One of the most common problems I have run into raising snakes is retained or incomplete sheds. Unfortunately living in the desert as we do, keeping the humidity levels up inside the enclosures can be a trial - especially during the summer months. We do make it a point to check each snake after it sheds to ensure that they have not retained any of the old skin on their eyes or tails - two of the biggest problem areas.

Some of the leading causes of retained sheds or partial sheds are; low humidity, poor health, mites, injuries, and scar tissue. During a normal shed cycle, most snakes will slough off the old skin in one long piece. During a bad shed though, the old skin will pull off in multiple pieces and if extremely bad will flake off instead of coming off in sections. While a single bad shed may cause no lasting harm to the snake, multiple bad sheds and failure to remove the remaining sections could lead to eye infections, damage or loss of the tail, and scarring of the scales.

When faced with a partial or bad shed, I have found soaking the snake in question in warm water for a few minutes helps to loosen the old skin. I then let the snake 'run' through a towel or damp paper towel in my hands to help him/her remove the remaining sections of shed. You never want to pull on the loose, dead skin of an old shed when it is dry as you can rip out scales and injure the snake unintentionally.

Once the old skin has been removed completely, you'll want to determine the cause and than address the problem so as to avoid repeat occurrences. The first thing I always check is the humidity levels in the enclosure, if they are appropriate and the snake was not excessively dry I then check for external parasites, such as mites, or injuries. In extreme cases or with multiple bad sheds, I will soak the snake a couple of times prior to actual shedding and/or provide a temporary humid hide during the shed cycle.

Photos of two snakes in the blue (in shed) - note the milky color of the first snake and the cloudy film on the eyes on both snakes

Photos of a complete shed and a close up of the eye caps:

Photos of a Baird's Ratsnake just beginning to shed her old skin. In this photo you can see that the snake's eye is no longer cloudy as it was in the pictures posted above:

Coming soon - Photos of a retained shed and a partial shed:

New - Photos of damaged nose scales due to a stuck facial shed, notice the deformed scales on the noses of both of these two snakes:

Close up of an undamaged cornsnake's nose, notice how semetrical his scales appear and how little space there is between each scale:

Photo of a damaged tail tip:

Photos of the healing stump of a damaged tail-tip after the dying portion of tail has fallen off during a recent shed:

Here are a few pictures of what a fallen tail-tip looks like in an old shed:

A photo showing both a damaged tail and a healthy tail tip for comparison:

Here's an updated picture of Rubble's tail tip, you can see that the stub has completely healed over:

All in all the best way to deal with poor sheds, in my opinion, is to prevent them with proper care and close observation.

Thank you,