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Seeing your lizard or snake have an effortless shed is a clear sign that you’re doing great as a pet owner. But what about in the winter, when shedding just gets harder in general? It really comes down to how much moisture is in your pet’s habitat (as well as in their body). But it turns out there is a lot you can do to help them shed, even when it’s bone dry.
In this article, we’ll cover how to make sure your pet sheds beautifully year-round. Here’s everything you need to know.
What is Stuck Shed? And Why Does it Get Worse in the Winter?
Stuck shed is what happens when your pet can’t get its old skin to let go. It results from either having a dry environment or not enough water in the body.
It seems like a minor pain, but it can actually lead to serious health problems. The constriction of dead skin on your pet can cause tissue death (or necrosis), which can result in the loss of toes. Stuck eyecaps can cause permanent blindness, too. And the resulting injuries can cause serious infection and even death. Barring all that, stuck shed is stressful and not a fun experience for your scaly friend.
That’s why you’ve got to be extra careful in the winter. As the air dries out and cools off, your pet’s environment will get dryer and your pet might become dehydrated. So you need to compensate by giving them opportunities to get moisture, both environmentally and in their tissues.
The Danger of “Just Mist More”
The goal here is to maintain a stable humidity in your pet’s environment, not to increase the humidity. If you just indiscriminately mist more, you run the risk of letting bacteria and mold set up shop in your pet’s house.
Misting is a good idea, but you need to be careful about how you bring more humidity into your pet’s space. We’ll talk more about how to do that in a minute.
Stuck Shed No-nos
First, we need to cover the absolute no-nos. The biggest one of these is not to pull on your pet’s shed if it’s stuck. Unless you’re a first time reptile owner, this should be obvious, but it bears repeating.
The shedding skin is still attached to delicate, new skin underneath, and you can damage it if you try to pick it off early. It’s basically the same reason your mom told you not to pick at scabs when you were a kid.
It’s also important to note that you shouldn’t use oils or lotions to try to move the process along. Your pet’s skin isn’t meant to come into contact with oil or any of the heavy duty chemicals in lotion. Doing this can cause respiratory issues and even chemical burns.
Last, just don’t overdo it. Shedding takes time and if you go overboard with misting and other methods, you increase your pet’s chances of getting an infection.
Safe Misting Techniques
As we mentioned, misting isn’t necessarily bad. However, you should be careful about how you mist in order to bump up the humidity in your pet’s habitat. The key points are not to soak the enclosure and make sure the water can evaporate.
So when you mist, use warm (not hot) water that won’t cool your pet off, and will evaporate after it collects on surfaces in the habitat. And when you spray, be sure to spot mist. You don’t want to douse the entire vivarium. Last, mist early in the day so that your pet gets a humidity boost, and then returns to normal humidity by nighttime.
Habitat Furniture that Promotes Shedding
Another reason for stuck sheds is a lack of rough surfaces in the enclosure. If your pet’s habitat is lacking rocks, bark features, or other surfaces it can use to help shed, that might be causing its sheds to stick.
What you add to your habitat depends on what kind of pet you have. We typically discourage using bark for beardies, but it can work alright for pythons. In general, rough rock surfaces are the safest and least likely to cause impaction.
Creating the Perfect Humid Hide
Humid hides are a great way of maintaining smooth sheds during the winter. A humid hide is basically a small area inside the habitat with a wetter substrate. If your pet is shedding, the humid microclimate will hydrate their skin and help them shed naturally.
To create a humid hide, you just need to create a small enclosed area with moist substrate. You can use a smooth-sided cave or even a tupperware container with a door cut into it. Just be sure to file down any sharp edges.
Now, fill the bottom with a damp substrate like sphagnum moss, paper towels, or eco-earth. Simpler is better for humid hides, as you will need to clean it regularly and want to make sure it doesn’t create mold.
One benefit of using cheap plastic is that you can poke holes in it to let it vent excess humidity, in case there’s too much. Plastic also lets you keep an eye on the condition of the substrate inside.
How to Set It Up and Maintain It
Ideally, your humid hide should be either on the warm side of the enclosure or in the middle. Keep it damp inside, but not dripping. Clean it out weekly and inspect the substrate regularly to stop it growing anything funky in there. It’s just that simple!
The Pillowcase Method
If you have a snake with a stubborn shed, you can try putting it in a warm, damp pillowcase for 30 minutes or so. This has basically the same effect as a humid hide, just without the maintenance and cleanup. Just make sure not to leave them in too long or let them get cold. Short bursts of higher humidity work wonders for scaly skin and can work wonders for stuck sheds.