What’s molting? My skin is very tough and tight. I do not have stretchy skin like you. When I need to grow bigger, I need to shred the old skin and scales to make more room for my larger body. I molt more often when I was younger because I grow fastest that time.

Before molting, I lost appetite and do not move as much as usual. My eyes clouded because the scales over my eyes were getting loose. At this time my skin looked paler too. When the old scales detached completely my eyes were clear again. Then the teachers and students noticed that some of my scales got really loose like they were ready to fall… the way when you lose your milk teeth. They anticipated that my molting could happen very soon.

	When the teachers found me molting, they ran out to grab a camera. So the first few moments were lost. Let me tell you about it. I first rubbed the side of my body against a rock to break the skin. Then the old skin was split by the left side of my neck. Then I slowly glide along a rock to catch this piece of skin.
	As I crawled forward, the skin folded inside-out. Don’t you think it is like taking off a long stocking? The stocking-skin glided back smoothly.
	Look at my new skin. It is shiner and much darker. If you pay attention to this picture, you will notice that my body looked wavy… I mean thick and thin along my usually cylindrical body. I used my muscles to shrink my body at the spot where the skin was coming off.
	This was such a tiring job to do, you know. So during the molt, I needed to stop for a rest once in awhile. That’s why it took me a total of 30 minutes to finish!
	Oops! This rock was too small and the stocking-skin came loose! I needed to catch it on another piece of rock to go on.
	I was almost done.
	Where should I go?
	Yeah! The old skin was all gone, so did the itch! I curled up for a while to let my body expand. My new skin slowly hardened. Not like you humans who grow up gradually, I was suddenly grown quite a bit during this molt. For the rest of the time, I can get heavier, but not longer nor larger.
	This is the old skin I shredded. The kids said that it feels papery. Some even say it is crispy.
	Now Ms Barbara is showing us the part of the old skin where it used to cover my head. She keeps it so the kids can examine it in their classes. Go back