Lisa Ellen Swan, Age 11, Of Celina, Tenn., for her question:
Do all snakes shed their skins?
A snake sheds his skin several times during his life and shedding day is not a happy day for the snaky fellow. His old skin is very uncomfortable, and it is no easy job to wriggle out of it. While he is changing, he is quite helpless to defend himself. What's more, he needs a little help or he may get permanerrtly stuck and perish.
A baby king snake hatches from an egg and grows very fast. If he is four inches long as a youngster, he will be eight inches long when it is time to celebrate his first birthday. He may be fully grown to a length of three or four feet when he reaches his second birthday. In any case, he will be full grown before he is three.
As a snake's body gets bigger, his skin becomes too tight. A new and 1arger skin begins to grow under the old skin. When the new skin is ready, it waits tucked in loose folds while the old skin withers and dries. The snake is uncomfortable because his old skin is like a tight coat and his new skin is like wrinkled underwear.
When shedding day comes, the old skin cracks around the snake's head. But it still fits his body like a long, tight sleeve, and the poor fellow must wriggle out of it with no hands or arms to help him. He wriggles and writhes to get free. Maybe he finds a rough tuft of grass, a sharp stone or a tree trunk against which he can rub and scuff off strips of his old skin. Sometimes he wriggles free leaving behind the old skin in one piece like a dry and scaly stocking.
All snakes shed their skins seyeral times while they are growing. And later, the skin of a grown snake gets a lot of wear and, tear. Mr. Snake wriggles oyer the soil and the sand, through rocks and maybe into muddy marshes. His skin gets scuffed with scratches and worn with tears.
When his old skin becomes shabby, the adult snake again grows a new one. Like the youngster, he grows it under the old skin, though both skins are about the same size. A young snake may shed two or three times a year, and a grown snake may shed once every year or so. All this shedding is necessary, for a snakets scaly skin must fit properly, stay clean and in good condition.
Some people cannot abide snakes, and others like them enough to keep a harmless snake as a pet. When the snake is about to shed his skin, he mopes and refuses to eat. Then is the time to place a stone or other rough object 3.n his hone. Some snake owners put their pets outdoors in the wild where they can find just the right object to help them shed their uncanfortable old skins. Many a pet snake loses his life because his owner does not help him through his skin shedding.