I've had two geckos shed this past week and both exhibited the same problem during their shed. It seemed like all of their skin would begin to shed except the skin on their head, which would be delayed by about 12 hours. The end result being that the skin on the body was successfully shed, but on the head the skin would be stuck and/or hanging in little pieces. Could this be a sign of some nutrient deficiency? (I do feed with calcium w/ D3 and Herptivite)
Weird Leopard Gecko Shedding Problem
- Thread starter brothaT
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Suppose it could be nutritional. I've seen that happen to snakes too. The skin actually looks like it hadn't seperated completely right?
Might want to worm them(you will have to find the dosage per kg), make sure your calcium does not contain a large amount of phosphorous as the bugs will have plenty, provide another shelter that has some moist moss or something for humidity and I guess just make sure their environment is ideal.
Thats about all I can think of short of taking it to an exotics vet for a check up.
Erin
Might want to worm them(you will have to find the dosage per kg), make sure your calcium does not contain a large amount of phosphorous as the bugs will have plenty, provide another shelter that has some moist moss or something for humidity and I guess just make sure their environment is ideal.
Thats about all I can think of short of taking it to an exotics vet for a check up.
Erin
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Do you have humid boxes for them? The only time I've seen leos with shed problems was due to humidity issues.
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I was gonna post pretty much this, so consider it seconded.
I do have a humid box, but what I've usually seen is a uniform shed where they break out of the skin on their head first and then eat the rest of the skin from their bodies. My problem is that the skin on the head seems to separate or partially separate about half a day after the skin on the body has already been eaten, which results in them not being able to get it off themselves and me having to gently do it.
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I would highly doubt it is nutritional or parasitic in nature. Most likely just a humidity issue which can be difficult to resolve with dryer climate animals. If you see the problem give them a quick soak and it should be all fine. Also if the shed is coming off and the issue is that the head is just not shedding as fast as the body I really don't see that as much of a problem. Now if a couple of days go by and they haven't shed all the skin then that may be an indicator that it is too dry or something else is going on.