Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Ok, when I have a new gecko, and it sheds but it still isnt used to me, and it has shedding problems because a bit of shed skin is still around the toes ect, how do I prevent the leo from stressing out from me trying to remove this bit of skin? Ive heard people take their leo out and placed their gecko into a tub with damp paper towels then it will help loosen the skin and should solve the problem, but I dont want to over handle my leo...hmmm........ Any help would be greatly appreciated
Thanks

Allie
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Can you tell me what rhymes with moon,
And can be written on a page,
Or on a rock for age on age,
This ancient letter tell me soon!

Well, the best thing for both of you would be to prevent any shedding problems in the first place. Offer a humid hide and keep it moist. Of course, don't stress if the gecko doesn't want anything to do with the hide, both of the leos that have lived with us for any extended amount of time won't have anything to do with it. For us, our ambient humidity is usually around 50% or higher year round; we live in a lake filled, snowy, climate and have a lot of problems with mold it is so humid! For our current leo, she loves her water bowl. We have a wide & shallow faux stone bowl, we have placed some plants leaning over the top in effort to hold in some humidity. We check her every shed and she's never left a piece of skin.

Also realize that if you want a tame gecko you should be thinking of interacting with it approximately once a week. (Give it a week or two when it first comes home just to itself, especially if it was shipped, just to let it settle in.) So a baby gecko sheds, let's say once every 2 weeks or maybe 3 as it gets older. It is not handling it too much if you check it after each shed. In fact, you really need to practice checking it after a shed so that it gets used to being inspected. Much like they do to get zoo animals comfortable with the vet before they have to be taken to a vet in an emergency.

Firstly, a Q-tip dipped in slightly warm water may be less stressful and can be brought into the enclosure, but obviously don't go chasing it around meanly. You could also consider replacing some of the paper towels in the bottom of the terrarium with soaked ones... our gecko tends to splash so much in her water bowl she does this herself, so she gets credit for the idea.

To be honest, cross that bridge when you get to it, because you may never have to worry. IMHO a well kept and healthy gecko can take care of their own shed 99% or more of the time. A moist Q-tip gently stroking the stuck part takes care of the other 1%. Hope this helps and don't worry. We'll be here if you run into problems!
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0.1 Albino Leo Gecko
0.1 Crested Gecko
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Departed: Harvey and Spock

You might try soaking that leo in some warm (not hot) water for 1/2 hour. I use bottled distilled or drinking water and warm it in the microwave on medium high for a minute. Just fill a 6qt plastic tub with a few cups and put the lid on. Make sure there are some air holes in the tub, but you want to put the lid on to increase the humidity. Don't fill it more than 1/2" deep in the tub.

One of my leos, an APTOR female, looks like she might lose part of two toes on one of her rear feet. I'm quite surprised, as I've been running an ultrasonic humidifier for the past month. The humidity has been above 50% almost all the time.

My first thought was that some unshed skin had consticted her toes as I've read about, but now I'm wondering if this could possibly have been caused by too much humidity rather than not enough. She was closest to the humidifier, so this makes more sense to me. Maybe she has some sort of toe/skin rot or something?

I'm going to stop running the humidifier and rub some antifungal creme on her toes. I also have a spray called Herptile RX which worked on one of my kingsnakes that had an apparent skin fungus condition. I feel terrible about her toe problem, but the air has been really dry here. It seems that there's a fine line between too much humidity and not enough. Maybe it's better to have the air a little dry and give your herps a warm water soak when they're shedding instead of over humidifying the atmosphere.