Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hello Again,

My year-old bearded dragon, Luca, has a tail that concerns me. When i first bought him, the end of his tail look crimped and eventually turned black and fell off. It looks like he had problems shedding in the pet store. It was only the last 1/4 inch of his tail, so i never worried about it. I put some medicine on it and it healed fine.

Since then, all of his sheds have gone smoothly.

Just recently, i've noticed his coloration and it looks like he's ready to begin another shed. Also recently, i've noticed a band going around his tail. This time it is very far up towards his hind legs. It looks like it is crimped again. And being it's so far up, he'd lose almost all of his tail if it keeps up.

Two Questions:

1. What can i do to prevent any problems when he begins this next shed? I don't want him to lose his tail. Does anyone recommend that product called "Shed Ease"?

2. What can i do to prevent this problem from happening in the future? Diet? Topical Application? Substrate? etc....???

Thanks again,
jon zaremba
http://www.jonzaremba.com

Use Vaseline on the tail immediately, liberally coat it up-and-down, as well as on any other problem areas like the toes. After a while the Vaseline will saturate so much into the dried skin that it will literally peel itself off. And don't worry about your beardie getting sick off the Vaseline, mine never tries to lick it or anything.

As far as preventative maintenance goes, you need his tank as arid as possible, just like a desert. The more humidity that's in there, the more problems he'll face, not the least of which is skin (respiratory trouble, possible digestion, etc...) Remember, you're dealing with a desert-dwelling creature, make his habitat as such. I bought a mini de-humidifier I can keep in his tank that drops humidity levels to around 20~30%. Since I did that my beardie has never had another shedding problem again. I only use Vaseline now to clean off the few patches of dead skin that are stubborn to come off.

You can also give your beardie more frequent warm baths, but I don't know about any soaps except for Dove (extremely well pH-balanced) that would be beneficial. Do the bath thing and keep Vaseline on his tail, and he should pull through.
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Dl

thanks for the response.

i live in the mojave desert of California, so humidity has never been a problem. i think that the temperature and aridity is just right. i've got two dragons (in separate tanks) and Luca is the only one with this problem.

i think it may be a genetic problem of Luca's because many of the dragons at the pet store i bought him from have short or missing tails. and they breed them there for sale.

i'll pick up some vaseline tomorrow and give it a try. thanks for the tip.

jon zaremba
http://www.jonzaremba.com

Wow, guess you don't have a humidity problem. Interesting about genetics, though. Definitely have to look around for that. Does make sense, though.
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Dl