A
ALGeckos
Guest
One of my geckos, Star, had a weird shed two days ago. It's my first time experiencing this, so I need some help :main_huh:
On Saturday morning, I saw Star's whole body white and ready-to-shed, but her head was her normal color. I misted the terrarium and re-misted her favorite humid hide like I normally do to aid in the shedding process. That same afternoon, all her shed had come off EXCEPT her head because it wasn't ready to shed.... so dry skin was frayed at the edges of the not-yet ready-to-shed skin around her neck line. I removed her from the terrarium, placed her in one of my tubs in a rack with heat tape and misted again.
On Sunday morning, some of it was ready to come off, but it was stuck on her head still. I got some wet Q-tips and did my best to remove the shed. Another weird thing is, her nose and head space between her eyes still weren't ready to shed all the way, so I had to leave some of it. I re-misted the hide and enclosure and placed her back in the rack. I checked later on last night and she had removed most of it, but there's still not-ready-to-shed skin stuck on her nose that goes up between her eyes (not too large, just a small strip), so that the edges are frayed again and it's looking stuck and almost ready to come off. Looked the same this morning (Monday).
So my question is... do the shedding sprays work, especially in this situation? I did the wet Q-tip method, but the remaining skin is not coming off. I'm afraid to use tweezers because I don't know if it'll cause pain if it's not ready to come off. It's not completely white, it's still normal skin color blending into the almost-ready-to-shed color, with frayed edges that are completely white. My brother broke our only camera, so I'm unable to take a picture of it. What other methods should I try? Do you think the skin is bothering her?
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Extra background info:
- 8 month old female, ~58 grams, active, alert.
- Very social, has 1 other female tank mate, and they get along fine.
- 1 water dish, 1 calcium dish, feeding on medium to large crickets. Occasional mealworms, but she and her tank mate, Bengal, prefer crickets above all.
- Warm side: 85F ambient temp, 90~91F spot temp (this is on top of the heat mat where the warm hides are sitting). The heat mat goes to about 40% of the tank.
- Cool side: 77~78F ambient temp, ~76F spot temp (this is the very edge of the cool side where they all poop).
- 4.5-foot long terrarium with 2 cool hides, 2 warm hides, and 2 humid hides. Terrarium originally had 3 of each, but I moved Sunkiss back to the rack because she ended up hibernating under the paper towels of the cool side on the glass. She's now active, alert, and feeding extremely well (it scares me how fast she grabs crickets) and will be moved back into the terrarium after she reaches the same weight as Bengal & Star, assuming they'd get along well again.
Any other questions, let me know.
Thanks Everyone!!!!!!!! You've all been a huge support to us in the past and I'm glad I have this community to turn to!
~ Aimee
On Saturday morning, I saw Star's whole body white and ready-to-shed, but her head was her normal color. I misted the terrarium and re-misted her favorite humid hide like I normally do to aid in the shedding process. That same afternoon, all her shed had come off EXCEPT her head because it wasn't ready to shed.... so dry skin was frayed at the edges of the not-yet ready-to-shed skin around her neck line. I removed her from the terrarium, placed her in one of my tubs in a rack with heat tape and misted again.
On Sunday morning, some of it was ready to come off, but it was stuck on her head still. I got some wet Q-tips and did my best to remove the shed. Another weird thing is, her nose and head space between her eyes still weren't ready to shed all the way, so I had to leave some of it. I re-misted the hide and enclosure and placed her back in the rack. I checked later on last night and she had removed most of it, but there's still not-ready-to-shed skin stuck on her nose that goes up between her eyes (not too large, just a small strip), so that the edges are frayed again and it's looking stuck and almost ready to come off. Looked the same this morning (Monday).
So my question is... do the shedding sprays work, especially in this situation? I did the wet Q-tip method, but the remaining skin is not coming off. I'm afraid to use tweezers because I don't know if it'll cause pain if it's not ready to come off. It's not completely white, it's still normal skin color blending into the almost-ready-to-shed color, with frayed edges that are completely white. My brother broke our only camera, so I'm unable to take a picture of it. What other methods should I try? Do you think the skin is bothering her?
-----------
Extra background info:
- 8 month old female, ~58 grams, active, alert.
- Very social, has 1 other female tank mate, and they get along fine.
- 1 water dish, 1 calcium dish, feeding on medium to large crickets. Occasional mealworms, but she and her tank mate, Bengal, prefer crickets above all.
- Warm side: 85F ambient temp, 90~91F spot temp (this is on top of the heat mat where the warm hides are sitting). The heat mat goes to about 40% of the tank.
- Cool side: 77~78F ambient temp, ~76F spot temp (this is the very edge of the cool side where they all poop).
- 4.5-foot long terrarium with 2 cool hides, 2 warm hides, and 2 humid hides. Terrarium originally had 3 of each, but I moved Sunkiss back to the rack because she ended up hibernating under the paper towels of the cool side on the glass. She's now active, alert, and feeding extremely well (it scares me how fast she grabs crickets) and will be moved back into the terrarium after she reaches the same weight as Bengal & Star, assuming they'd get along well again.
Any other questions, let me know.
Thanks Everyone!!!!!!!! You've all been a huge support to us in the past and I'm glad I have this community to turn to!
~ Aimee
