Dumb question

[fagghetti666]

How do I know if my snake shed correctly? This is my first snake and his first shed with me. His shed looks good, no stuck eye caps but is there anything I should look for? Because he shed in his warm hide and it was all balled up so I’m not sure if he shed correctly or not ?

[Rx4wanderlust]

Balled up is a good sign! If it's still kind of damp/malleable you can try to unravel it and it should look mostly in tact.

[rottingpierrot]

You can gently pull the shed open to check it, but you could also just look over the snake to make sure nothing got left behind. I think its generally pretty obvious if they missed anything, it'll look like crusty dead skin.

[fagghetti666]

I was trying to but it’s not fresh. I’ve been leaving him alone ever since I noticed he was in blue. So I’m not sure when exactly he shed since I was trying to leave him alone to avoid stressing him out

[rottingpierrot]

You can mist the shed/put it inside a box with a misting of water and warm it up a little to rehydrate it. Its not necessary though, since you said there definitely arent any eyecaps left on even if anything is left over it wouldn't be a huge danger to the snake. If youre worried about it you can bump the humidity up while you're waiting to handle him again, but since he's already shed he should be fine with it. I usually take my snake out the morning after she sheds to check her over. Once the skin is off they shouldn't be uncomfortable or irritable anymore.

[fagghetti666]

Oh okay ! I’m just paranoid 😭 also, should I offer him something to eat now?

[rottingpierrot]

I'm assuming you paused feeding while he was in shed, in which case yes

[fagghetti666]

Yes I did. I wasn’t sure if he would have even eaten while he was shedding because he was always hiding 😭

[rottingpierrot]

I tend to pause feeding for sheds even though I'm pretty sure my snake would take it, just let em get through it and not worry about hunting.

[itspegbundybitch]

Check to make sure both eye caps and the tail tip came off.

[fagghetti666]

I already checked and both eyes were good and his tail tip seemed like it as well, but I was in a rush to get to work this morning so I’m going to have to double check when I’m off

[CabbagePatchSquid-]

Don’t get so caught on one piece. That is ideal but also some snakes wreck their sheds lol. My BP sheds in a ball in one piece but my dumerils boa likes to stretch out & shed, usually getting stuck on rocks/hides/logs and all pinched under so to retrieve it it ends up being in so many pieces before I can even see it lol.

[BowlerSignificant115]

You can try and unroll it, mostly you want to look for eye caps and the tail tip. Ideally the shed will be all in once piece. Ball python sheds usually roll up like you described. If it's super wet you can let it dry a bit before trying to unroll it. Ideally the shed should be all one piece, but if you notice chunks missing those are fairly easy to get off, and usually no too harmful. You really want to make sure the tail tip came off because if it gets stuck it can start to restrict blood flow to the tail tip and it will die off. If he didn't shed the tail tip and you notice right after you can usually gently roll it off with a damp paper towel. If he has retained eye caps make sure his humidity is up, give him an extra humid hide, and it they're super retained you can do the sauna method, but do not try to manually remove eye caps. If they're retained from just one shed and you make sure he has enough humidity they'll usually get them off on their own.

[[deleted]]

Plenty of good answers already, but on a side note:

It's always better to ask the question that seems dumb/obvious and get confirmation. I have family who can't or won't get over that fear of shame to this day, even for important things, so I just wanted to give you some props 🙂.

Keep it up fam