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shedding-- normal?

P

princesstyler

New member
i recently acquired my first corn snake (named bella, for the interested). she has yet to shed in the time i have owned her- roughly four weeks- and it is obviously coming soon. she has turned a very light color, and when i picked her up today to clean out her cage, she felt so starchy and there were definitely snags in her skin. however, in all the advice i've received so far, i've noticed that milky eye color/peeling is always mentioned. her eyes have yet to change!! i wondered if perhaps she was having shedding issues, and i was told that soaking her in water would help. the problem is that she HATES water and has absolutely freaked out the couple times i've tried to do this before. i don't want to irritate her more (she's been darting and rattling a little for the last couple days, which is totally unusual) so i'm not sure what to do at this point.

is all this normal/ does anyone have any advice if it's not?
 
Some people say that the blue phase can happen so fast that you don't even see it. It's also possible that she hasn't gone into blue yet. Do you give her a moist hide? Many will recommend that you put one in the Viv when you think she's going to shed, especially if your humidity is low. There are all methods of doing this, but the most simple is to grab an appropriately sized container (w/ lid to hold in the water), cut a hole a bit bigger than your snake, and put a damp washcloth in there. If you do a search for "moist hide" I'm sure you'll find more specifics.

Good luck, and congrats on your corn!
 
When you say there are "snags" in the skin, could this possibly be dehydration? I've never seen my snakes get "snags" in their skins during a shed, especially at such an early stage.

What morph do you have? Sometimes certain colour snakes are quite hard to spot when they go blue.
 
Plissken said:
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What morph do you have? Sometimes certain colour snakes are quite hard to spot when they go blue.
Click to expand...

Is exactly what I was going to say. Although I don't have any morphs that would be hard to see the "blue" phase. I've read many times on here how it can be difficult especially for a new owner to see it.
 
This is your first problem that you should be worried about, stress. Snakes do not like soaking regardless of what anybody says. They would prefer to have a humid hide. (Do a search on here for one of those). Raise the humidity up in your cage, this can be done by putting the UTH under the side with the water dish, or you can mist a few times a day. This will help rehydrate, and will also help with the shed.

Remember, as long as fresh water is provided daily, your snake is drinking. Don't try to antagonize a drink, because all it does is stress them out.
 
I have a corn that does a lot of climbing...and dangling...and has what I would call "snags" as well. It happens on the belly scales. I'm not sure if it's "normal" but I would assume that the snake would quit climbing those places if it results in an injury. The few snags that have happened are always gone after a shed and look perfect.

I agree about adding a humid hide (they are very easy to make). As a new owner, I also found it difficult to tell when my snow was in blue. You get the hang of it after awhile.
 
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