Cheeto's First Shed!!!

So it has been 70 days since Cheeto has eaten. She is getting thinner and lighter, although she is still active and in good spirits. I will be honest, I have no clue what has been going on. I have tried a lot of different things to get her to eat, but nothing so far has enticed her enough to eat.

Cheeto was previously in a 20 gallon long tank and is now in a 4 quart tub with the hot side heat at 93 °F. I bought another thermostat so I could control the under-tank-heater, as they are notorious for exceeding 120°F. I gave her some fresh bedding and a bowl of water in this temporary tank that I placed within the 20 gallon long tank.

A few days ago, I noticed skin discoloration and I was overcome with hopefulness that Cheeto would be going into shed soon. I kept a close eye on her and kept her humidity high enough to where her skin would come off in one piece.

Today I went to check on her and she had shed completely! Her colors look more vibrant and I am just overjoyed that this will be a good indicator that she is ready to eat.

Tomorrow will be a trip to get some live mice to try to get her to eat. If she eats I will most likely cry because my baby is getting better.

...if she doesn't eat though we have an appointment with the exotic vet on Friday to examine why she hasn't been eating. The vet will do a full exam, help me feed her by any means necessary so she stops losing weight, and possibly prescribe medicine or give her an appetite stimulant to get her to want to eat again.

All and all I am thrilled with the progress that we're making!

Another update soon!

Shedding Layers

Snakes, like most other reptiles, frequently shed their skin. Now, since I have had Marbles she's only shed once back in June. And if I'm being completely honest, I didn't know about how to care for a snake when they're shedding. The first time she shed was about less than a month after I got her and I didn't care for her properly. I didn't keep the humidity high enough which caused Marbles to shed in pieces as opposed to in one long piece.

Came home to a shed today!

Last Monday Marbles didn't eat but yesterday (Tuesday) she did. I was actually quite skeptical on if I should feed her since she is shedding, but I figured since she didn't eat last week she could be hungry and dehydrated (snakes get most of their water from their food they eat as opposed to drinking water).

The other day whenever I noticed that she began shedding, I became determined to do it the correct way so it'd all come out in one piece. To accomplish this, I kept everything the same with Marbles- feeding routine, temperature, enclosure, fresh water refilled often- with the exception of handling and humidity. I did my research and found that I needed to increase the humidity from the normal 60% - 65% to 70% - 80% so she would be comfortable during this time. Also, I refrained from handling her while shedding because that could cause stress and possibly hinder the shedding process.

What a great shed!

I got home from work, saw the shed in the enclosure and was ecstatic when I pulled it out to find it was in one piece. Part of it tore off while I picked it up but it was just a little part so that's alright. I measured it and Marbles is currently 2'10"! Almost 3 ft long! The last time I weighed her she was about 415g (about a pound).

Now that she's shed and everything is good hopefully I can start handling her more!

Apartment Move Update

Alrighty, so it has now been a week since Marbles and I moved here into the apartment. Things are going really well!

The gray over her eye is skin that will be shed

I am having a much easier time keeping humidity here than when we were set up at my house and honestly I have no clue why.

Marbles is doing just fine! I went to go feed her on Monday and she struck at the mouse but didn't eat it. I thought it was because she realizes she is in a relatively new environment and she just got nervous. But it turns out there's another reason.

I took her out to hold her the other day and I noticed that her eyes were fogging up, and in the world of reptiles, that means Marbles is about to shed her skin.

For comparison, here you can see her eyes are black

I am not worried about her as this is normal for ball pythons and they're known to be picky eaters. I will continue to feed her (or attempt to) during the shed. This is only the second time she's refused food in the four months I have had her.

Marbles likes to curl up in her log hide and poke her head off. When one of my roommates comes into my room she peaks out to see what's going on