A couple questions

[Dameon_Snake]

If a boa doesnt shed its eye caps what does it look like?

How do you get them off without agitating the boa?

My boa seems to never want to go back in the cage. I'll handle it a little bit then go to put it back. I put it in and then it pops its head right back out and tries to get out....

Is there an easier way to get her in so theres no struggle?

One more question

If a snake has a bad shed.....and the skin is left on ie. the eye caps or the head, tail......and it is about to shed again will that skin come off with the new shed or will it cause more problems?

Thanks

[Damian]

Re: A couple questions

when a snake sheds the first thing you should look for is evidence of the eye caps in the shedded skin, this is very easy to do when your snake sheds in one piece. if your snake does have retained eye caps it should be farely easy to see. your best bet to remove any retained skin is to soak your snake. then you should be able to gently peel off any skin that has remained. now anytime your dealing with any part of your snakes face, and especially the eyes, you Must be extremely careful. i have found that after i soaked my snake in lukewarm water i was able to gently run my finger across my ball pythons eyes and the eye caps came off farely easily. i am sure some other people on here will be able to suggest some other ways to rid your snake of retained skin

as far as an easier way to get your snake back in its cage i have found that most boas generally do not willingly go back into there cage. i personally own a bci and a solomon island tree boa and they both putup a huge fight when i attempt to put them back in there cage.

[Dameon_Snake]

Re: A couple questions

your ball pythons just let you touh its eye?....and didnt get agitated?? What did it do?

[Damian]

Re: A couple questions

my ball python damian has only had this problem one time in the ten years i have had her. she is very tame (IF YOU BELIEVE SNAKES CAN BECOME TAME) and did allow me to gently remove the retained eye caps. of course she moved around and got a little uneasy but i was able to get the eye caps off so quickly that she really didn't get too annoyed.

[LORI]

Re: A couple questions

Look at this thread here for info on retained eyecaps... http://www.redtailboas.com/cgi-bin/y...num=1044318540

Is there an easier way to get her in so theres no struggle?

YUP ! When placing the snake back into it's cage and it is one that usually does not want to go back into the cage at all when you want it to...Just try directing the snake's head into one of it's hide boxes first...Then work on getting the rest of the snake into the cage. By the time you have the snake's body into the cage...It is just coming out of the hide head forst and figuring out what your up to. If you work fast enough... you'll win and get the caover back on before tha snake has a chance to start climbing out of the cage again hehe. I have to do this with quite a few of my colubrids here most the time.

If a snake has a bad shed.....and the skin is left on ie. the eye caps or the head, tail......and it is about to shed again will that skin come off with the new shed or will it cause more problems?

Usually it will come off with the next shed..BUT there is a chance that it may not also. As for the retained shed on the tail end.. You really so NOT want to let that remain until the next shedding time if at all possible. It could wind up constricting the snake's tail and cutting off the circulation to the tail... that could lead to a loss of tail end and/or amputation being needed for the snake. In some cases it could also lead to necrosis of the tail tissue and that could also lead to an infection which also could turn septic also. Also do NOT go and try to pull off the retained shed in the tail end..you could cause what i just said by doing that possibly also. Is there a problem with retained shed on the tail atm in your snake ? If so let us know and we can tell you hiow to go about taking care of it now too.

Head retains all depend on how much, where exactly etc in whether they can be left until the next shed time.

[Dameon_Snake]

Re: A couple questions

No i was just asking.......i think there is an eye cap....but shes gonna be shedding soon.....shes gettin really dark and milky eyes....im gonnna see if it will come off and if it doesnt ill try my self

[LORI]

Re: A couple questions

OOO.k then..How much experience do you have so far in removing retained eyecaps then ? Ya did note that if you are NOT 100% sure there's a retained eyecap and/or ya don't know how to remove it...that it could be detrimental to your snake's health should you try to remove etc....Right????