A python struggled to shed skin on its head, so an animal lover stepped in to help

While most people know that snakes shed their skin, did you know that they also shed the front layer of their eyes, called the eye caps or spectacles?

Snakes don’t have eyelids, so they protect their eyes with this layer—a fused, clear scale. During a normal shedding cycle, the eye caps usually come off, but they can sometimes remain attached, resulting in a condition known as retained eye caps, which can impair the animal’s vision.

Over to Jay Brewer, who runs the Jay Prehistoric Pets YouTube channel. When he’s not traveling, he spends time at The Reptile Zoo in Fountain Valley, California, which specializes in exotic reptiles, snakes, lizards, amphibians, and more. As they say: “If it hops, wiggles, crawls, or gives your mom the chills, you’ll find it at The Reptile Zoo.”🔗

“When snakes shed, they shed their eyeball too”

Brewer uploaded a video to help educate viewers on snakes’ eye caps.

In the video, he’s handling a large female python that was in the process of shedding. The skin on the snake’s head, along with the eye caps, hadn’t fully come off, so Brewer gave the snake a helping hand.Things didn’t go exactly as planned, as you can see:

The eye caps failed to come off, and Brewer explained he would need to remove them. That’s important, because injury or infection can occur if they’re not removed. You can often tell if an eye cap hasn’t come off because the eye will appear cloudy or opaque.

Here are some ways to help a snake shed:

- Increase the humidity in the snake’s enclosure

- Soak the snake in warm, shallow water for 15 to 20 minutes to hydrate the skin. You can also place the snake in a damp pillowcase for the same effect

- Swab the eyes with a damp cotton ball to loosen the eye caps

Never use tools such as tweezers to try to remove the eye caps—this can seriously damage the snake’s eyes, leading to vision loss or even blindness.

If you suspect your snake has failed to shed its eye caps, seek veterinary assistance.

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