Poor shed and black toes *cry*

[Mich]

I know that poor shedding can lead to bad blood circulation and dropped toes but I don't understand why this is happening! I have a moist hide (tupperwear container easily big enough to fit my gecko) with an inch of sphagnum moss that is always moist, and I see her in it from time to time .. Ive never had a problem till now with any of my geckos or other lizards and it happened so fast. I fed her the other night but didn't see her out much .. so tonight I went to feed her again and when I still didnt see her I lifted up her warm hide and notied right away several tips of her toes had some shed skin around them and the tips were black!!! I gave her a soak in a very shallow container of warm right away water (which she HATED). She was already missing the tips of most her toes when I got her, I figured it was from other geckos nipping at her (stupid pet store) but she's never seemed to have trouble shedding since ive had her past few months.. why did this happen with a moist hide set up??? I change the moss on a regular basis! When I do I always completely soak the new moss and then ring out the extra water till it wont drip anymore and put it in her hide. In between changes, usually every other day or so I use a water bottle and spray inside to keep it moist.

 

[Mich]

Now I'm actually looking through all the different pics people have posted and a lot are missing toes .. I assumed it was from being housed with other geckos (I know males can be pretty harsh to an unready female) .. or do other people have this problem? Weird my other female was also missing toes when I got her as a subadult .. and my males are perfect .. they are all housed in their own enclosures now that I have them, not together.

 

[Mel&Keith]

Maybe someone with more veterinary knowledge can give insight into why some geckos have a harder time shedding. I don't know why but you can set up 100 Leos the exact same way and there will always be one or two that have a hard time getting all of the shed off themselves. You may just have to soak her when you see her going into shed or after she sheds if there still some stuck. Make sure that the water isn't too warm though. It should be around 90F so it may not feel warm to your hand.

 

[jermh1]

I blame the space time continuum, and planetary allignments. I only have 29 geckos at the moment and I do a visual every day except on the week ends, and have noticed the same thing. So far I have cought each case where the skin has not come off the toes. I just soak them in slightly warm water for 10 min or so and work it off each toe. I had one last month that the skin on its eyelids got stuck, after a few days, I dabbed it with a wet cotton ball and worked it off but it did cause its eyelid to get a bit deformed.

 

[Mich]

Darn that space time continuum, and planetary allignments LMAO Always sneaks up on ya!

Tonight was her first soak and omg she hated it! It was super shallow, just deep enough to cover her toes. Ive never had to soak any of my geckos .. my other lizards like bearded dragons and iguanas of course but all my other geckos just curl up for a few hrs in their moss hides and never had an issue. Tonight I used a q-tip to help rub off the extra shed after her soak. Now she is looking like she will loose the tips of 3 toes *cry* And its hard to catch them shedding .. she is a patternless albino with a light buttery color .. one morning she'll look a little pale and by the time I get home in the evening she'll look all "new". It's very rare (and quite funny) that I catch one of mine actually in a full body shed because they sluff it off so quickly. Poor girl

 

[Shera]

One of my 2 has shedding problems too. She has stubby toes (I just "rescued" them from a family member a few weeks ago, and they never provided a humid hide), but the shed still gets stuck on them and I have to soak her at each shed and help her even after she spends time in the humid hide. She has already shed twice in the 2-3 weeks I've had her! Her "sister" has no problems at all and even without a humid hide for 2 years she still has nice long toes.

 

[mindgamer8907]

Some geckos you may just have to soak. Also, please don't take this the wrong way, it sounds like you're doing a great job. But next time you see her do that dull-bright transformation, just do your soak/inspection/qtip procedure just to be cautious. She may dislike it, but you'll both be happier in the long run (and this helps to make sure she's completely hydrated). Now it could be that even though her humid hide is there, she isn't using it, or the ambient humidity isn't high enough? This can lead to a poor shed as well.

In response to someone else's post, the toes were probably lost in shed, I think the geckos tend to bite things like heads, and backs and tails when they fight. I'm not sure about feet and arms, though it is possible.

 

[sammer021486]

I agree with the others, some times you just have one that will not shed fully. I have one girl that sheds fine, except her toes. I ended up purchasing zilla's shed assist product, give her a soak in it, then wet my fingers in the water and gently hold her toes, when she pulls away, normally the shed pulls right off. I have tried the q-tip method and found I had to rub too many times, so I started to hold the shed lightly in my fingers and found that it pulls off with out a hitch.

 

[mindgamer8907]

Yeah, I too use only my fingers. q-tips are bothersome. They don't help much on my leo's toes. Sometimes if they have a "mitten" of shed on, the soak works even better as long as you hold their foot still.