Snake skin shedding

When a snake prepares to shed it's skin you can usually notice a few changes in their appearance and behaviour. One change is the clarity of their eyes. A couple of days before the snake will shed it's skin in its entirety their eyes will become opaque, limiting their sight and causing them to become almost temporarily blind.

The photo below was taken of a juvenile Murray Darling Python who has been showing signs of it's impending shed. These signs included aggressive behaviour and pupil dilation. The snake is now at a stage where it's eyes are clouded and it's skin is becoming dull, so I expect it will shed in the next few days.

Most animals shed their skin. but snakes have a habit of doing it in style! Snakes begin to remove their skin by rubbing themselves on surfaces that will catch the loose skin. They rub the top of their body and their underside trying to catch their skin on something to help it come away. Once the skin is caught on something the skin gently peels away, beginning from their mouth, and includes the scales over their eyes. It comes off inside-out, in one long piece.

There are a couple of reasons why snakes shed their skins. One is that they have just outgrown their skin (the most like reason for the snake above as it grows rapidly) so they need a new, better fitting skin layer. The second reason may be to remove damaged or old skin, or even to get rid of any parasites.

Other terms that may be used for a snake shedding it's skin is moulting, slough and ecdysis.

This is a wonderful video of Lilga our Children's Python shedding perfectly.

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