Shed snake skin. How does a snake change its skin?
Snakes prepare for the process of molting for quite a long time. They begin to worry, move a lot and lose their appetite. At the same time, the skin on their body gradually becomes pale, fading, the ornament loses its clarity. Gradually, the dying skin begins to exfoliate, which is practically not noticeable, and then the snake removes the dead skin with a “stocking”, as if crawling out of it.
The eyes of a moulting snake become cloudy blue, which is why herpetologists call this time the "blue eye period". Reptiles at this time become either very lethargic or vice versa aggressive, poisonous representatives of the species are especially dangerous in this state. If they are even slightly disturbed, they can attack the "offender" and will certainly bite him.
Most snakes begin to molt from the head, and only burrowing representatives of the blind snake family - from the tail. A healthy snake sheds the old skin quite quickly and completely. The thrown cover is called a “crawl out”, it is a single cover, the size of which is a couple of centimeters larger than the length of the snake’s body, since it stretches when dropped.
In large snakes, under the weight of the weight, the crawl out can be torn in some places. It is very important that transparent places of the eyes be present on the discarded skin, since the untimely descent of the stratum corneum from these places can turn into big vision problems for the reptile. Under the pressure of the stretched old layer, the eyeball becomes inflamed, which can lead not only to a disease of the organs of vision, but also to blindness, and even death of the animal.
Violations in the process of molting in snakes can be observed under the wrong conditions of detention. For example, the microclimate in the terrarium, primarily air humidity, is of great importance for the good condition of the reptile. An increase or decrease in this indicator provokes skin problems and diseases, and, consequently, pathological changes in the process of molting.
With an increase, the skin is affected by bacteria and fungi, as a result, erosion appears on it, and, therefore, the old cover comes off much more difficult. With low humidity, the skin dries out, and therefore does not come off completely, but in parts. As a result, some fragments can remain on the body and form rings that compress parts of the body, squeezing blood vessels and nerves. This situation may result in necrosis. Reduced humidity also contributes to the poor convergence of dead skin from the eyes, which can lead to blindness and even death.
Injured reptile skin can also disrupt the natural course of molting. Most often this is due to the presence of potentially dangerous objects for the snake in the terrarium. This is, first of all, live food. Mammals intended for feeding may injure the soft tissues of the snake with their teeth. This leads to microabscesses and disrupts the molting process. Also, skin injuries can be the result of a burn from a heating or lighting device.
Lack of vitamins, macro- and microelements also lead to pathological molting. With a long absence of food or the wrong diet of a reptile, molting may not proceed correctly. Excess nutrition, leading to obesity or an increased growth rate of the animal, leads to the fact that the snake will not have enough biologically active substances to form new skin.
Normally, molting is a complex process in which cells of the epidermis intermediate zone (several outer layers of living cells under the stratum corneum) proliferate and form a new stratum corneum, called internal epidermal generation. Moulting is a biological process during which a new cover is formed in a reptile and the old one is shed.
Reptiles, in particular snakes, are preparing to “change their skin” for quite a long time, they are worried, they lose their appetite. The time preceding the molt is called the "blue eye" period by herpetologists. At the same time, snake skin looks lifeless, fades, fades, the pattern on it loses its clarity, and the eyes become dull blue. The behavior of animals during this period also changes: some become lethargic and move little, others are nervous and show increased aggressiveness. Poisonous snakes are especially dangerous: accidentally disturbed, they can actively attack and try to bite.
Normally, the snake sheds quickly and completely. The discarded skin is called the "creep out" and is an almost complete cover, which is several cm longer than the snake's body. Very large snakes molt with a gap "creep out" under the weight of their weight. Lump molting occurs in sick snakes or living in adverse conditions (for example, with insufficient air humidity). It is especially important to have transparent “glasses” on the “creep out” - the stratum corneum from the eyes, since its untimely convergence can cost the animal vision: squeezing the eyeball leads to its inflammation and even death.
The stages that a snake goes through during a normal molt.
proliferation stage. At this point, the skin becomes dull and dull. In snakes, this stage is hardly noticeable.
The phase of molting divergence. Includes the formation of internal epidermal generation and the formation of a cavity with lymph effusion into it. Proliferation is replaced by differentiation of cells that make up a new stratum corneum on the periphery of the proliferate with the formation of a thin gap in the intermediate zone (between three layers of old and three layers of new cells). After the formation of internal epidermal generation of cells, a cavity is formed - a zone of stratification. During this time, clouding of the eyes of snakes can be observed. The so-called blue-eye period.
Stratification phase. During it, the skin brightens and almost does not differ from normal. In the phase of stratification, lysis (dissolution) of the interstitial substance and adhesion (adhesion) of proteins occur, followed by molting.
Usually snakes shed their old skin in a very simple way: they crawl out of it. The outer layer of the snake's skin is a single unit, from the goggles on the eyes to the tip of the tail. Blurred eyes are considered the first sign of molting in snakes. But in fact, in the beginning there is a clouding of the abdominal scutes, which takes two to four days. Then the eyes become cloudy for one to five days. The eyes become milky white later, and this color disappears earlier than in other parts of the body, which is of vital importance for the snake, since it does not see well at this time. The third stage is the clearing of the eyes, the fourth stage is the clearing of the abdominal shields, and finally, the last, fifth stage is the actual molt. Preparation for it takes from five to twelve days, the third and fourth stages are often quite short.
Before molting, many snakes lose their appetite and become irritable. Many species living in nature go in search of water in which they get stuck.
In healthy snakes, the molt itself takes from thirty minutes to several hours. It begins after the snake peels off the old cuticle on the lips, rubbing the tip of the muzzle on some rough surface. Then the snake begins to move the skin back from the head and, crawling among the bushes and stones, gradually, centimeter by centimeter, pulls off the old skin. Along with the old clothes, she throws off the “glasses” that protect her eyes.
Molting is disturbed in diseases accompanied by dehydration of the body, low air humidity in the terrarium, beriberi, excessive ultraviolet irradiation of snakes, in the absence of objects that facilitate the release of the old skin - stones, snags, etc.
When molting disorders occur, their cause must be established and eliminated. However, in the beginning, you usually have to help the snake shed its skin, which is no longer needed. To do this, the snake is fixed and with tweezers with thin ends, the old skin is first removed from the head: the exfoliated epidermis is separated in the corners of the mouth, then from the upper and lower lip shields. Then they take the epidermis from the handkerchief with tweezers and remove it from the top of the head, taking special care when removing the old skin from the nostrils and from the eyes of the snake, “glasses”. Next, the lower jaw of the reptile is freed from the skin. The skin is removed from the body with the free hand, as is the case with natural molting. To facilitate the whole procedure, the snake is placed for several hours in a warm bath, the water temperature in which is about 27-28 degrees, and 4 grams of baking soda are dissolved in each liter.
Sometimes the only violation of molting is that old “glasses” remain in front of the eyes of the reptile. As a result, a thick layer of such “glasses” may form, which begin to put pressure on the cornea of the eye. You can try to remove these “glasses” using fine-tipped tweezers and a magnifying glass, and after moistening the scales. However, if the new “glasses” are accidentally removed, inflammation of the cornea develops - keratitis, as a result of which blindness often occurs. To avoid this, you need to wait for the next molt. During preparation for it, the reptiles need to increase the humidity in the terrarium and periodically spray the animal with water. Later, when the actual molting should begin, the snake is placed in water, and its eyes are irrigated with a 20% solution of acetylcysteine, 5 milliliters of it is diluted with distilled water.
Pathological molting can be caused by improper conditions for keeping snakes. Of great importance is the microclimate in the terrarium, and, first of all, humidity: both its increase and decrease affect molting pathologically. With high humidity, the skin of reptiles is affected by bacterial and fungal microflora, which in turn can cause skin erosion. With low humidity, dead skin does not come off completely, and its remaining sections can form so-called rings on the body, which, squeezing blood vessels and nerves, can cause necrosis. When molting, in snakes, the skin also comes off the head, but with low humidity, the keratinized areas do not leave the eyes, which leads to partial blindness.
The second factor of improper conditions of detention that cause pathological molting is traumatic utensils in the terrarium. If the skin of a reptile is often injured by various kinds of objects, this can provoke a violation of the molting process. Often the skin is injured when feeding live food. The teeth of small mammals intended for feeding snakes can injure soft tissues, which leads to the formation of microabscesses (abscesses), leading to disruption of the molting process. Also, mechanical damage to the skin includes burns that animals receive when they touch heating devices, and any burn, as a result, is a violation of molting.
Often the molting process is disturbed in animals with a lack of macro-, microelements and vitamins. With improper feeding and prolonged lack of food in the animal's body, pathological changes can occur, which in turn can lead to impaired molting. Overfeeding is also harmful, since it can result in reptile obesity, and too rapid body growth can lead to the fact that the animal's body will not have enough biologically active substances for the timely reproduction of the skin.
With proper and balanced feeding of snakes, as well as normal conditions for their maintenance, the molting process proceeds regularly, and without pathologies.
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categories Post navigationI know the world. Snakes, crocodiles, turtles Semenov Dmitry
How does a snake change its skin?
How does a snake change its skin?
People who change their appearance are sometimes compared to a snake that changes its skin. In reality, snakes, like other reptiles, do not change their skin, but periodically molt - they shed the upper, dead and worn out stratum corneum of the skin. Other terrestrial vertebrates also shed - amphibians, birds, and mammals. But in amphibians, only the thinnest layer of skin is discarded, and from the side of the molt it is almost not noticeable, while in birds and mammals, each feather or each hair falls out separately. Only in reptiles does molting have a comprehensive and, one might say, spectacular character.
When lizards and snakes molt, the exfoliation of the upper horny layers occurs simultaneously throughout the body. This process continues for several days. At first, the skin of the animal becomes cloudy, it becomes inactive and loses its appetite. Then the dead and dried surface layer is torn and falls off the body of the animal. Particularly effectively freed from the shedding layers of snake skin. First, the snake rubs its snout against the ground and surrounding objects with its head. After the dead layer bursts on the lips, she tries to catch them on a branch or stone, and when this succeeds, she slowly begins to crawl out of it. The snake crawls forward, and the discarded layer of skin, turning inside out, stretches behind. Under normal conditions, it comes off completely. Such covers thrown off during molting of snakes are called creeps and they are not difficult to find in places where snakes are found. The crawl out accurately reproduces the entire structure of the scaly cover, and from it you can not only determine the species of the snake, but even, like fingerprints, find out which particular individual has molted here. In lizards, due to the more complex body structure, the discarded stratum corneum cannot come off completely and breaks off in pieces. In nature, sometimes you can see an individual running clumsily and seemingly dressed in some kind of rags. This is a lizard in the midst of a molting process. Dangling patches of exfoliated skin hamper her movements, and she tries in every possible way to speed up the release process: she rips off the “gloves” of dead epidermis from her paws with her jaws, scrapes tatters from her head and back with her paws, rubs against the ground, tearing them off her stomach and sides.
In shell-protected crocodiles and turtles, molting is less noticeable - only the upper layers of the horny scutes are peeled off. In turtles, parts of the body free from the shell - the head, neck, paws - molt. Here molting occurs in the same way as in lizards. Do not think that the empty tortoise shells that are sometimes found in nature are shed during molting. Unfortunately, no, these are the skeletons of dead animals.
Moulting of lizards and snakes is an important phenomenon in their life. Growth, metabolism are associated with it (during molting, unnecessary substances accumulated in it are also removed from the body). With shedding layers of skin, reptiles also remove ticks that have stuck to them (and exotic sea snakes get rid of annoying hosts - mollusks adhering to their bodies) in the same way. In many species, molting precedes the mating season. Rapidly growing juvenile reptiles molt more often, adult animals - 1-2 times a year, in certain seasons. More frequent and inappropriate molting indicates a violation of the health of the animal.
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Questions and answers on molting snakes
Mine just can't get out of the old skin.
Usually snakes shed their old skin in a very simple way: they crawl out of it. They have no paws or protruding organs to prevent them from doing so. Moreover, the outer layer of the snake's skin is a single whole, from the glasses on the eyes to the tip of the tail.
Blurred eyes are considered the first sign of molting in snakes. But in fact, in the beginning there is a clouding of the abdominal scutes, which takes two to four days. Then the eyes become cloudy for one to five days. The third stage is the clearing of the eyes, the fourth stage is the clearing of the abdominal shields, and finally, the last, fifth stage is the actual molt. Preparation for it takes from five to twelve days, the third and fourth stages are often quite short - a few hours.
Before the actual molting, the snake loses its appetite and becomes irritable. Many species living in nature go in search of water and wet themselves.
Molting begins only after the entire body of the reptile ceases to be milky white, that is, when a new cover is completely formed.
The eyes become milky white later, and this color disappears earlier than in other parts of the body, which is of vital importance for the snake, since it does not see well at this time.
In healthy snakes, the molt itself takes from thirty minutes to three hours. It begins after the snake peels off the old cuticle on the lips, rubbing the tip of the muzzle on some rough surface. Then the snake begins to move the skin back from the head and, crawling among the bushes and stones, gradually, centimeter by centimeter, pulls off the old skin. Along with the old clothes, she also discards the "glasses" that protect her eyes.
The frequency of molting in snakes is related to nutrition, because the growth rate of the reptile depends on it. And violations of the molting process can slow down and even stop its growth.
Molting is disturbed in diseases accompanied by dehydration of the body, low humidity in the terrarium, beriberi, excessive ultraviolet irradiation of snakes, in the absence of items that facilitate the release of old clothes - stones, snags, etc.
When molting disorders occur, their cause must be established and eliminated. However, at first, you usually have to help the snake shed the skin that it no longer needs.
To do this, the snake is fixed and with tweezers with thin ends, the old skin is first removed from the head: the exfoliated epidermis is separated in the corners of the mouth, then from the upper and lower lip shields. Then they take the epidermis from the handkerchief with tweezers and remove it from the top of the head, taking special care when removing the old skin from the snake's eyes, "glasses". Next, the lower jaw of the reptile is freed from the skin.
The skin is removed from the body with a free hand, as it happens with natural molting.
To facilitate the whole procedure, before it is carried out, another snake is placed for several hours in a warm bath, the water temperature in which is about 30 degrees, and 4 grams of baking soda are dissolved in each liter of it.
Sometimes the only violation of molting is that old "glasses" remain in front of the reptile's eyes. As a result, a thick layer of such "glasses" can form, which begin to put pressure on the cornea of the eye.
You can try to remove these "glasses" using fine-tipped tweezers and a magnifying glass, and after moistening the scales. However, if the new "glasses" are accidentally removed, inflammation of the cornea develops - keratitis, as a result of which blindness often occurs.
To avoid this, you need to wait for the next molt. During preparation for it, the reptiles need to increase the humidity in the terrarium and periodically spray the animal with water. Later, when the actual molting should begin, the snake is placed in water, and its eyes are irrigated with a 20% solution of acetylcysteine, 5 milliliters of it is diluted with distilled water.
Lizards also have problems with molting: their old skin can remain at the ends of their paws, on the tail. Help them, like snakes, after placing them in a warm solution of baking soda