Barking Gecko's underbelly is dry and brown in areas?

chippy2000

New member
I have never seen this problem in my Barking Geckos before, and I've been breeding them for a year now.

My oldest Barking Gecko, Reggie, has been breeding with his mate Zelda recently, and I'm not sure if this is related to it or not. His belly has become dry, and skin is overall a bit looser than usual (he's old, so it does get a bit loose). It's also become brown in a large patch on his belly, which is unusual.

I tried bathing him, and it did make the skin a little less dry and loose, but the brown has stayed, and the skin goes back to this weird condition in around 4 hours after bathing.

He hasn't changed personality-wise. He's still the same lazy old gecko he's always been. He stays with Zelda a lot, who is his closest partner. He hasn't had any fights at all, so it's not an infected wound. It's simply a strange occurrence that I'm assuming is an infection from who-knows-where.

The setup is rather simple. It's a 3.5 foot vivarium (2 females, 1 male) with a heat mat and red basking bulb. Substrate is reptile carpet (don't want any impaction, now). I feed the geckos small locusts and crickets, with the odd mealworms here and there. There are plenty of hideaways, so it can't be related to stress.

It hasn't hurt him in any way, but I just want to know if there's a way to make it go back to normal. If anyone else has seen this condition, I would like to know what it is and how to get rid of it.
 

Aimless

Super Moderator
have you verified the temp over the heat source lately? that sounds like it may be burns. also, how do you clean the repti-carpet, and how long since you've replaced it?
 

chippy2000

New member
have you verified the temp over the heat source lately? that sounds like it may be burns. also, how do you clean the repti-carpet, and how long since you've replaced it?

The heat is around 27 C where the thermometer is. Also, it wouldn't be burns because the other geckos don't have the same thing.

The Repti Carpet is cleaned once a week: the carpet is taken out, and washed. Any debris under the carpet is removed, as well as any bugs that may have escaped their grasp. I haven't replaced it for around 2 months. I will be replacing it in January.
 
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