I have a fussy little poss triple het (Tom Burke line) that was due for a shed. She has never had a shedding problem in the past, but I moved her tub to a different place in the rack and I think the stress put her into a bad shed. I raised her humidity, sprayed her several times a day and when she was two weeks past her “blue eye” days, I started soaking her everyday. I thought she would eventually crawl out of that skin, but she just wouldn’t do it. She started looking like she was wearing cardboard.

Finally I read a post on the redtailboas about soaking and then pulling the shed off by hand, so I thought I would give it a try. She looked so uncomfortable and I was starting to worry about her. I had never done this before so I was a little leery of the process. She has been a sweetheart of a boa, but I wondered if scratching at her face and pulling on her eyes would make her want to bite me. I soaked her for 20 min in a little tub with a lid (not filled to the top of course). Then I pulled her out and started pulling up-wards on the very tip of her front lip with my fingernail while I held her head. BAM TEETH! Not a bite though. I had pushed her mouth open a little trying to get the skin started and pushed her teeth down into my own hand. *way to go Sid* Right as I was about to give up a little piece came loose and started a good section pulling up. I slowly worked it back to the eyes and then got nervous, they only have one pair. I tugged and pulled a bit and didn’t feel right about it.

The boas head was above water the whole time it was soaking and the head skin was not as moist so I put her back in the water for a bit. Being the mean owner I am, I pushed her head underwater for about 2 seconds, every 5 minutes. After 20 min and about 4 dunkings I started at it again. I learned then that the eye scale is inset under the surrounding scales! The eye scales came off perfectly. I did the same process to the bottom lip and the rest of it came off pretty smooth. I don’t think she loved it, but she was really good about it. She seemed happy to be out of that old skin, but it was probably my relief making me think that she thunk that.

Our window unit dries out the snakeroom so I get to deal with bad sheds every so often. I take a big ol pillow case and line it with a rough towel. I soak the pillow case in warm water , wring it out and put the snake in. I put the sack in a warm tub for a few hours and it generally gets the shed skin off. Rarely , if left long enough , do I have to peel any stuck shed after the pillow case.

Pillowcase works everytime, if you do have issues with eyecaps I have found that a qtip works wonders on them.

have used the soaked (and rung out) towel trick to maximum effect on many occasions. put a big fluffy one in their tub, they know what to do with it.
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It's a small boa so I tried the towel trick with a small towel. It didn't work that time. I'll try the pillow case trick next time.

I don't usually get stuck sheds well a little at times during the summer with all the fans running but I'll put the snake in an empty tub with about 1/2 of water for a day or so.

I think they love a good soak anyway..:) Just don't put too much water in, some ol' boy over on KS soaked his bee with like 6in of water and was surprised to fine it belly up when he returned..:(

Awe, just pop her in the washer and set it on the delicate cycle - works every time.
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* Disclaimer *

This was meant in jest - please do not try this at home.

The previously mentioned methods will work well.
Avoid trying to manually remove any stuck shed other then eyecaps.
It is both dangerous and traumatic for the animal.

Good luck with your girl.

Mike Greathouse
www.digitalherper.com