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 My Royal is shedding again. Please help!
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jonnyboy231
Snake Mite

United Kingdom
15 Posts

Posted - 19/12/2012 :  20:38:27  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
Hey, this is my first time on the forum.

I have a question about my little Royal. I've had him almost two months I'd say now, all has been good, he's amazing etc etc.

He shed about 2 weeks ago give or take a few days. Now he is shedding again? Why is that?! Is it something to be concerned about?

The only thing I can think of, is that he's not pooing very often, the last time he shed there wa a big log shaped poo in his vivarium. That is the ONLY thing I can think of. Could this be related to him shedding again so soon?

Thanks in advanced
John Nicholson

chrisc
Old Royal - I Post too much!

United Kingdom
3326 Posts

Posted - 19/12/2012 :  21:03:39  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
welcome to the forum.
first they dont poo very often so wouldnt worry about that.

they shed often when small but 2 weeks seems a bit too soon.
what size rat/mouse are you feeding an how often? the general rule we use is feed 10-15% of their body weight.
also have a good look for mites as this may cause them to shed more often, look closely for any little black bugs on him an in his water bowl

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jonnyboy231
Snake Mite

United Kingdom
15 Posts

Posted - 19/12/2012 :  21:24:55  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
Thanks for the quick reply Chrisc

We're feeding him a rat fluff once a week. And I don't know any weights, sorry.
And that could be a possibly reason, we did have a small mites scare a while back, we found some little mites but we concluded that they were some sort of wood mites because the only place we could find them was over his bark hide, and we couldn't find any on him.

Upon finding them we bathed him, cleaned out his vivarium and completely disinfected the whole thing and everything inside it, and we poured several kettles full of boiling water over his hide to burn out any mites that might have been in there and did everything we could.

He has been bathing in his water bowl quite a bit recently though :/

What do you suggest Chrisc?
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chrisc
Old Royal - I Post too much!

United Kingdom
3326 Posts

Posted - 20/12/2012 :  18:40:50  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
yes the little white mites are from any damp wood but the may irritate the snake.
have a look for any little black mites they can be hard to spot as the adults are only a few mm wide so check the water bowl for any floating dead ones.

up the humidity add a damp hide ect then have a really good check/clean once hes shed.

how are you heating the viv an what are the temps?

1.0.0 burmese python,giblet. 1.0.0 BCI, william. 0.1.0 blue tongue skink, 0.1.0 green iguana, jasmin, 1.0.0 cape house snake, 0.1.0 checkered garter snake

my youtube. http://www.youtube.com/user/pegrocks
incubate 2 campaign
https://www.facebook.com/incubate2
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BenjiBoo
Hatchling

United Kingdom
59 Posts

Posted - 22/12/2012 :  14:14:17  Show Profile  Visit BenjiBoo's Homepage  Reply with Quote
Frequent shedding and bathing is a sign of mites, sometimes there are only a few so look closely they may be under the scales. Either way they are usually well hidden. Dead ones will float in water as already mentioned. They lay eggs in susbtrait, so switch to kitchen roll and change it every other day and give the viv a quick disinfect. If its a recent outbreak they should be gone with in a week aslong as u keep ontop of cleaning ;)

Good luck

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hodgie
Fully Grown Royal

United Kingdom
1197 Posts

Posted - 22/12/2012 :  15:54:38  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
I`ve had a young Royal shed twice in a month and she didn`t have mites, sometimes its just because they just having a growth spurt.

Royals owned "lots"

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jonnyboy231
Snake Mite

United Kingdom
15 Posts

Posted - 23/12/2012 :  12:45:32  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
Chrisc and yeah they're white mites and I will have a look for mites when he's finished shedding, I did see something in his water bowl the other day that looked like a mite, I couldn't see any on him though, how easy are they to spot? He's young but I can't see much :S

And I did up the humidity a bit, by putting his water bowl closer to the hot end, what other things can you do to up the humidity? And thanks I will check and clean out the viv completely again!

And I'm heating with a ceramic bulb, and the hot end is around 30 decree's C and I'm not sure about the cold end

BenjoBoo, okay thanks, I think I will put him onto kitchen towels thinking about it, thanks for the suggestion

Hodgie really? Is that a common thing?
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