What are the "stages" of my corn snakes shedding?

Question

My corn snake is in his first shed since ive had him and he is a few months old and i was just wondering wat the different stages are of shedding are

*and any advice you can give me to help his shed go as smoothly as possible would be great

**and when should i feed him again?

Answer 1

The first thing you may notice is your snake's colors will get dull. The dullness can look brownish (on normals and the "darker" morphs) or whitish (mostly the hypos). Amels just don't seem as "shiny."

Then the eyes will go cloudy. I've noticed some just have a faint cast in the eyecaps; others' eyecaps go almost totally white and opaque.

All my snakes hang out more on the warmer end of their cages. Some refuse to eat; others never stop feeding.  I generally don't feed or mess with them at this time. I don't imagine they feel very good during this time.

Usually the eyes clear up after four or five days. From then, I figure another 7 to 10 days until they actually shed.  During the time their eyes cloud up and until the snake sheds, you can either offer a large water bowl (as previously suggested) or dampen some peat moss and stick it in a hide (I cut holes in the side of plastic whipped topping or margarine containers).  

I feed either right after the shed or the next day - whenever I have a chance to pull a f/t mouse out.

Good luck!

Answer 2

With snakes, there really are no "stages" to the shedding.  They can usually get it all off in one piece.  But to answer your question, you'll know your snake is about to shed because 3-5 days before the shedding, you will notice their eyes will begin to get "cloudy".  During this period, you do not want to handle your snake.  He is blind because of this and will more than likely strike at you simply out of defense.  There's really not much else you need to do for your snake until the deed is done.  Some corn snakes will soak in their water bowl before a shedding, so it may help to have a water bowl large enough for him to curl up in, and fill it halfway.  Once the snake has shed, you ALWAYS want to check the old skin and make sure the eye caps were removed as well.  Retained eye caps can become a serious problem over time.  If the eye caps were not shed properly, take him to a PROFESSIONAL to remove them.  Any vet or reputable reptile specialist will do.  Other than that, there's not much else to it.  

As far as feeding, it's best to wait at least a day after shedding.  Some snakes are usually a bit stressed after shedding, so feeding and handling aren't recommended around their shedding period.

Hope this helps.  :)