Potential shed issue

[d_virginiana]

So the skin where I have removed the shed is incredibly soft and sort of wrinkly looking. It's kind of freaking me out. Doesn't seem to be bothering her too much. You can tell she doesn't really like the way it feels, but it's not like she's in pain or anything.
Is that normal in this sort of situation? Is it because of the vegetable oil I used to loosen the skin?

[guidofatherof5]

Are you able to post up some photos?

[d_virginiana]

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Whenever I put her down, she kind of scoots along. It looks like either she's trying to rub off excess bits of skin (almost like a shedding motion) or like maybe the scales on her belly are too soft to get traction.
I don't know why this is happening...

Oh, and the shot of her head shows the difference between the scales that I just flaked off (the large ones in the center of her head) and the scales that are still on (the ones above her eyes).

[guidofatherof5]

Any chance there is a mite issue?

[d_virginiana]

I would say almost zero chance of that. I've been handling her for hours over the past few days trying to get that shed off and haven't come across a single mite. Haven't seen any or seen any weird behavior from any of my other snakes either.

[guidofatherof5]

I only brought it up because of your "scoots along" statement. Just covering the basics.

[d_virginiana]

Yeah, I figured the 'scooting' motion has got to be either because the scales are so soft right now or because the remaining bits of skin itch and she is trying to get them off.
But her whole body is like freakishly soft. I'm thinking it may be because of the vegetable oil? I didn't use a lot, but it definitely got worked into her skin...

[Invisible Snake]

Personally, I think it's because of the vegetable oil, her body feeling "freakishly soft", not being able to get good traction and the rubbing.

Maybe a daily soak will help with that(?)

[d_virginiana]

That's what I think is probably the case... It still worries me though. Should I remove some of the rougher items from her cage? She acts like her skin is very sensitive, and she still has a couple things to rub against if she wants to.
I've been soaking her at least once a day, but usually just by putting her in her water dish and getting her to stay there for a few minutes since she's been so stressed out by this whole thing.

This whole thing has me wondering if I've done something horribly wrong that's going to end up killing my snake. I mean, if I jumped the gun and tried to start the shed early (unlikely considering how gross it looked before...) all her scales wouldn't have come off so easily, right? I'm probably just catastrophising right now, but still...

[kimbosaur]

When it happened to my snake, the skin was flaking off and the back half looked really wrinkly. I was certain it was a retained shed but I couldn't get an edge at all. After much soaking, and upping the humidity of the enclosure by a lot, he went blue a few days later and shed whole. BUT, even after a fresh, whole shed, his skin remained dry and wrinkly and it took a few sheds more to smooth out.

This is how the skin looked. You can see exactly where it smooths out in the front:


Skin flaking off in scale-sized bits:


I'm still thinking it could have been a retained shed that caused the skin underneath to somehow stay wrinkly since there was such a huge difference from the front to back. Could a retained shed damage the fresh skin underneath?