Reptile & Amphibian Forums

i have a 3 foot peach throat that is having shedding issues. i no this is usally a husbandry issue so im hopeing some of you may be able to help. my enclosure is 6 foot long 3 foot wide and 4 foot tall. substrate is 25 percent sand and 75 percent top soil. the first few inches seem kinda dry and the rest is moist. prolly a totall of 12 inches. he has a large water bowl some climbing branches and burried hollowed out logs half buried. the far right side of the enclosure is 120 for basking and then it stays between 90 to 78 all the way to the far left. i spray the enclosure every day the viewing glass stays wet from condensation for 15 or 16 hours a day i would say. i had my monitor gaining great trust in me. he was allowing me to go in his enclosure and do whatever with out hideing never ran. new i ment food. then i put him in the tub and he hates me now so i need to fix this issue with out anymore stress for him. sorry cant do pics at this time and sorry about spelling. anyway any sugestions would be awesome.

anybody

Is it in the middle of shed or is the shed caught up on its toes and tail tip?

You should get some hydrometers to measure your humidity.Figure out the what the percentage is in different parts of the cage. Adding leaf litter and dirt to the burrows your lizard likes to use will help a bit.

thanks for the reply. its the last 3 inches of his tail. some on his legs and back. i use to use mulch and never had a problem but when i switched to the new substrate it gets worse each time. can you recomend any good hydrometers. and what reading you think i should be shooting for. thanks alot

Most of the members here use a sandy soil mix.I use the same but with leaves on top. I have multiple elevated burrows that are stuffed with leaves and dirt too. You want the ambient humidity to be 70 to 80%. Deep in the soil and in burrows would be even higher percantage. It'll be lower around the bulbs, thats just what our bulbs do.

When you do see your lizard out, does he mind being slightly misted? Is the shed fluffing off or constricting?

I use Accurite products that I pick up at home improvement stores. Digital thermometer and hydrometer all in one,reads indoor & outdoor. The whole unit must be in the cage.

well he use to let me go in his enclosure all the time and do whatever it was i was doing and would be out for most the day. but i grabed him and soaked him in the tub wich was a lesson learned. he didnt come out for a week after that. so needles to say he dosent allow me to mist him directly anymore and its kinda sad cause he really seemed to enjoy it. and his shed seems verry tight in the stuck places. like you dont see it starting to loosen or the edges peeling up. i no the kind of unit your talking about ill have to get a few. and your saying leaf litter. i use leaf litter for my satanic leaftail geckos they seem to like to drop there eggs in it. i take it and basically grind it up the leafs that is. are we on the same page here. is that what you do then just cover the cage floor or do you make like a pile of it. thanks alot for your help man i apreciate it alot.

I cover most of the cage floor with it. I don't grind it up though, that would just spead up the breaking down process in my cage.

Focus on just getting the humidity right in there.If you have large vents or vents at the top of enlcosure, cover those up as much as possible.

It could just be that part of the body just hasn't started to come off yet. How long has it been like that? My monitor always seems to be in shed. I would just wait it out a little bit and see if it has started to come off or not.

ill add leaf litter tomorrow and make sure im not missing anything where humidity could be seeping out. its bin i guess two weeks maybe now that you said it he does seem like hes always in shed also. ill wait it out longer and see what happens. ill keep you posted and thanks again for all the help. one more question have you ever used the moss that you soak in water inside any of your hollowed out logs and what not.

I personally don't like the stuff, but thats just me. It could work for you though...give it a shot.

Sorry, I really only use the leaves instead because they are free & I've noticed in time the leaves break done much faster, while the moss loses color and collects so much moisture that it smells.

When I first got into breeding the rock monitors I use to have problems with shedding of young ones that would end up in diget loss, toes,tail tips,ect. I was doing what had been suggested by the so called pro's on the forums and it failed useing coconut fiber and dirt/sand with a good humidity and the dreaded wood stacks which were part of my problem. I finally did my own thing and used cypress mulch only with rough rock stacks cemented together which hold more moisture then wood and more importantly are much more abrasive then wood aiding in toe shedding. Now its very rare that I end up with toe loss or any other shed issues. Humidity is impotant to some degree but having sand stone or other rough surfaces do help wear the dead skin off seems to be key with the smaller hatchling size rock monitors IME.
Good luck, Bob