Bad shed

[Serpico]

Mila is having her first shed (since she is with me). That is incidentally one of the reason why I am not posting any pics yet..but..something is wrong.

It is the first time it happens to one of my snake, Thamnophis or others, and what happens is this: Mila, the garter female, started shedding this afternoon, and proceeded to remove the first inch and a half of old skin. Then stopped.
The skin looked not perfectly shed, did not have that "whole" look of all the previous sheds I have assisted to.....and in fact, after one hour of going around the enclosure, she managed to rip the shedded skin, and now she has her front half shed, and the bottom half unshed.
The rip is not even clearly seen...and the shedded skin is not whole, rather in two pieces.
The enclosure humidity looks right to me, there is one pothos, and one fairly large water dish....so what's wrong? What did I do wrong, or the seller, for that matter, and how can I correct the issue, if it is possible, even!

Thanks for any reply, I deeply appreciate advice and help.

Pg

[guidofatherof5]

Nothing probably wrong other then a bad shed. Happens sometimes.

Get a container(not too small) take a dish towel and run warm water over it, soaking it. Place that in the container with the snake. Put a lid on it.
Check every 30 minutes but you should have a shed snake soon.
Or you could run warm water over the area of the broken shed. This will usually give you an edge to work with.
Keeping the water flowing on the edge of the shed should make it come off with a gentle pull.
Keep us informed on your progress.
http://www.thamnophis.com/forum/husbandry/5014-cheap-shed-box.html

[RedSidedSPR]

Here's a video that Steve made. The link above ^^ has more info.

Cs0Vqm2pP18

[Serpico]

Thanks guys!
I will surely try it out tomorrow morning (it is night now, and both garters are sleeping)....and of course I'll keep you posted. Eeven better, I'll see if I can do a whole pics show..

See you soon!

Pg

[RedSidedSPR]

I don't know if you should wait.... I'd go head and get it off.

[kibakiba]

Its best to do it asap, the skin can fuse together and be extremely hard to get off.

[guidofatherof5]

Its best to do it asap, the skin can fuse together and be extremely hard to get off.

Very good point to bring up Chantel.

[Serpico]

I know...
I should have done it immediately, but the time was late, and my mind was a bit confused, so I chose to wait until morning.
And I did it.
The container is a clear plastic 35x25x20 cm, with lid, I have used a heavy cloth, soaked in warm water, and I have introduced some pieces of flat bark, soaked into warm water too, thinking that the movements of the snake sandwiched between cloth and rough bark would help the shedding of the skin.

And it happened exactly as forecasted. Mila, after few minutes spent searching for an escape, started drifting lazily into the container, flicking her tongue and trying every fold of the cloth.
It did not happen in 30 minutes, rather there were about 2 hours from beginning to tail shed.
The last part happened into my hands; noticing she had stopped moving, I took her gently into my hand, and when she moved again, the skin finished shedding from her body onto my palm.

The skin was in tatters, but at least, she is now covered with brilliant black and yellow stripes (apart for the small scar she has on her neck, pity I did not see it when I bought her...)..

Many many many thanks to all of you who contributed decisively in solving this issue (first time for me)...and...here are the pics, you hav earned them all!

God bless you!

Pg

[RedSidedSPR]

Glad she got it off!

[BLUESIRTALIS]

Glad she got the shed off she's a nice ribbon snake.

[guidofatherof5]

That's good news. She's a good looking snake.
Next shed will probably go fine:D

[Mrs N1ntndo]

I glad she got the shed off. She is very pretty.

[Serpico]

Well, people, honestly I was scared.
It was the first time it happened to me (to my snakes, I mean ;) ), all I knew was that problems in shedding sometime mean bigger problems, and I did not wish to have my son sad for ailing animals, on top of my own sadness, of course.
And I am very very happy to have found your awesome forum, where everybody ran and helped me with advices and raccomendations.

Now that the issue has been solved (thanks again), I'd like to understand why it has happened, and how I can avoid it next time. Any ideas?

/waves happily to everyone!

Pg

[guidofatherof5]

A larger water dish will increase the humidity in the enclosure or
just before the next shed put a shed box in the enclosure.
This way your snake will have access to it and will probably use it.
You could also do nothing and see what happens with the next shed.

[Mrs N1ntndo]

I had a bad shed situation last night. One of the smallest babies looked weird when I was getting ready to feed them all. I noticed that under the shedding that hadnt started to break away yet had some poo under it on the baby. So I remember reading in here on what to do. And so I did exactly that. When I put the little one in a dish I left it in there for 15 minutes and then check on him/her. I noticed it started to loosen some and so I worked it a little til I could get it past that spot with the poop cause I wanted to make sure that thats was wa under it and not something else as in a bigger problem. I worked it up and thankfully that was the only thing that was caught up in there. It was only a little but I saw that it was there and needed some assistance. So after getting passed that part I put the baby bak in the bowl and left it in there for a little longer and When I took it out again there wasnt much inprovent on the prgress of the shed so I worked it around and got some of it off and returned the baby back to the bowl again. after coming back to the baby a 3rd time I saw that there was very little going on so I just continued to get the shedding off and I was worried about how I was going to get it over the head and eyes to make sure it all came off there and not cause problems later. But when it was to the head the baby helped me and while I had ahold of the shedding in my fingers I said to the baby" I dont know how to get this off in one pice" and I swear it heard me because he/she moved his/her head from side to side and pulled out of the head pice of the shedding. I looked at it and saw that the head piece was all in piece. I was so happy and I told the baby that they did a good job and I put him/her into a shallow bowl of water so that they could relax. when I returned the babies back to the main tank I check to make sure if the baby wanted to eat. I didnt think that it would but I wanted to check and he/she didnt so I returned it to the main tank with the others and it went right over by the basking light and laid there for a while. He/she looked tird. After a while it went and hid away. Im assuming to sleep. Ive been checking on it to make sure that hes doing ok and so far so good. It was kinda scary though. I hought there mightve been something else going on under the shedding but it all turned out ok. thank fully. I just wanted to share and say thank you cause if again I hadnt had this site that I was reading all the time I wouldve known what to do ....thank you all Again.

[GarField000]

End with the head? It should start with the head ... it looks almost imposible to start with the tail.

[guidofatherof5]

Had to do it many times from tail to head.
Sometimes it's critical to get the shed off in any way.
You are right they are made to shed from head to tail but it doesn't always work out that way.

[Mrs N1ntndo]

ya the tail is what started first. It was kinda difficult because I was nervous the whole time. I had never helped with a shedding before plus it was with 1 of the 2 tiny babies. But it came off in several pieces but I got it all. Thank goodness.

[GarField000]

Funny, never seen it the other way around :)
But the shed must get off, no mather wich way.

[RedSidedSPR]

Weird.