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shed.. handle.. checking on him

A

ara35

New member
so i noticed my snakes eyes are blue about 3 days ago. the problem is that hes been buried in the aspen bedding and i have not been able to check on him. would it be okay to pick him up and check on him? how will i know when the shed is over? ive only had him for 2 weeks and i was trying to cut down on handling him until he first eats. (it was only 6 days after his last feeding when his eyes were blue so i will be sure to offer as soon as the shed is over). please let me know what you guys think about checking on him...
 
I'd say make sure that the humidity is nigh enough for a comfortable shed but in general leave him alone...poke around few couple of days perhaps to check and see if he shed or not...each snake is different, some don't mind being handled when their in shed and will still eat, others become more aggressive then normal, so just watch him carefully.

im not an expert in this area- so perhaps someone else will give you better advice, but thats what i would do.
 
so should i try picking him up just to see what kind of shedder he is and where he is in the shed? eyes still blue, possibly shed already?
 
When shedding, eyes go blue for a few days then clear up. After they've cleared up, anywhere from one day to five after that he will shed. If you're lucky you'll get to watch it, but if not, don't be shy about digging through the aspen til you find the shed skin. If you want to pick him up to check on him, that should be fine, just be prepared for him to be flighty and possibly bitey, since he's in a vulnerable state.
 
well i checked on him. heres the characteristics:
- he was very anxious to get out of my hands (which he never is)
- no biting whatsoever
- black eyes
- his skin on the belly almost looks like an oil spill color, that rainbow look when held up to the light, his head is also very shiny
- i searched his whole tank and couldnt find any skin

so what is going on?
 
He's probably cleared up. make sure the tank is at a decent humidity and he has something semi-rough to scratch his nose on, and let him be for a bit. He'll shed in his own time.
 
well thats what i am asking. he hasnt shed yet right? if he has really shiny skin is that new skin or the old skin about to come off?
 
We're having this same problem! We've had Salvador for 6 months now so she's shed for us a couple of times... so she's due to shed and lately she's been looking dull and hiding a lot so we've checked the humidity is right and are checking her every few days... but she's still not shed, but her eyes haven't been blue for at least 4 or 5 days. We only noticed about 6 days after her last feed (she was fed 11 days ago) that she may be blue because she was hiding so much and through the tank looked dull, and when we uncovered her looked dull from the top, but we never saw her eyes as the vet advised not to handle her in blue (she was very anxious when he did so). She's also getting more grey as she gets older so we thought that may be why she looks dull. We tried to feed her last night but she didn't want the mouse, it was still in there by the morning. Does all this sound ok? What should we be doing to help her?
 
hay ... she will be fine...just let her do her thing in her own time...every one of them shed in their own amount of time. Technically there are 4 phases of the shedding process.

1. Pre-shed...may look dull, may have attitude change, may refuse food or you may not notice anything BUT the snake knows it is about to shed.
2. Blue....this is the part where the eyes cloud over and the skin really tends to look dull, the snake is not able to see very well due to the secretion between teh old eye cap and the new one (hence the blue or cloudy look)
3. Clear....after having been blue, then then clear up, the eyes look normal again, as does the skin, this is the stage right before they actually shed the skin.
4. Shed....the act of actually sliding out of the old skin to reveal the "new and improved" skin

As I already said for each snake the whole process takes different amounts of time. Usually little ones do it faster and larger ones are slower, but not always. I have one little due who does the entire process in approx 4-5 days. I also have another little one who takes 9-10 days, there is a yearling who takes 13-15 days and an adult who takes 10-12 days.

Humidity is fine as low as 40% and really the only time you need to worry about increasing humidity is if they have a shed that does not come off completely then next shed, offer a shed box(a sealed plastic box, with and entrance hole cut in it, lined with moist not wet, paper towel..this allows your snake to come and go from it as they feel they need it, it also allows you to remoisten the paper towel with out wetting the viv to much and causing mold growth).

Hope this helps.
 
Awh thank you so much, that really is helpful. I'm sure I knew that on some level but this is our first snake so we're worried new parents! Thanks again, will remember that!
 
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