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Refusing to shed?

7legion77

7legion77

New member
I haven't seen this before in any of my corn's previous sheds. His skin is obviously ready to come off, it is hanging off of him in folds, and yet he won't voluntarily go into the shedding process. He's just lounging around and letting the old skin stay on him.
Its been 2-3 weeks since his eyes cleared up.

He also hasn't eaten in more than 2 months.

Really hope he sheds within the next few days, and then feeds.
 
Is there anything in his viv for him to rub against? rocks, hides, trees?
substrate? Is your Humidity OK?
You should moisten some paper towels hold him and let him move through the towels while gently squeezing ever so gently. He needs this old dead skin off him.

Good luck!
 
I saw a photo of someone putting their snake in a tub with a soaked towel at the bottom for moisture and a bit of texture to rub against. This seems like a good idea to me, though keep in mind that I do not yet have a snake and I am only repeating things that I am learning so far.
 
I also think that a soak is in order. Put him in a tub with a towel on the bottom, fill it with room temp water and let him be in there for about 15-30 mins.
 
As a treatment for the shed, that's easy. Put the snake in a feeding tub with a wet washcloth for an hour or so and that should soften the old skin with the humidity and rubbing against the washcloth should help it come off. ( I call this the 'Snake-O-Bath)
More serious though is the combination of refusing feed for 2 months and the bad shed. What are your temperatures and humidity?
 

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How old is your snake. One of mine used to take about 4-5 weeks to shed, when she little (< 8 months old) She used to go into hiding and I wouldn't see her for about a month or so. Is this its first shed at your house?

I just had my smallest snake do something very similar. I could see him in the cool hide and the skin was clearly detached. It took him about 3 days after that before is sloughed his skin. I would be a little concerned about the 2 months of no feeding.

Sometimes they do need a little "encouragement" as indicated in previous posts.

-braingarble
 
He's about 3 and half years old.

I think he wasn't feeding because of some surface damage on the skin.

Here's what happened: I let him crawl up high above the curtains.

He decided to explore the crack above a sliding door, sticking his head in there, and wedging his body halfway through. If I had opened that door before noticing this, his body would have been shredded in half. Thank god I noticed.

I had to pull him out to save his life, he would have been completely stuck had he gone in any further. I gently yanked him out, and it scraped his skin a bit. This is why I think he was refusing meals.

Anticipating a shed, I misted the tank a whole lot because he has always had trouble shedding.

Its not coming off in bits and pieces or anything, it seems he's in for a good shed because of good humidity... but he's not seeking any breakage of the old sin. He's not voluntarily going into the shed process like he's supposed to. That is what I find very odd.

I'm not terribly worried about his health, he's still very sharp and responsive. I'm just patiently waiting for him to shed so I can feed him.

He always eats after a shed.
skin1.jpg
skin2.jpg
 
I am by no means an expert, but maybe just putting him in another container may encourage him to shed that skin. They seem to explore a little more and crawl around a bit when in a foreign location. It will help soften some of that half off/on skin too.

-braingarble
 
Interesting how situations arise with multiple people at the same time. Little Plissken has been having this same problem, sans the eating issue. He's due for a shed, dulled for a shed, blued for a shed, refused a feeding for a shed. He even went for a swim and he hates water... But he just won't actually start the head. He has a half log, a cork log, a rock, the base of a couple fake plants, and his dragon head hide is rough... so it's not a matter of nothing to shed on... he just won't grasp that whole "Need to get the nose and head back before the rest comes off".

I've been slightly worried, and he's looking a bit like your pics with the foldy loose old skin.
 
Scarlett went into a bad shed once and I placed her in a container with the wet dishtowels and about 1/2" of water. After about 20 minutes I took a wet washcloth and let her slide through it while I held it gently around her. Took the shed right off.

Let us know what happens, and good luck!
 
not sure if this will work for a snake but my vet recommended it for my bearded dragon when he had trouble shedding.
he recommended taking some fresh aloe off the plant, mashing up the meat adding some of the slime to a water-bottle and misting his back with the mixture of aloe and water.
I wouldn't use the bottled stuff, since there may be other stuff in it, but it should help to soften up the skin a bit.
good luck
 
A little update:

He still hadn't voluntarily shed. Finally I picked him up, and started manually peeling all of the skin off of him. It came off very easily, however the skin around the head was stubborn.

For half an hour, I held my snake around the head, gently.

He tolerated this for a good time.

Still, I had trouble the skin off the head.

So I keep trying... he is very tame and docile.

and trying...

handling him about the head, he seems to be just fine...

and suddenly he BITES me. Right on top of the fleshy part of the knuckle.

...if anything, I'm glad his survival instincts are very strong.

But I'm mystified as to why he simply wouldn't shed until I had to take the old skin off him. Maybe since he has only eat 1 hopper in the past 2-3 months, he hadn't grown that much and thus the old skin wasn't very tight around him, and he didn't feel the need to shed?

Anyhow, I have a feeling he'll definitely eat his next meal.
 
Why didn't you soak him? Peeling the skin off like that is dangerous. I've accidentally done that while holding a snake in shed and the whole area turned into a scab. Within only a few days after shedding the snake went blue again to repair that damage.
 
AliCat37 said:
Why didn't you soak him? Peeling the skin off like that is dangerous. I've accidentally done that while holding a snake in shed and the whole area turned into a scab. Within only a few days after shedding the snake went blue again to repair that damage.
Click to expand...

I soaked him many times this past week. Also misted the tank heavily, perhaps a bit excessively, through the past weeks since I saw him go blue.

Its nopw a week past the time he's due to shed, and the dead skin was virtually hanging off him, slowly coming off in shreds. He won't initiate the shedding process, its like he doesn't care enough to make it come off.

After leaving him in a small container with soaked towels for a couple hours today, that's when I took him out and manually removed the skin, because he still wouldn't do it on his own!
 
Nothing about this situation is normal and 'ok'. Snakes out for supervised playtime do not get stuck in sliding doors and have to be yanked out. A minor scrape/abrasion to the skin surface would not normally stop an adult snake feeding. Most superficial skin damage causes a snake to go into an early shed cycle to repair the damage. A heathy snake kept at the right temperature and humidity does not have folds of skin hanging off it.
Is your snake sexed? If it's a male, the feed refusal could be as simple as the urge to mate. (Not that my males ever have trouble shedding due to this, in fact they shed before, during or after the spring fast without problems)
What are your temperatures, how are they controlled and how are they measured? Low temperatures are one of the most common reasons for feeding refusals, and always worth double-checking.
How big and how deep was the injury to your snake?
As Alicat said, manually peeling off skin is an easy way to cause damage, is the damage from the earlier injury healed yet?
 
diamondlil said:
Nothing about this situation is normal and 'ok'. Snakes out for supervised playtime do not get stuck in sliding doors and have to be yanked out. A minor scrape/abrasion to the skin surface would not normally stop an adult snake feeding. Most superficial skin damage causes a snake to go into an early shed cycle to repair the damage. A heathy snake kept at the right temperature and humidity does not have folds of skin hanging off it.
Is your snake sexed? If it's a male, the feed refusal could be as simple as the urge to mate. (Not that my males ever have trouble shedding due to this, in fact they shed before, during or after the spring fast without problems)
What are your temperatures, how are they controlled and how are they measured? Low temperatures are one of the most common reasons for feeding refusals, and always worth double-checking.
How big and how deep was the injury to your snake?
As Alicat said, manually peeling off skin is an easy way to cause damage, is the damage from the earlier injury healed yet?
Click to expand...


Yes, I agree. None of this is ok, not one bit of it. This is also the keeper who one posted a thread on how to convert a frozen/thawed feeding snake to a live feeder. Interesting to see how his other husbandry methods are consistant with that. He's been on my DNS/DNB list for a long time now. Poor snake though......
 
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diamondlil said:
Nothing about this situation is normal and 'ok'. A heathy snake kept at the right temperature and humidity does not have folds of skin hanging off it.
Click to expand...
I know, that's why I find it so strange.

The injury was naught but a minor scrape. I put neosporin and it wasn't even visible afterwards. BEfore that he was eating just fine. Its always kind of a mystery why they don't eat, could be many different factors.

Again, the skin was beyond ready to come off. That's why I was able to peel it so easily. He should have done it himself by now, and that's why I'm posting, I looking for someone with experience who's seen this before.
[/quote]




...and if people don't want me here and think I'm a terrible snake-keeper then just BAN ME already. There's not too many other sources for corn snake information.
An argument now is the last thing I wanted.
 
starsevol said:
Yes, I agree. None of this is ok, not one bit of it. This is also the keeper who one posted a thread on how to convert a frozen/thawed feeding snake to a live feeder. Interesting to see how his other husbandry methods are consistant with that. He's been on my DNS/DNB list for a long time now. Poor snake though......
Click to expand...

While the OP may not have handled the shedding issue in the correct manner, let's not drive away people who are coming here to try to find out how to help their snakes.
 
7legion77 said:
...and if people don't want me here and think I'm a terrible snake-keeper then just BAN ME already. There's not too many other sources for corn snake information.
An argument now is the last thing I wanted.
Click to expand...

We all have room for improvement.
 
7legion77 said:
I know, that's why I find it so strange.

The injury was naught but a minor scrape. I put neosporin and it wasn't even visible afterwards. BEfore that he was eating just fine. Its always kind of a mystery why they don't eat, could be many different factors.

Again, the skin was beyond ready to come off. That's why I was able to peel it so easily. He should have done it himself by now, and that's why I'm posting, I looking for someone with experience who's seen this before.
Click to expand...




...and if people don't want me here and think I'm a terrible snake-keeper then just BAN ME already. There's not too many other sources for corn snake information.
An argument now is the last thing I wanted.[/QUOTE]
That's good news that the injury has healed. You still haven't said what the temps are? If they are normal and your snake is active, maybe it's just a male looking for love and on a Spring fast. Have you weighed it? Mine generally don't lose much weight at all but I do check up with a monthly weigh in if the refusal goes on a while.
 
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