He's done it!

Excitement today! Raoul our beautiful corn snake has shed his skin, for the first time since we adopted him six months ago. It was a perfect shed, with the entire skin intact including the eye covers. From a sluggish, crotchety snake of the past few days, he is now once again his usual lively, interested self.

It happened very quickly. I have been checking on him regularly, and spraying water mist to aid humidity. An hour earlier, he was coiled in the corner of the vivarium with no sign of anything happening. Then when I took a coffee break from work and had another look, the skin was off, draped around the hides and branches that he likes to slither under and over for recreation

I blipped him last Thursday when he was 'blue', with a dull blueish tinge to his eyes and skin, a sure sign of an approaching shed. Then we were puzzled that he returned to near-normal colour again, but that's what happens, and it can take from a couple of days to a couple of weeks after the 'blue' for the shed to occur.

The discarded skin has enabled me to measure Raoul's length, not an easy thing to do with an active snake. He's 150 cm - 59 inches!