Shedding, or bad news?

[Dyna]

So, I understand that shedding is a natural part of a snake's life. I'm looking forward to my sweetie's first shed in my care, but- I thought their eyes were supposed to turn grey or dull or milky or- or something. I thought that was the sign that they are Supposed To Shed.

For a while, my baby was really anxious in her cage, and spent a lot of time pushing her head against the lid of the cage, trying to escape. I put some more cover in there at my mom's suggestion, and that seemed to help, but I think she hurt herself! I'm really concerned that I've done something horribly wrong, because she's got, like, a pushed back, dented looking scale on her head!!

And, as far as I can tell, her eyes aren't rheumy- and the scales closer down on her tale? They're starting to slough off! O_O Aren't they supposed to shed at the head? Aren't the eyes supposed to turn grey? Is my snake okay, or did I stress her out?! Does she have some weird scale infection that she's shedding before she's supposed to? AM I DOING SOMETHING HORRIBLY WRONG?

Anyway, here's pictures of her head injury ( ) and I got a sorta blurry one of the tail shedding- my camera wouldn't focus well on it. In my estimation, the scales beneath the shed-y scales look normal and fine... and she does feel sorta- crackly- when I handle her. Like her scales are loose. But I don't have a ton of snake experience.





Should I put some neosporin on her head?? I think it's just from her trying to lift the lid of the cage... I think... I know I haven't dropped anything on her, and when I could get her to hold still enough and looked at her in good lighting- it looked, like I said, like a scale had gotten scuffed back. I've just left her be, in hopes she'll stop trying to escape, and putting more cover in the cage really did seem to help, and I think whatever it is healing, but I feel really, really awful and I don't know if maybe this is something else entirely.

[guidofatherof5]

It looks like there has been some kind of injury to her head but it doesn't look too serious. Neosporin would be fine just keep it out of her eyes.
When you said she feels "crackly" that made me think she may have a retained shed.
Make yourself up a shed box and put her on for an hour. If it is a retained shed she'll be able to get if off. Here's a link to making a shed box: http://www.thamnophis.com/forum/husbandry/5014-cheap-shed-box.html
What size enclosure do you have her in?
What and how many hides are you providing her?
Best of luck.

[kibakiba]

You can possibly prevent a snake being nervous by providing a lot of hides, as Steve said. When I got Snakey he was nervous until I put a lot of sticks, toilet paper rolls and little hollowed wood hides in his enclosure. Good luck with your little garter, I'm sure she'll be fine if you keep the wound clean.

[drache]

also
because of this healing head injury your snake will probably shed pretty soon - it's sort of their way to get the scab off
most snakes don't need it, but I like to give some of mine a permanent damp hide in their enclosure. it consists of a some kind of enclosed container with a small access hole for the snake that contains dampened peat or sphagnum moss
as long as any retained shed is not causing any immediate problem, such as being too tight around a snake, or some infection developing, I'd just leave it alone for now
the upcoming shed will take care of it better if you don't mess with it now

[Stefan-A]

Apply disinfectant (or perhaps something more potent) and move to as close to sterile conditions as possible. And try to find out if there are any sharp edges anywhere in the enclosure.

[flickerfriend]

Oh no! not your new snake dyna!

[Dyna]

Alright, I will try a warm, damp shed box and get my q-tips with neosporin ready!!

Also- the first week or two that I had her, we kept her in the bedroom, where it was quiet. But the light was causing problems for sleeping, so we moved her to the living room... I'm worried that that stressed her out, because it was after that that she started making her rather frantic attempts to escape- like, pushing herself against the lid with extreme vigor until she'd fail and eventually stop, only to try again just as hard moments later.

As far as hides go, I am using an old router box which has four different compartments; they are rather short compartments, but they are accessible by a thumbnail sized gap about 1.5 times her - and I can lift the lids to them if I need to retrieve her. She often hides out in there. Maybe the edges of the box are rough and that's what she scratched her head on?

She also has a big forked piece of wood, and a nice rock, plus her waterbowl. She likes to hang out between the rock and the waterbowl, too.

Once I added some fake foliage, she seemed to ease, and then stop, her attempts to escape- I think she just needed more cover to feel safe and protected.

She's acting normal, alert, and eats fine... whatever happened to her head doesn't seem to be bothering her. I'll take a closer look at everything in her enclosure, including my lid, to see if I can identify what hurt her.

Someone also said to make sure her environment is sterile as possible; so that means I'll remove the stuff from her cage, make sure everything is as clean as it can be, change out the paper towels, all that good stuff- but I can put it back in, right? I think she'd be unhappy if I didn't.

I'll take pictures of her enclosure and hides when I get home, to get feedback; I though the router box was rather cunning, and she seems to enjoy it. Her cage- is on the large-ish size, but I don't know off the top of my head HOW large... it is kind of crowded with all the stuff I put in there. *worry* Maybe THAT is the problem?

Also, what about the shed thing? I watch her a lot, and I have not seen her eyes turn blue or grey or whatever... I'm not convinced she's supposed to be shedding right now. >_< That worries me more than her dented scale.

[kibakiba]

People who are newer with snakes make a lot of mistakes, whether they researched or not. It's a part of the learning process. The router could be a problem, but if there's anything sharp in there it could harm your snake. I had to take out one of runts decorations because he cut his side on it when I first got him. he healed up fast. As for the shedding, be patient. Snakes will go into the blue/opaque phase for anywhere from a day or even a few. Snakey takes 3 days usually and Mama takes one. Runt's taken as much as a week to get out of opaque phase. After that they look normal, again for 1-7 days in my experience. Snakes are like humans, their all different.

For cleaning things and sterilizing I personally take everything out and put it in a tub of 1 part bleach, 10 parts water and let them soak for 15 minutes. after that I put them in a separate tub with plain pure water and let them sit for 20 minutes and repeat. Some members use just mildly soapy water I believe. But It doesn't always work for me depending on what it is. I hope the best for you and your snake!

[mustang]

poor little dude..hope he gets better...i found some blue cement or concreat forgot which it is...i broke it into a bunch of fist size rocks and its like sandpaper and checker loves it and it helps him shed a lot(hasnt hurt himself so i got nothing against it)

[Dyna]

Oh, by router box I mean the box the router came in- it's just cardboard, not plastic!

The rock I put in there has some edges to it, too- I thought maybe it could help her shed, funny enough in this situation, and she seems to enjoy relaxing on it sometimes, but I think I'll take it out with this in mind.

Thanks for the bleach tip; I'm not sure how I'm going to clean the cardboard box, I'll probably just dump it and find something else for her to hide in, especially with the idea that maybe it had something to do with her hurting.

Edit: Forgot to add- should I be worried about her shedding lower down before she 'should' be ready to shed? I thought shedding started at the head.