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New corn and incomplete shed

N

NomadicLass

New member
We brought home our first corn snake this past Saturday. It looks like her last shed was incomplete, and I'm a bit concerned that she is set to shed again soon (the folks we got her from said she's been shedding about every three weeks or so). Right now her color is fairly dull from her tail to about 1/3 up her body. I have no idea if that's her true color, or if it's a sign she's getting ready to shed once again.

I know we need to get her old skin off (I was planning to use Nanci's guide on the forums), but how soon should we attempt this since she is so new to our home? I don't want to stress her out further, but I also don't know how detrimental it could be to her to have her old skin still sticking to her in places if she is about to shed once again.

She's in a 20gal long setup, aspen substrate, the temps ranges from 84 to 70, and the humidity is hanging around 40 to 50%. She also has hides on the warm and cool sides -- and one in the middle. We have yet to handle her since she's only been with us three days.

Any insight would be greatly appreciated!
 
I would go ahead and get that old shed off, using Nanci's method

http://cornsnakes.com/forums/showthread.php?t=56170&highlight=bad/incomplete+shed

If an old skin is left on, even if it's just pieces, then the snake will cycle into shed quicker to try to rid itself of the old skin.

Any old skin left on will tighten and if it's a tube of skin, like on the tail or round the tummy then it can cut off the blood supply to the area affected, when it tightens :(

Your temps and humidity sound good to me, but if you are concerned about having another trouble shed, then you could make up a moist hide and place it in the tank when you think she is going blue, so she can use it if she feels the need :)

Hope that helps some, best wishes,
 
Thanks so much for the advice, Susielea. Well, we gave it a go using Nanci's method. While we were able to get a few small patches off when she slithered through a washcloth after we removed her from the tub, a few stubborn areas still remain. Thankfully the unshed patches don't appear to wrap around her so I'm thinking we should give her a reprieve for tonight and give it another shot tomorrow. I'm thinking that unshed skin would probably be harder to remove if its allowed to stay on the snake for a period of days/weeks rather than being removed immediately after a shed (just a guess, though...).

We'll definitely set up a moist hide for future sheds to make it easier on her. Thanks again!
 
Well, we gave Lisa another, bit longer (30 minutes or so) bath this evening using Nanci's method. Even with her wriggling through a towel when we got her out there were still a few stubborn pieces of skin left on her. Any advice on what to do?
 
Have you tried letting her soak a long time, 20-30 minutes, then very gently rolling the skin down? I would really only be very worried about the tail tip.
 
Thanks so much, Nanci. After her second bath we did start to gently roll the unshed skin off and then had misgivings ("should we really be doing this?" "could it harm the scales underneath",etc.). After reading your recommendation and doing a bit more reading on the forums we let her soak last night for about 30 minutes and carefully removed the last of her shed.

Hopefully the conditions with us in her new home will be more optimal for future sheds...I just need to track down some sphagnum moss, which apparently is impossible to find in my town. :shrugs:
 
Try a nursery, garden center or craft store. A craft store might have Spanish Moss- long, stringy pale green stuff. Glad it worked!
 
Nanci said:
Try a nursery, garden center or craft store. A craft store might have Spanish Moss- long, stringy pale green stuff. Glad it worked!
Click to expand...

So Spanish moss is a doable subsitute for sphagnum if needed? I actually picked up some Spanish moss last weekend for another project, after I scoured my town for sphagnum. I know folks use paper towels, but I'm thinking our snake would be more apt to use the moss. Thanks, Nanci!
 
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