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Snake skins

M

mocha37

New member
My young albino corn just finished his first shed with me and it all came off in one perfect piece. So I was wondering, my older sister is an elementary teacher and she would love to keep the skin if possible to show to her classes; is there a way to preserve the snake skin for her so it doesn't dry up and crumble?
 
I've got sheds from 8 years ago, I kept them in clear plastic CD wallets. Otherwise they dry out and crumble. If it's for children to see and hand around, it may be worth gluing them to thick card and varnishing them though, perhaps try Copydex type craft glue?
 
It will stay the exact way it is when dry without any help from you. Now if you want to preserve it for heavy handling that's another story. The sheds I use for demos get soaked in a light bleach solution to get them relatively clean for use with the public and then dried flat If you were able to keep them slightly moist they would be less fragile. You could try some type of moisturizer or oil (mineral oil, shea butter, etc.) The only issue with that is they don't feel or sound the same as the unadulterated shed. I like to put them in a pillowcase and have the kids reach in and describe what they are feeling without knowing what is in the bag. Most people guess grocery bag before snake skin.
Or you could just replace the shed with a new one when that one get beat up! That's the nice thing about having a snake as a pet.

Terri
 
We made a slide out of part of one of Wadjet's skins, and then were also able to get a piece of skin from an adult ball python. I'm hoping to get more skin samples for slides.That might be something to do once the skin starts falling apart. Since you have a young snake, you could even do a series of slides showing changes over time. They're good slides for kids to work on microscope techniques on-you can cover pretty much the entire viewing area with the skin sample, so it's not a case where you can spend 15 minutes focusing only to discover you focused on a piece of dust from the air instead of the actual item on the slide.
 
Ive been trying to figure out what to do with all my skins, I have loads of them, any one have any ideas?
 
In another thread on here I saw that some people were giving or selling their snake sheds to local nail shops. There is a fad with real shed going. Not sure if that will work for your area, but its something.
 
For one of my snakes, I put each of her sheds in one of those clear plastic binder sleeves and seal the top. Now that she's bigger, I have to kind of fold the sheds so they fit in the sleeve. And I have all the sleeves in a binder, so you can flip through them.
 
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