Reptile & Amphibian Forums

one of our silkie babies must not have shed right as one of its back toes has turned black and became deformed. I have been using cream on their skin especially on their feet and tails so not sure about this. I noticed last night that the blackness looks like it is spreading up the leg. It is 6 weeks old. All of this happened in a 24 hour period. any ideas on what i can do would be great.

Seems rather fast to be just from blockage from unshed skin. Soak the dragon in water, it doesn't have to be any deeper than needed to cover the feet. Make sure the water is about 75-80F and soak for about 15 minutes. Very gently rub the toe with a cloth to pull off the unshed skin.

Actually, considering you said the entire foot is turning black...unless the leg has something blocking circulation, it wouldn't turn black above the unshed skin, just below it. Check closely for bit marks.
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PHLdyPayne

it looks as though it already lost all its toes and the skin around the bottom of the foot. it is black almost to the joint where the foot bends. it is very stiff and hard. this happened within 24 hours.

pic of leg

Were there cagemates?

yes there were other babies. there were a total of 7 babies. 2 were silkies. all the rest are fine and i did separate the silkies from the rest as soon as i saw this

Looks like it got chewed up. Keep it seperated from the others.

i do have it separated. I am curious as to what age i need to give them all their own tanks or containers. I cant imagine some of the big breeders having hundreds of baby cages at the same time?

I think the biggest thing is to keep them well fed. It seems they bite each other because they mistake the other dragons movement as that of food when they're hungry.

They should be fed all the crickets they can eat at least 3 times a day and a salad should be left in the rest of the time.

From the looks of the leg, its going to need amputation...I would get it to a vet asap before your dragon turns septic.
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PHLdyPayne

I reccomend for anyone keeping silks to use this stuff. Squirt some in water and saok your silkback for about 10-15 mins. You can also apply it directly to their skin.
http://www.petstore.com/ps_viewitem.aspx?idproduct=JZ59221&child=JZ59221&utm_source=pscseggl2&utm_medium=pscse&utm_campaign=pscseggl2&utm_content=JZ59221

Josh

For some reason, silks always get nipped first. I reccomend keeping the scaled and non scaled dragons seperate. If you can keep silks individually, that's even better. They can get scratched up pretty bad from cagemates when they are bigger.
Josh

I normally keep 5 to 7 babies per bin right after they hatch. Once they hit about 4 weeks I seperate them even more. And like somebody said before feeding them 3 to 4 times a day really makes a difference. Although I have known of some lines that tend to nip each other more then others. Personally my red and orange lines are more aggressive eaters then my trans and yellow lines. Just something ive noticed in my own collection and so I adjust each clutch depending on what I expect from that line.
-Amy

thank you all so much. i have separated them all now and so far, no more biting issues. I will be better prepared for future clutches