Baby shed problem

ShiDog5

New member
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Help, he's looked like this for three days, patches stuck everywhere. I mist his cage about 3 times a day due to dry Michigan weather. His humidity is always at 50-80% so he is not dehydrated. He has been eating and going to the bathroom normal. I tried the bath "sauna" method and hasn't seemed to help. How much longer until I need to start worrying about this bad shed.
 

CrestedL

New member
View attachment 33932

Help, he's looked like this for three days, patches stuck everywhere. I mist his cage about 3 times a day due to dry Michigan weather. His humidity is always at 50-80% so he is not dehydrated. He has been eating and going to the bathroom normal. I tried the bath "sauna" method and hasn't seemed to help. How much longer until I need to start worrying about this bad shed.

Sauna should be working, sometimes you will need to do it a few times before it can come off. What you need to do is take about a cup of lukewarm (not cold but not hot) water, a big plastic tub with a lid, and a few paper towels. Other things are q-tips, and tweezers. Put paper towels in the bottom of the container and fill it with the lukewarm water (not all of it, just enough to where it can cover his vent or barely tough his belly, don't have the gecko in the tub when you pour the water in, and if you have him in the tub and you need more water do not pour it on him but pour it down the side) find your mister bottle and fill it with a little of the lukewarm water, and spray his tub many times so that there is water all on the walls and on the gecko. Take the lid and put it over the tub, and take him into a quiet, moderately dark room to calm him down since this may be stressful to him. Put him on a surface where he will not tip over, such as a table or extra chair, and set a timer on your phone or another timekeeping device for 15-20 minutes (tip, if you're using a phone, make sure you change your ringer to something soft or light as a loud beeping noise might scare him XD ) and step away from him and leave him. The tub should start to fog a little, and if he's okay he may start to lick droplets off the cage. Once your 15-20 minutes is up, remove the lid and very gently lift the gecko out and place him on a surface or paper towel. Take the q-tip and lightly wet it some, and position it where his skin is and roll in the direction towards you. If this doesnt work, use the dry side of the q-tip to try with that. If you don't have a lead on the skin to roll off, VERY gently take the tweezers and pull very little on his skin to detach some, then roll off of that. If you are not careful, you can pinch the gecko, either hurting him or stressing him. If you can get the skin off there, you can also use the tweezers to get anything stuck under his little nails, and make sure to check his toes as stuck shed if left unattended can cause him to lose toes, think of it like a small child growing up with the same pair of socks, uncomfortable right? If this doesnt work then repeat the process, try not to go overboard with this as it may stress, or could be harmful to respiratory. Also, don't panic :) everyone has these problems with their geckos, we're all here to help you and there are many informative people here ready to try anything to help your case, just stay calm and keep us updated if this doesnt work and we can move from there :) also I would like to say, very pretty gecko, you are very lucky
 

CrestedRick

Active member
I just recently did this with my female. She sat across my fingertips for about 25-30min while I used tweezers to remove tail shed. she even helped me out by moving her tail to help pull it off lol.
 

ShiDog5

New member
So I did another bath and got a good amount off, I'm still struggling with his foot pads though, he is only 3 grams so he's still just a baby and those feet are tiny!!! HAHA, also his crests over his eyes are stuck back to his head. There doesn't look like there is any stuck shed there though, any ideas or pointers?
 

CrestedL

New member
So I did another bath and got a good amount off, I'm still struggling with his foot pads though, he is only 3 grams so he's still just a baby and those feet are tiny!!! HAHA, also his crests over his eyes are stuck back to his head. There doesn't look like there is any stuck shed there though, any ideas or pointers?

Pictures of that area would help
 

Aimless

Super Moderator
even when you mist properly, very young geckos are notorious for dehydration issues. what do you have for substrate? is it something that can retail moisture, or is he on papertowels? if it's very dry where you live, you might need to mist even more, or cover his enclosure when he's getting ready to shed to help keep in the moisture.
 

ShiDog5

New member
I have him on paper towel. What substrate would you recommend? I was also thinking of trying something like eco earth, or is there something else better? Impaction is not a big concern because I do not let crickets roam loose in his enclosure. Also, would too high of humidity effect his shedding? I am having a hard time finding that line in between. I have a hygrometer that is not digital, so I wonder how accurate it is. Another question I have is about how long does it take your enclosures to go from 80% humidity to dry out. Mine is fairly quick, just a few hours usually. So as soon as I see it drop to 40-50% should I spray right away?

Next, this is a picture of his eye crests after a bath. I think there is some stuck shed but it is not dry looking at all, even after 4-5 days of this I can't really see any that is noticeably ready to come off. I tried to rub them with a qtip but no luck at all.



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Aimless

Super Moderator
hmmm..that pic is so tiny I can't tell exactly what you're seeing.

if your viv dries out that fast, maybe you should try a heavy misting at night, then cover the top, and remove the cover in the morning.

I am a big fan of natural substrate for all ages, and have kept a small group of cresties for 8 years and not yet had a single case of impaction. I personally use an organic potting soil mix (make sure there aren't added fertilizers, as in a bunch of manure; I've bought several brands and they've all done about the same. I mix in ~ 1/4 peat moss. sometimes I add a little cypress mulch. the recipe changes over time.

eco earth holds moisture well and a lot of people recommend it, but I've had trouble with mold when I've used it. I don't mind a few mushrooms, or some hyphae and mycelium in the substrate, but very much moldy stuff where the geckos roam around doesn't seem like a great idea.

the type of substrate and its ability to hold moisture are also, in part, dependent on ambient humidity in your home and on your drainage, as much as anything else.

and yeah, those stick-on hygrometers are notoriously sucky.
 
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