Shedding Q's solved?

[Zephyr]

One of my red sideds decided to shed the other day, the little gal who's always been a good feeder. I offered her a worm and she saw it, came out for it, then gave up a little later. I wondered why she'd stop and got to thinking about why snakes in shed sometimes lose their appetite.
Then it hit me.
I remembered how James had noted that snakes shed their tongues; and then everything made sense.
With an extra layer of skin covering the tongue, a snake's sense of smell would be impaired, similar to how their vision is.
I also noted something else.
A lot of members, including myself, say that a snake's eyes often clear up before their shed, while sometimes they don't. My eastern garter, Fatty, is at the very end of the cycle, and when I picked her up today I noticed that her eye scales had already been shed (The old skin from her head could be manipulated loosely around and over her eye). Now I know that shed skins often have the optical scales still attached, but it's entirely possible that when a snake's eyes clear up before a shed they have either lost the scales already or the shed is imminent.
Just my two cent's.
Comments?

[adamanteus]

I think it would be extremely rare for a snake to slough the individual spectacles separately from, and prior to sloughing fully. Normally if these come away seperately, it would be afterwards, following a poor shed.
Good point about the sloughing of the tongue skin impairing their ability to detect scents. Makes sense.

[Zephyr]

Originally Posted by adamanteus

I think it would be extremely rare for a snake to slough the individual spectacles separately from, and prior to sloughing fully. Normally if these come away seperately, it would be afterwards, following a poor shed.
Good point about the sloughing of the tongue skin impairing their ability to detect scents. Makes sense.

Makes perfect scents.

[Stefan-A]

Originally Posted by Zephyr

I remembered how James had noted that snakes shed their tongues; and then everything made sense.
With an extra layer of skin covering the tongue, a snake's sense of smell would be impaired, similar to how their vision is.

I'm not entirely convinced. The snake only uses the tongue to transport samples to the vomeronasal organ (Jacobson's organ). But I'd find it very easy to believe, if the tongue held the organ itself. I'm not saying it's impossible or improbable that the sense of smell would be impaired, but I doubt that the effect would be that big.

Happy birthday, by the way.

[count dewclaw]

This is just a guess, but perhaps the tongue doesn't "feel" right so they don't like eating because of the way it feels.

[jitami]

Originally Posted by count dewclaw

This is just a guess, but perhaps the tongue doesn't "feel" right so they don't like eating because of the way it feels.

I'm more inclined to think that "nothing" feels right and they may sense that they're more vulnerable. My long term captive WC hides for the better part of a week before shedding. I don't usually even see the blue stage because he's no where to be seen. I can see part of his body in his hide, and can see that he's changed position a bit, but other than that I simply don't see him... makes me worry a bit... then next time I see him there's an old shed and a shiny new snake out and about ready to eat He just shed yesterday after making me worry most of last week

[Zephyr]

Originally Posted by Stefan-A

I'm not entirely convinced. The snake only uses the tongue to transport samples to the vomeronasal organ (Jacobson's organ). But I'd find it very easy to believe, if the tongue held the organ itself. I'm not saying it's impossible or improbable that the sense of smell would be impaired, but I doubt that the effect would be that big.

Happy birthday, by the way.

Thank Stef. :P

Hmm... I wonder if snakes shed the inner linings of their mouth as well. Seems kind of odd that it would just be the tongue. I recall some members saying that newborn garters have tried to eat their sheds; maybe the snake would simply swallow the old skin. (Or it could dissolve or something inside the mouth... Just a theory. ^^;; )

[JSI]

The dead layer of skin from the points of the forked tongue are shed periodically at other times than the rest of the skin.
Jeremy