On Wednesday morning, after sleeping outside her hide for a week and a half, Havana finally shed her skin. She began at approximately 3:00 AM, and finished about an hour later. I was asleep, and Thomas was busy working away at his computer in his office (which is where Havana’s tank is located). He just so happened to turn around at the exact moment when she was trying to break the skin around her nose, and so he immediately woke me up. We were extremely lucky that he turned around just as she decided to shed her skin. If he hadn’t turned around for just one hour, we would have completely missed seeing her shed.
After breaking the skin near her nose, Havana began to press her head underneath her body, using the friction from the aspen snake bedding on her enclosure floor to push the dead skin off of her face.
Eventually, she began rubbing her face along just her body to get the skin off, which worked really well.
Finally, she had gotten all the dead skin off her face. She curled up into a ball and took a short break, gearing herself up to take the rest of the dead skin off her body.
As you can see above, Havana’s eye caps came off with the rest of her skin. Sometimes, when a snake is not having a good shed, this does not happen.
If your snake’s eye caps have stayed on even though your snake has shed, try giving the snake a warm bath for 10-20 minutes, then waiting a day. If the humidity inside the snake’s enclosure is not high enough, the snake will not have a good shed, which is why a warm bath often does the trick.
After her rest, Havana continued to go around and around her body. Once a good chunk of the skin was off, she pushed her body against the side of her hide to get the rest of it off of her.
Eventually, and with a few more breaks in between, Havana got herself completely out of her old skin. Since we kept the humidity high through the use of a wet towel, she had a good shed and her entire skin came off in one piece. Thomas collected the old skin and put it into a box. Havana’s skin now looks much more healthy and shiny than we’ve ever seen it.
Thanks for sharing these! I have a king snake named Marley and I get so excited when he sheds. Snakes really are fascinating creatures. Your python is really pretty! I love the moving gif you posted, did you notice it kind of looks like she’s wearing a really silly hat in that one? So cute, lol.
Thanks! Yeah I love the way they look when they’re shedding. It’s definitely the coolest thing about snakes in my opinion. And yup, it does look like she’s wearing a funny hat, or a bandana of sorts :).