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Q: Rough shed on Amazon tree boa. Any Ideas?
Posted By:

manunited1

In Relation To:

Ifrit [BS-0807-M1]
I have an ATB that has had problems with rough sheds in the past. They were aproblem about six months ago. I had him in a small cage, and he had a rough shed. I then moved him to a larger enclosure. He then immediately had another shed within two weeks apart. When he shed this time he was fine for a few months. About a month ago he went into another rough shed, and is still currently going through it.

I have addressed the more obvious symptoms. When I first got him, I also got a female. I was not misting the cages but they seemed fine. I used to see  both of them drink frequently from their water dishes. I started to mist their cages and changed the subrate from aspen bedding to reptile orchid bark to help with the humidity. Once I started to mist the cages I noticed that they were not drinking from the dishes anymore or at least I did not see them doing it anymore.

I have recently added live plants to his enclosure to help with the humidy and to give him more natural hide areas. I did this after he went into a rough shed again. I am at a loos for what is wrong with him. I have since added another ATB and the other two are perfect. With the exact same conditions.

I wonder if I am feeding them too much and making them grow too quickly? Could this be the case? I was feeding them two pinky mice every week since March. Then I switched him to two fuzzy mice every week then to one pinky rat once a week.

Anybody have an ideas? I have been soaking him in room temp water for two hours every other day but it still has not completely come off.

Thanks in advance.

Phil
Points: 150
Topics: Skin , Caging , Heating
Species: Boas > Arboreal Boas > Corallus hortulanus
Administrative: Show/Hide
Assisted Answer 11/11/2008 11:00:02 AM

aaron
Note to everyone: Do *NOT* pillowcase an animal for shed. The pillowcase can wick the water, and form a complete seal around the animal. It can turn into a coffin. :/

When he goes opaque, just jack the humidity up ... misting is good. My background is chondros, so it's not a direct species relation, but I'd guess they're fairly similar.. I have chondros who shed perfect even when I'm not diligent with humidity, and chondros that shed terribly when I am diligent. I think a lot of it is up to the individual animal and their hydration.

You can do the pinch test to see how well hydrated they are. Pinch their skin. If that fold you create bounces back quickly, they are hydrated well. If the fold stays there, they need more liquids.

For a while I was injecting prey with water, so that when they ate, they were effectively forced to drink. Not sure how effective this was, but I didn't have any apparent negative effects from it.

Doesn't sound like anything is wrong, per se... I personally think some animals (and it's typically the boys, go figure) seem to be more difficult and require more babying when they are going into shed.
 
Assisted Answer 11/11/2008 1:10:05 PM

coralluslove
u can try putting him in a plastic container with lots of damp moss in it, the amazon will slither through it and the mixture of high humidity and the uneven rough texture of the moss should help remove the remaining pieces of shed. my amazons all shed well and i havent tryed this with them but at my work ive done this with many milk snakes who have had bad sheds and it worked perfectly!
 
Author Comment 11/11/2008 2:57:03 PM

manunited1
Thanks you two. I am wondering about the feeding thing though. Do you think I am feeding the too much? Growing him too quick?

Phil
 
Assisted Answer 11/11/2008 7:22:02 PM

LokisKafka
One a pinky rat a week is not to much judging from his picture. You can feed him something slightly smaller than his thickest part. If your really concerned though and want to check then just look at his scales and see if they seem to be "seperating" or spreading apart. If you dont see any of that than he is probably not growing to quickly. You can keep a wieght check on him for a couple months once a week and chart it to get a real idea of how much he is growing. Just try to do it the same day of the week in relation to feeding for consistancy. Good luck.
 
Accepted Answer 11/16/2008 7:53:51 PM

MegF
I feed young amazons every 7 days or so.  Subadults and adults go to every 2 weeks.  I'd definitely up the humidity when this animal comes into blue.  I  use sphagnum moss and when the amazons go into blue and spray the heck out of it to really get it moist.  They like to burrow in it.  I've not had bad sheds with it.  I had one baby chondro that had several bad sheds in a row and I really had to get the cage wet.  After shed, I'd change all the substrate and go back to normal spraying. She eventually outgrew the problem and hasn't had a difficult shed since.  Yours might do the same.  I really don't see how feeding a rat pinky is the cause. Rather than a rat pinky though, I'd go with fuzzy mice.  Pinkies have little nutritional value, so it's best to get the animal off them as soon as possible and onto something with more substance.  With boas and pythons I usually feed an item the width of the body and not larger than that.  There won't be much of a bulge in my animals when I've fed, just the outline of the mouse in there. 
 
Author Comment 11/21/2008 8:41:10 AM

manunited1
Meg,

Thanks for the reponse. I did not think I was feeding too frequent. I have never seen a snake go through a double shed though. Two week apart, very strange. I will add the moist sphagnum and see if that helps. Corralluslove thanks 2 u 2.
 
Author Comment 11/21/2008 8:56:32 AM

manunited1
Thanks Aaron and Jennifer for the answers. I will put all of your answers into good use.
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