Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi again, One of my leo's has done something twice and this time I think I should ask you all about it. I currently have 6 leo's and none of the other ones does what Mack does. I've had her since October. Twice now she has shed and hasn't eaten the shed. She just leaves it in shreds outside the door of her cave. The first time she did it she was in a tank with a male. I wasn't even sure which one of them it was that time. Now she's in her own tank, and might (hopefully!) be pregnant. The other day when I came home I saw that she had left her shredded skin all around the tank again. She has a shed box and a cave so I don't know why she doesn't go in there to shed. I'm concerned because I read somewhere that they eat their shed for a specific nutrient and I'm afraid she's not getting it. Has anyone else had this happen? Should I worry? Thanks.

Heheh, a concerned "mom". Like other pets geckos all have their own personalities. Some of them will not eat their sheds. As for the nutrient content in the wild the vitamins and minerals they need are sometimes in short supply so they won't let them go to waste. In a home enviornment where you are dusting their food (I hope) and providing a dish of extra calcium (especially if you suspect she's pregnant) they don't always need those extra nutrients. You don't have anything to worry about with her.. she just may not choose to eat it, rather then leave it for you to pick up later 8)

Jeff

Alberto did that same thing. He started his shed yesterday and when I got home from work last night there is about 30% of it shredded around his cave and supliment dish. The rest is nowhere to be found so I asume he ate it
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Hi Jason, Is he stressed out at all? I feel that mine leaves her shed around the tank because she was mating or/and pregnant....

Hi Jeff and Jason, Thanks for the response. Well, I'm not the only mom in the house anymore, she laid 2 eggs this morning!! I had to run to a friends house to get an incubator. Didn't get enough time to calibrate it before I left for work. It was at 80, eggs are inside-gonna stop at home at lunch to check them. At least she laid the eggs in the shed box...She looks so skinny! Any advice on post-egg-laying-nutrition?

Make sure you offer a lot of crickets. My girls get really hungry right after they lay their eggs. They eat anywhere between 15-20 crickets the first 2 days. I allways check to see if they have eaten all of them and then give them more if they are all gone. I also would keep mealworms available but i dont use them. I give my girls dessert also. Their dessert is waxworms but i only give the worms to them once they dont want anymore crickets. The worms are a good source of fat but not good to feed to them to often. I only give it to them when they are laying eggs or if i am trying to put some weight on them. I figure that you dust your feeders but i use t-rex leopard gecko dust for my leos and fattails. People also use pinkie mice. My females dont like them but some of my males do.

Right after laying eggs she got a good drink of water. A cricket who was hiding in her tank for the past couple days jumped into the water and she immediately ate it. So I got her some crickets, didn't eat them. I tried handing/then dropping her a mealworm, then a waxworm-didn't want them. So I put them in a dish for her, but she doesn't really eat from the dish too much. Tonight when I got home, I don't see any crickets so hopefully she ate them. I'm on a quest for pinkies since none of the local places have them right now. I've never tried giving her a pinkie so I don't know if she likes them. I gave her a little bit of that reptile electrolyte/vitamin stuff. She looks so skinny I just want her to eat.

You know I thought the same thing, that she simply thinks I'm the maid that comes to take away the shed. She's still not eating well so I'm concerned. So skinny...