Here are 3 simple tips that will help your pet snake shed in one piece the first time around.

Provide the proper humidity

We’ll get started with the first and most important tip of them all. There is no single greater cause of shedding problems than the humidity being too low. Every species of snake has an optimal range of humidity levels to keep it healthy. Make sure you stay within that range. Also don’t forget that the upper end of the range usually jumps up when the snake shows signs of shedding so be sure you are aware of when that happens. Then you can make the proper adjustments.

Don’t over-soak your snake

A lot of people when they notice their snake is getting ready to shed will begin soaking it. Every single day for over an hour a day. This is especially common with people who have had bad experiences with shedding before due to the humidity being too low. Chances are they found out that the way to correct the problem is to soak their snake so they figure by soaking before the snake tries to shed they’ll be preventing a bad shed issue. The problem is that the soak actually robs the snake of essential oils that it builds up between the old and the new layer of skin. If you do need to soak your snake briefly at the beginning of the shed is fine. By briefly I mean 10 or 15 minutes at most ONE TIME! After that is unnecessary and moves from the realm of helping your snake shed successfully to assisting it with a bad shed.

Leave it alone while it is shedding

Shedding is a stressful and uncomfortable process for a snake so leave it be. Once you recognize that the snake is getting ready to shed you should minimize contact with it. Spot cleaning the tank is fine, hour long holding sessions are not.

Those 3 tips will help your snake to shed better. The most important thing you can do is to make sure the humidity is at the proper levels.