Going blue

Raoul my pet corn snake is looking a pale shadow of his usual self this weekend. He's clearly going 'blue', the official term for the fading of his normal vibrant colour, which is always the preliminary to shedding his skin.

It's a process that snakes go through several times a year, and it is important for them to have the right humidity to achieve it successfully. So I have been checking his water bowl even more regularly than usual to ensure it is kept fully brimmed, and also misting the vivarium with water spray.

Now it's a watch and wait time until he sheds. In the 18 months I have had him, I have never seen it happen, because he tends to shed at night when no one is there to observe it. You just wake up one morning to find a bright, shiny, vibrant snake curled up looking happy, with an empty skin stretched out around the wood branches that are his vivarium climbing frame.