Why Do Snakes Shed?
Humans shed their skin almost continuously from birth, snakes shed several times per year but this process occurs all at once compared to the millions of individual skin cells that humans shed off daily. Our reasons for shedding are very similar to the snakes, one it allows us to grow and repair damage from scrapes and abrasions. The actual name of the process of shedding is Ecdysis. Ecdysis occurs at various time intervals based on many factors, the age of a snake, it’s growth rate and other environmental factors, including parasites, can determine how often a snake will shed. One widely held belief is that you can tell the age of a Rattlesnake by counting the buttons or rattles on it’s tail. Each time the snake sheds it leaves a piece of the skin behind creating or adding to the rattle. A young rattlesnake with plenty of food available may shed as often as every six weeks! So you can see that by the time the young snake reached it’s first birthday the animal may have as many as 8 rat
