Leopard gecko looking pale for several days

Mortalvis

Mortalvis

New member
Lately Sunshine's been under a lot of stress... it's been very cold in her area for days on end, then I relocated her to a new tank and a warmer area of the house, but before all of that she had lost a lot of her color. It's been a couple days since then and her color still isn't very bright, but she's eating well and her excrement looked fairly normal... I assumed that she was in the beginning of her shedding cycle (first time since I got her, so I'm a little unaware of what to expect). How long do leopard geckos typically go pale before shedding and how long does it last before they actually shed? I'm really worried.
 
Mortalvis

Mortalvis

New member
Oh, and i should add her urate has been fairly yellow today and yesterday. Do they drink less when about to shed...? She's eating fine but she might be dehydrated and I'm not sure how to fix that.
 
dbott67

dbott67

New member
I'm pretty sure that our leopard gecko is a regular "eclipse" (one completely black eye/iris; one normal eye) and she is fairly pale under normal circumstances, however, she definitely gets quite a bit paler/duller a day or two just before shedding. She has a yellowish-to-beige colouring along her back and a somewhat translucent pink underside. Here's her normal colouring, as well as the eclipse eyes:

113412184833-Mushi_1.jpg-Windows-Photo-Viewer.png

Colouring

1135261145-0-640%D7480-Google-Chrome.png

Eclipse eye

11352611520-0-640%D7480-Google-Chrome.png

Normal eye

Keep in mind that the colours in the photos are affected by the lighting. The top photo was taken with a camera flash & basking lamp illuminating her vivarium (which tends to give a warmer/yellower look), while the bottom 2 web cam photos are illuminated by the fluorescent UVB bulb which is whiter and tends to wash out the photos.

Here are a couple of videos showing her normal colour and another of her shedding that shows how much paler she gets:

Mushu Eats Another Wax Worm - YouTube

Mushu Sheds Her Skin - YouTube

As for the shedding process, I noticed a little skin tear on her nose in the morning before going to work (at 8:00 am). From some of my video evidence, it seems that they tend to scrape there snouts to try to get the skin to start peeling back and once the skin gets past their head the process is quite quick. By about 1:00 pm, she was in the process of removing it from her body (as seen in the video) and it only took her about 10 minutes to completely get the skin off and eat it.

As for appetite and drinking, I can't offer you any specific information. Prior to installing the web cam, I don't think I ever saw her drink but now I know she drinks quite regularly when I'm not around or when I'm sleeping.
 
Mortalvis

Mortalvis

New member
Sunshine's been pale for almost four days and I'm worried. Her head's not pale right now but it doesn't look like the skin is peeling off or anything... She's not trying to pull the skin off or anything either. I gave her a slight soak and she's got a humid hide, but nothing changed. It's hard to get pictures because the lighting completely ruins showing off the paleness of her body.
 
cricket4u

cricket4u

New member
Last edited:
Mortalvis

Mortalvis

New member
She's had an UTH, and she has a CHE. I upgraded to a 20 gallon and moved her to another part of the house after all, with a bit of struggle. She looks much better now that she shed, and I hydrated her crickets better so that she could get better moisture from them. I also gave her a soak to help her with leftover shed, and then manually picked off a few pieces she couldn't get. She's looking a lot fatter since her shed. She licked up some water in her bath too, and seemed quite calm during the entire process. I think she'll be okay, I'm going to watch her urate color further to see if it's corrected at all.
 
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