Phelsuma Grandis and tail rot??

[cynicalsquid98]

Hi, I am very new to the day gecko hobby (although I have been wanting to get into it for years), and purchased my first 2 month old phelsuma Grandis yesterday. This morning I noticed that she was not as vibrant green as the day before, and that she hadn't moved from her basking spot under the uvb bulb... she also seems to have a brown tail tip. Could this be a sign of tail rot, or is it only stress? Could she be preparing to shed? Or was I wrong to leave an infrared heat bulb on at night to keep the temp in the low to mid 70's? Forgive me for all these questions but I am very worried! The viv has many live plants (sansevierias, bromeliads, etc), and is about 40 gals. I have a 5.0 reptisun UVB bulb, a heat pad on one side, along with two heat bulbs (I believe 50 watts) that are spread out into two separate basking spots. I have an automatic mister that goes off every 6 hours to help maintain humidity, and always have repashy available.
Thank you very much for your help!!
Sydney

I have attached a pic of her from yesterday before I put her in the viv.. notice her tail

 

[Aimless]

that looks like retained shed from the last round. day geckos have very sensitive skin and removing it might be tough. but it can cause serious problems if you just leave it. especially if she might be going into shed now, I would make a massive bump in her humidity for a couple of days and hopefully it will take care of itself.

 

[cynicalsquid98]

i'm going to bring her back to the breeder so that he can check her out, but i will definitely be upping the humidity level in the meantime!

 

[Nika]

Congratulations on your purchase and the amazing pet ))))

As soon as Phelsuma Grandis becomes paler than usual, it means it prepares for shedding. It happens usually a few hours before shedding, or a day if the humidity level is low. As the shedding is closer, the upper skin becomes more and more pale and white. On the other hand, when stressed Phelsuma Grandis becomes dark green. So your little guy is not stressed, probably its color related to close shedding. You will need 85-90% humidity level in the terrarium to allow good shedding. If lower, it may get hard to shed properly, and healthy growing overall.

Regarding the tail - have you noticed the tail was like this yesterday, or just today? Was it like this when you just bought it? I can't say what's wrong, but this problem has solution. I got one of my Phelsumas with a bad tail from the breeder. Due to not enough attention, he didn't monitor shedding, so the tip of the tail was dead, as you may see on the photo on the left. As a rule, this kind of dead tail should be cut or removed, in order not to spread further. I didn't do it, but chose to help my Phelsuma shed properly time after time, with a hope that its natural strong immune system will do its job. Because of this problem, the tail shed very hard, so I had to manage humidity and even help to remove the skin from time to time. But within 3 months period the tip of the tail has changed to green, and seems alive now. On the right side of the picture is the tail as it looks today. So everything has its solution.

 

[cynicalsquid98]

Hey! Turns out that the gecko had lost the tip of her tail as a baby, and it is just regenerating! I have definitely upped the humidity of the tank though, and I'll be sure to watch for shedding