75 - 77 degrees Fahrenheit on the cool side. Humidity is at 50% and I have two water dishes in there now to keep it that high. I'm also misting at night and in the morning before and after work... thinking he is going to be shedding.

Any help or suggestions is greatly appreciated!
 
Can't be certain of course, but it does sound like shedding behaviour to me - lack of exploratory behaviour, lack of hunting activity, stronger defensive response... Have you actually tried to feed him in the thirteen days since he last ate? If so, when was that?

Honestly though, thirteen days is not excessively long for a shed cycle, and since he could have gone blue at any time between you fed him 13 days ago and tried to handle him 10 days ago, it could be less time than that. What I expect is that the 'blue' phase occurred between 10 and 4 days ago and he's now in the normal coloured phase just before the actual shed.

For reference though, it's pretty damn obvious when an amel is 'blue'; they go from red to pink. Like I said, you probably

amel_corn_snake_going_into_shed_large.jpg
 
Awesome, thanks for the quick reply. I haven't tried to feed him because he has not at all looked like he wants to eat nor has he been poking around. I was very glad to actually see him drink the other day though. Through some of the research I've done I read that some snakes will eat during shed and others will not I guess, I'm not sure what his deal is. I think I will attempt to get him to eat tonight.

I was thinking about putting a wet paper towel in his cereal box but I wasn't sure if that was a good idea or not.

Here is a photo of him that I just took:
 

Attachments

  • rsz_20160824_162556.jpg
    rsz_20160824_162556.jpg
    200.1 KB · Views: 55
I just looked at the photo I took, he looks brighter than he did yesterday or the day before... hmm.
 
Well he's definitely not 'in blue', but that doesn't mean he's not about to shed, as as you know they clear up in colour before the actual shed.

If he seems to have been brightening over the past few days, that is a good sign that a shed is imminent :)
 
Oh, forgot to mention (sorry, scatterbrained tonight), I personally do continue offering food as normal when my snakes are shedding, but many don't - really it's personal preference. And it definitely wouldn't hurt to make a 'humid hide' by putting damp paper towel in a hide, that's what I do, but I'm not sure putting it directly into a cereal box; won't the cardboard get all soggy? I put the paper towel on a Tupperware lid to keep the wetness of the substrate :)
 
That sounds like a good idea with the Tupperware top. He's in a separate are under a cardboard box now so I think I can do that for him with the paper towel. I'll have to repost as soon as I have some more news...
 
I'm happy to report that Porthos (my snake) has shed!

Whether it's a coincidence or not, he shed last night after I put a tupperware lid with a wet paper towl on it under where he was enjoying laying so he was getting nice and wet. I like that idea of yours, thanks Giga! He was poking his head out of the box after I did that and had the look of "I'm hungry". I even saw him yawn, I couldn't believe how wide he opened his mouth! So I fed him at 7:45pm and I checked on him at 10pm and his shed was just laying there. I missed it! Sometime right after he ate he must have done it. One complete shed so I'm happy! Eye caps, tail tip and all.
 

Attachments

  • rsz_11rsz_20160826_050215.jpg
    rsz_11rsz_20160826_050215.jpg
    107.2 KB · Views: 46
  • rsz_20160826_051433.jpg
    rsz_20160826_051433.jpg
    136.4 KB · Views: 49
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top