# is it bad to feed your snake when its about to shed?



## xBurntBytheSunx

i just fed my snake today and as soon as i put her back in her enclosure she shed her entire skin off


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## crpy

nope not bad at all ,if it didn't want to eat, it wouldn't.

My rat snakes eat when they are opaque, they are chow hounds, err, snakes


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## Morax

nope not at all if any thing its good to feed them right before a snake sheds, so they get all the energy they need to shed.


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## Mushroom Spore

Morax said:


> if any thing its good to feed them right before a snake sheds, so they get all the energy they need to shed.


I think you're confusing snakes with inverts, shedding is not really any kind of exhausting process with reptiles.

The only danger in feeding a snake in shed is if you feed live, since at certain points beforehand the snake is temporarily blind. They may also not be interested in food sometimes for the same reason.


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## pitbulllady

Most snakes WON'T eat while in shed, at least not during that period where their eyes are milky and they have all that fluid built up between the old skin and new one, to separate the two skin layers, though some(yours is apparently one of those)will resume feeding once their eyes clear up.  It takes a real hog of a snake to eat while its eyes are still "opaque", lol!  As long as you're feeding dead prey, there should be no problem, and it certainly won't hurt the snake.  I just usually avoid feeding during that time, because I most often either wind up wasting a perfectly good dead rat/mouse because the snake wouldn't eat it, or having to feed it to one of my "garbage disposal" snakes who, in most cases, have already eaten and really don't need any extra calories, or feeding it to one of my "garbage disposal" T's who probably don't need it, either.

pitbulllady


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## sassysmama

I think it also depends on the type of snake.  I just fed my 5ft red tail a fresh killed large rat, and her eyes were completely opaque.  She ate it no problem, just like she always does when in shed.  One of our ball pythons will not eat for more than two weeks before her shed.  IME, red tails just tend to have more of an "eat anything, at any time" attitude.  I'm sure there will be others with completely opposite experiences, but that is the general trend I have seen.  And yes, as long as you feed prekilled, there is no harm in feeding while in shed.  It cracks me up to see my snake, with her eyes totally opaque, grab a rat like she thinks nothing of it.  I mean, I know her vision is severely limited, but it never seems to bother her.


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## Mina

I agree exactly with Pitbull Lady.  Half of the time when my corns are in blue they will eat, half of the time they won't.  Both of the rosy boas will refuse food when in shed.  With the baby BP it depends on his mood.  The adult BP doesn't eat when he isn't in shed, so I don't offer when he is, and Sammy, my big female Columbian red tail, will eat anything at any time.  She is a garbage disposal.  
Basically some will, some won't.  It won't hurt them to skip a week of feeding.  I know a couple of people that are really into snakes that think almost all captive snakes are feed to much.  After all they don't eat regularly in the wild, only when they find food, and that doesn't happen once a week, or in the same amounts every time.
Sassysmama:  Exactly, red tails are garbage disposals.  I can give my girl anything any other snake might refuse and its gone in seconds.  Is yours a Suriname, Columbian or a Guyana?


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## crpy

I always keep my snakes close to "wild weight". There are some people that feed their snakes way too much to get them big.

One example of this I saw was at the Daytona bike fest. This irresponsible fool had a hugh overweight burm. He was using it for photo ops. I didn't have a camera but its on the internet somewhere.


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## froggyman

the only harm i see from feeding a snake in the pre-shed is that if you feed live(which i dont recomend) the prey animal can cause some damage to the snake(or more than if the snake had it all of its senses)


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## sassysmama

Mina: I have colombian redtails.  The one that I was talking about is a pastel who's het for albino.  I also have a hypo double het for ghost, but she is a tempermental thing.  No matter when I go to grab her, she always strikes.  I guess she hasn't heard that red tails are supposed to have mellow temperments.  I would LOVE to have a suriname, though.  I'm hoping to find one pretty soon. Oh, and I have a little baby pastel who will eat anything, as well.  She pretty much gets fed three times what she should between my ball and blood pythons being picky.  I guess those garbage disposals do come in handy sometimes!

Reactions: Dislike 1


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## reverendsterlin

most of my snakes would refuse meals when close to shed but others and they at times would eat anyways, not a problem.
Rev


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## reverendsterlin

Mina said:


> I know a couple of people that are really into snakes that think almost all captive snakes are feed to much.  After all they don't eat regularly in the wild, only when they find food, and that doesn't happen once a week, or in the same amounts every time.


I see this all the time, studies here in New Mexico on the western diamondback population found adults ate an average of 200-250 mice per year. Thats more than I fed mine lol. I can see it on smaller species, rosy boas, sand boas, sidewinders, ringnecks, lyres, and western hognose maybe, but most average size snakes feed pretty well over the warm season.
Rev


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## ballpython2

Mushroom Spore said:


> I think you're confusing snakes with inverts, shedding is not really any kind of exhausting process with reptiles.
> 
> The only danger in feeding a snake in shed is if you feed live, since at certain points beforehand the snake is temporarily blind. They may also not be interested in food sometimes for the same reason.


Spore, not to question you because you know a lot bout tarantulas and   snakes but i thought it didnt matter if a snake was "blind" due to shedding because most of them dont use their eyes anyway to see their prey..wouldnt this only  matter to the few that actually use their eyes???

Also this person never said the species of snake they had anyway...OP....what species of snake do you have?...Just wondering


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## xBurntBytheSunx

this is my california king snake.  this is my first snake and i know very little about them except what i have read in care sheets.  yes i know its bad to feed T's when they're about to shed.  i just was curious,  i had to dig her up the last two previous weeks to feed her, and i didn't see her at all for a week as she never even came up to drink or poop in her water dish.  she hates me touching her but she seemed especially aggrivated the time i fed her before she shed.  she tried to musk all over me (which ended up being pretty amusing b/c all the musk that didn't get on me got trapped in her shed skin).  

i just didn't know one way or another


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## ballpython2

xBurntBytheSunx said:


> this is my california king snake.  this is my first snake and i know very little about them except what i have read in care sheets.  yes i know its bad to feed T's when they're about to shed.  i just was curious,  i had to dig her up the last two previous weeks to feed her, and i didn't see her at all for a week as she never even came up to drink or poop in her water dish.  she hates me touching her but she seemed especially aggrivated the time i fed her before she shed.  she tried to musk all over me (which ended up being pretty amusing b/c all the musk that didn't get on me got trapped in her shed skin).
> 
> i just didn't know one way or another


 oh ok  we are kind of in the same boat with king snakes i dont know much about them my self i had one i had to give away because it wouldnt eat at all nothin i did worked. but yea the way  see if it will eat feed it but i my self wouldnt feed it until its cloudy eyes went bac to being  temperarily (sp) normal.


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