How to Remove a Bad Shed from a Snake

Bad shedding with snakes is very common if their temperature is off or their humidity is off, or both are off. But do not worry; the bad shed can be fixed fairly easily. With a little time and patience and of course a little cooperation from the snake, you can have the shed off in no time.

Step 1: Clean out your bath tub and make sure there is no soap or chemicals present in the tub. This includes chemicals and soap that could have dried to the inside of the tub rimming. You can clean out the tub by simply scrubbing it down with hot water. Make sure you wash it down a couple times with a scratchy pad and hot water just to make sure there is no residue left over. Any chemicals and soaps that your snake will encounter will more than likely irritate its scales and cause a lot more problems then just the bad shed it has right now.

Step 2: Now you need to fill the tub with warm water. Keep the water between 75 and 85 degrees F. Anything hotter or colder than 75 and 85 degrees F will harm your snake. Below 75 degrees F will put your snake into shock and anything above 85 degrees F could burn the snake.

Take a look at your snake and decide how high you need to fill the tub with water. You only want the water to come right above the tip of their back. They can raise their head above the water at this point. It is a good idea to place some kind of platform in the water so the snake can get in and out of the water at anytime and take retreat on the platform for a rest. You do not want the snake to become tired and laying its head under the water and dying.

You are going to keep the snake in the warm water about one hour before you try to remove any skin. Make sure to keep the water between 75 and 85 degrees at all time.

WARNING: Do not try to keep your snake warm by placing a heating lamp, heating rock, heating pad, etc. of any kind above or around the water. If you have a water proof heating source that you can put in the water to keep it between the given temperatures that is fine to use as long as you are sure it will not injure your snake. Placing electrical items near what, when they are not water proof, could cause you and/or your snake a fatal ending. Just please do not do it!

Step 3: After you have aloud your snake at least an hour in the warm bath, you can attempt to remove the dead skin shed. You can do this by getting a wash cloth of some sort, wetting it in the bath water, and gently gliding the cloth along the snake shed. Make sure to keep the cloth moving in the direction of the scales. The scales bend toward the tail direction, so start toward the head and pull the cloth down the snake and toward the tail. If you go against the scale movement, you are likely to bend the scales backwards. Bending a scale feels like bending a finger nail backwards. Ouch! Try to avoid it.

Continue the warm bath and cloth wiping until all the shed is removed from the snake. And that is all you have to do to remove a bad shed from a snake!