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My juv. arg. red. has been having a hard time shedding his tail. I didn't even notice until one day his tail was bleeding, and I found scabs on it. I've read before about shedding problems and I know the deal. If shed skin gets left behind, it can cause blood circulation problems, which it has. I've helped him shed all I can, and let him soak in water at night. I think it will take more than misting his hide to fix this problem. He has "rings" around the circumference of his tail that are scabs and the skin is not coming off easily, but I can see it needs to come off. There may even be a couple of layers of skin that did not shed. He is also having problems with his front toes. A couple of them are swollen, and I can tell they hurt him because he won't let me mess with them. There is no shed that I can see to pull off, and I don't know what to do. He's been to a vet when this started and the vet (same herp vet I've used for years, not a bad vet) said the scabs would heal and just help him keep shedding. I don't know what to do about his toes. I've done everything right since I got the tegu - He's eaten fruits ever since I've had him - I know that is supposed to help with shedding. He gets vitamin suppliments and he is very healthy and beautiful otherwise. Since the vet, I occasionally put some vitamin E gel on his tail, but I think there may be something in it that could hurt im. I put some on his toes and he started waving his hands like they hurt. I felt terrible and I almost feel helpless. I certainly don't want him to lose any toes. I've had many lizards before including monitors and have never had shedding problems. Tegu skin is definitely different. I am in Louisiana where humidity is usually not an issue. I will post pictures if anybody thinks they can help by seeing what the tail/toes look like. SOMEBODY PLEASE HELP!
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-reptilian9

Do you think you could post a picture of his tail? Mine has some odd 'rings' around his, and though I wish I could help you with your Tegu, I also wanna make sure my Tegu's tail doesn't have the same thing just starting.

My blue had shedding problems on his tail too, its always the last thing to shed. Just make sure that you give him HOT baths, and I mean hot. The water really need to be hot, not just warm. And when hes soaking, make sure that his tail is submerged and if he'll let you, try to massage/rub your fingers over his tail gently to get some of the skin loosened. Take him out of the water, let him dry, and you should be able to get some more skin off. You should probably bathe him a few times a day for as long as he'll let you, I know I bathed mine 3 or 4 times a day, and again, make sure the water is hot. Other than taht, don't know what to tell you. But there's no comparison between misting him and soaking him in water, its really essential to bathe them.

chris and diego

I dont think hot baths are a good idea. I think temped is much more safe. If I am not mistaken ,hot water would bring there body temp to dangeres levels. You might want to talk to a vet about what hot water does to reptiles. Good luck Russ

Hot is bad. Not only does it raise the animals temp too high but hot water also vaporizes and "Could" contribute to a respitory infection, in my long haired hippy freak opinion anyway!
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Peace!
KofSeattle
Reptile-Like
Here lizard lizard.........

does anyone know why we have to bathe out tegus when it doesn't seem like Bert does it at all...(unless there is something I'm missing on his website). Doesn't a moist substrate fix the shedding problems?
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Yours,

NiCoLE

"Trying to save someone from their own stupidity is like trying to teach a pig how to dance: it wastes your time, and annoys the pig."

- Robert
Heinlein

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Hi Nicole,

In my opinion if they don't need the extra exposure to water. I don't do the bath thing either. I keep a good hide box that helps in the shedding and a big water bowl for hydration. That along with proper diet usually is sufficient. However, in some cases and times of the year I have had problems with shedding and this required me to get out the rubber ducky and give the little man a bath. I think it depends on the individual reptile but more so the keeper of the reptile. In my opinion.
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Peace!
KofSeattle
Reptile-Like
Here lizard lizard.........

>>I keep a good hide box that helps in the shedding and a big water bowl for hydration.

I notice my tegus will burrow in all areas of the cage and so I try to keep all the substrate moist..is there a reason why people stress the hidebox moisture and not the entire substrate ?

>>That along with proper diet usually is sufficient.

Is fruit essential in proper shedding? If so what about the tegus who willnot eat fruit? (mine love blueberries)

>>However, in some cases and times of the year I have had problems with shedding

Is it temp or seasonal related?
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Yours,

NiCoLE

"Trying to save someone from their own stupidity is like trying to teach a pig how to dance: it wastes your time, and annoys the pig."

- Robert
Heinlein

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Hi,

The hidebox in my enclosure is kept a little more damp than that of my main substrate. I only keep the substrate damp enough to keep the dust down. I bought one of those big spray bottles with the hose and nozel used for gardening. I just give everything a once over each day with that and the hidebox just stays a little damper than the main sub since it's enclosed. It really isn't an issue in the winter though. The sub holds moisture longer. The fruit and stuff depends on the animal in my opinion. I think reds and B&W's eat it more readily than blues like mine and require it as well I think, at least the reds. I just suppliment my blues diet regularly with herp vitamins and calcium and vary his food as much as possible. He shows little to no interest in fruit. The seasonal thing I mentioned is strictly a temperature and humidity thing. It seems if I am going to have shedding problems it's in the summer. This holds true with all of my reptiles. I live in Seattle and it can be really warm in the summer and really damp and cold in the winter. OR really cold and damp all year sometimes! Hey, it's Seattle! Cheers!
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Peace!
KofSeattle
Reptile-Like
Here lizard lizard.........

i had the same problem with my arg b/w on the tip of his tail. you say you use fruits, what kind of fruits do you use? also are they fresh? I used to use apples and grapes but realized they were not high in vit c so i found out that strawberries are the highest in vit c, even higher than oranges and chopped them and mixed them in his ground turkey, (he wouldnt eat them by themself) and did that for about a month and his next shed was alot better. he just shed again and his tail is almost 100% better. he had missing scales and sterted to look like it was bleeding so it was pretty bad. If your are not using strawberries use them and soak him everyday, when he is sheding soak him and when you take him out run your fingers down his tail and toes to help the skin come off, the skin may be in small pieces.just keep doing that until no more skin comes off. hope this helps. btw you can put neosporin as advised to me on the sores to help infection.

Kiwiis have even more Vit C. And if you can find them Guavas have the most almost 4xs as much as kiwiis . Russ

Yeah, I certainly didnt mean extremely hot water, sorry for the confusion. Obviously dont use anything hotter than you think would necessarily exist in nature. I just mean a more than lukwarm but certainly not scalding hot. Certainly use your best judgement. I just try to think about how hot shallow pools of water get in the hot sun and ty to replicate that temperature.

Wow, thanks everybody for all the responses. What would we do without the internet? I will try to answer everybody's questions in this message. I've posted some pictures and even though the affected areas are obvious, I've pointed most of them out with red arrows.

Ecthelion: I took all these pictures tonight. Your tegu's tail is probably not as bad as my tegu's, but if it looks similar, then my early advice to you is to start soaking your tegu as often as you can. Mine loves it anyway. And get your tegu eating fruits.

Chris (and Diego): I was in the middle of this long post when I had to go back and edit after I saw your next post. Thanks for clearing that up! I keep mine hot enough to touch, but not burning. I can only do it once a day most of the time, but I will try more. I've been doing like you said for weeks, stroking his tail, trying to loosen the skin, and then more after it dries. It helps a little at a time, but I'm worried my tegu will hate me forever, as long as I'm doing this every night. I don't know what I would do if my tegu was mean! He's a good sport, but a handful as well. Thanks for your advice.

Russ and KofSeattle: Thanks for jumping in - I'm glad I didn't try really hot water - I didn't think that was right Russ - I will look for some guavas since he doesn't like kiwi.

nick75: The fruits are fresh, almost too fresh since they're cold when I take them out of the fridge. I like to let them reach room temp before feeding. He likes red grapes, oranges,
mangos, and bananas mostly. I've tried most everything else and these are what I'm sticking with. He doesn't like strawberries (I know I could mix them in the diet) or kiwis. He gets calcium suppliments sprinkled on mice. I think I'm lucky he eats what little fruit he does, seeing all the posts about people's tegus who refuse fruit (mine is very picky though). I put neosporin on his toes and tail - thanks for the good tip, I don't know why I didn't think of that. I wonder about which products are reptile-safe. I try to remove skin after every bath. Thanks for your help.

Please post your opinions about the pictures. I would like to know how severe this case is, and if it's similar to what some of you have experienced. Thanks again everbody!

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-reptilian9

Defintly shedding problems. I would bath you tegu every day to get old shed off , And I would also Take Him to a vet fisrt before treating to make shure you do the right treatment.Good luck Russ