Hormonal component to shedding?

[d_virginiana]

I think I might start recording it, as well as the temperament of the snakes involved. When everyone sheds at once, my female or oldest male are usually the first to go blue, followed a few days later by the younger ones. I don't think they have anything so complicated as an age-based hierarchy or anything, but I don't think it's unreasonable that a very timid snake might be more susceptible to hormonal or other signals than a calmer, more assertive snake.

Of course, my four snakes are in no way a large enough sample group. I guess this means I need to go out and find more garters.

[guidofatherof5]

Multiple sheds at the same time can also be caused by the feeding and growth cycles. Everyone is fed at the same time and grow at relatively the same rate so they're shed times are close to each other.
Just a thought.

[d_virginiana]

I have no idea what's causing it, or if it's just been several months of weirdly coincidental sheds, but it's interesting.

[guidofatherof5]

I have no idea what's causing it, or if it's just been several months of weirdly coincidental sheds, but it's interesting.

Very interesting. Keep us posted of this situation.

[chris-uk]

I'm in a bit of a shed fest.

Four days ago Adora started the fest, she was overdue by around 30% compared to her median shed gap.
Then came Sybil yesterday, who was a little early (about 20% less than her median).
Then Lipwig today, who was really early at 50% of his median time.
Lastly was Twoflower this evening who was only a few days over his median.
Nobby is currently blue, and will be shedding much earlier than expected.

So, if Adora Belle (adult female radix) has triggered a cascade... I'll discount Twoflower because he was due anyway. Lipwig is interesting because he's also a radix and lives in the viv above Adora (also interesting is that he's gone from blue eyes to shedding in less than 48h, he'd normally shed 3-4 days after blue eyes). Nobby is a parietalis who lives with Adora, so her going into shed much earlier than expected is also interesting. Sybil doesn't strike me as being significant as she was fairly close to an average gap.

It's just one group of close sheds, but a couple of them are interesting.

[chris-uk]

I'm in a bit of a shed fest.

Four days ago Adora started the fest, she was overdue by around 30% compared to her median shed gap.
Then came Sybil yesterday, who was a little early (about 20% less than her median).
Then Lipwig today, who was really early at 50% of his median time.
Lastly was Twoflower this evening who was only a few days over his median.
Nobby is currently blue, and will be shedding much earlier than expected.

So, if Adora Belle (adult female radix) has triggered a cascade... I'll discount Twoflower because he was due anyway. Lipwig is interesting because he's also a radix and lives in the viv above Adora (also interesting is that he's gone from blue eyes to shedding in less than 48h, he'd normally shed 3-4 days after blue eyes). Nobby is a parietalis who lives with Adora, so her going into shed much earlier than expected is also interesting. Sybil doesn't strike me as being significant as she was fairly close to an average gap.

It's just one group of close sheds, but a couple of them are interesting.

I'm now up to five sheds in five days, and Nobby is still to shed. My little radix girl shed this morning, I'd not seen her eyes go properly blue but was working away Weds/Thurs so the slight hint of blue I saw on Weds before going away must have been the start of her own blue phase. Iodine was overdue this shed (I don't have figures as this is just her second shed with me, but she is 4 months old and had gone 5 weeks) so I don't see this as an unexplained shed caused by a hormonal influence.

[d_virginiana]

Huh, that's pretty neat. It'll be interesting to see if there's anything to that pattern; especially if older, more confident snakes tend to trigger it more than younger, more skittish ones.

[Mommy2many]

I can watch with my group of 11. I have noticed they tend to shed around the same period as well, though some are not in the same room and I have a mix of easterns, radix, puget, dekayi and ribbons.

[jwolfe152]

its weird i have 4 easterns one big female i just got she was in her blue phase when caught, i brought her home and 2 days later Ekoh went blue, and i just get home from a day at Kennywood and kind my smallest one full on blue. i got one more Amaunet and if she goes blue within a week i would say something is definitely going on whether it be hormones or a coincidence. without LOTS of testing we will never really know unless everyone starts noticing these trends and someone doing research can look into it (preferably not that Hoser guy though lol)

[chris-uk]

You mentioned "his" name... This thread will show in his daily Google trawl for pages mentioning his own age and you'll have brought him back to our peaceful forum...


We would need a real scientist to do any research. I'm imagining something involving chemical analysis of the air around shedding time - the component would need to be airborne because we're observing synchronised shedding across different vivs.